Trust me: A framework for developing trust

One of the things that I think about a lot is trust. Specifically, how can we develop and earn trustworthiness in a business setting? If people don’t trust us, they will not work with us. 

I recently came across a chapter in a book written by Jay Shetty that offered a framework for looking at trust. Jay outlines his Four Types of Trust as follows:

Competence 
The person has the right skills to solve your issue. They are an expert or authority in their area. We trust the person who has the qualifications and experience that we need. 

Care
They care about your well-being and what is best for you, and are not just interested in your success. We trust people who genuinely care for us. 

Character
People with a strong moral compass and uncompromising values. We tend to trust people who have shown over the years that they stand up for what they believe in and cannot be swayed. 

Consistency
Reliable, present, and available when you need them. We develop trust in people who are there for us. 

At this point my thoughts diverge from Jay Shetty’s a bit, as I immediately noticed that within a business setting we are often trying to meet many of these needs for our clients as we offer them our services. 

I know that I am not alone thinking about this as I build a business. I have been consciously and unconsciously trying to ensure that we not only ARE trustworthy, but that we SHOW it too. So I think it’s great to have a framework like this to work from.

My action point from this is to put my business to the test, and take a hard look at how we are measuring up on showing these four types of trust. One person can’t be all of these things, but if we are running a business (and if you are a real estate agent and are thinking of your activity as a business) then we can address more of these types of trust. 

A couple of areas that show off our trustworthiness that come immediately to mind:

• Reviews
• Personal Brand
• Performance
• Giving
• Efficiency
• Support
• Communication

The list goes on…

I have an untested suspicion that to gain trust you don’t need to excel in all four areas of this. You probably need a good dose of two or three of them to present as trustworthy, so it pays not to try and be something that you are not, however if we work on our weaknesses and play to our strengths it will be another piece in the development and building of our businesses. 

​​​​​​​I have included a printable version of the four types of trust for you to pin to your wall if this is something you want to start thinking about too. Click here to download.

Source: Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk, Harper Collins 2020