Last week I took my car to a tyre garage to get two new tyres on my car. Whilst they were putting them on they said my front brakes were completely worn. I would need to spend £260 to get them fixed because the car was unsafe to drive. I was a bit wary about what he said, because I haven’t had any problems with them in the past. So I decided to take them to my mechanic who I have known for years and trust. It turned out there was nothing wrong with my brakes and they didn’t need fixing.
Why am I telling you this? Because the guy at the tyre garage who lied to me made me think, who can you trust? That one person at a garage has made me question the whole reliability and trustworthiness of all mechanics. Now I know that isn’t fair, and there are many trustworthy mechanics, but that’s what happens. Once someone has eroded your trust you start questioning everything around it, and put people into boxes.
Let’s put this into a business context.
Have you had one leader in the past that you didn’t trust, and then this made you question other leaders/the whole organisation. Distrust breeds distrust. According to CIPD research 1 in 3 employees say their trust in senior management is weak. The training zone research shows that less than 30% of UK employees have complete trust in their manager. In order for a business to thrive people need to work together, if there isn’t trust it makes it almost impossible.
A few things to think about

• Have you ever done anything to erode trust, what happened as a consequence? – We have to take a look at ourselves and what trust means to us before we can start looking outwardly.
• Who don’t you trust and why? – Sometimes when we look at why we don’t trust others we can make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes that others make to us.
• Who do you trust and why?

This is just a starting point, to get you thinking about what trust means to you. To build trust you need to demonstrate competence, integrity, care and when you say you are going to do something – do it. Eroding trust isn’t as black and white as my experience with the mechanic, trust is a tricky thing.