I had the pleasure of attending a webinar given by Helio Fred Garcia from the Logos Institute recently. Fred’s talk was about Crisis PR – but he offered an insight into “trust” that is relevant in our business (and personal) lives.
Fred said that there were three elements to gaining and keeping someone’s trust, whether that’s a client, customer or friend.
1. Fulfil your promises.
If you make a promise, deliver on it. Simple as that. Gain a reputation for reliability and for following through.
2. Meet Expectations
This is a bit more difficult. What would your friends, family, colleagues or customers expect you to do? It might be that they would expect you to apologise immediately if you were wrong, or sympathise with victims of an accident, or lobby government to change a law that was negatively impacting on senior citizens.
3. Live your values
Don’t just talk about your value-set, live it. Behave ethically, Treat everyone with dignity. Empower junior employees. Mentor female staff. Publicly acknowledge help. In other words – walk the walk!
These three elements would form a strong foundation for any ethical business. They will also stand to you in a time of crisis.