Without Truth You Can’t Have Trust
Without Truth You Can’t Have Trust
“Without truth you can’t have trust” – Anne Warfield
“We hold these truths to be self-evident..” With that one statement our Constitution calibrates at a level of 700- enlightenment.
“The truth! You can’t handle the truth!.” With that one statement Jack Nicholson’s character, in A Few Good Men, falls apart on the witness stand. His men trusted him to protect them but instead, his version of the truth, corrupted him.
More than ever you can’t have trust if you don’t have the truth. The truth comes in sharing the facts and information with others- both the good and the bad. It comes with the ability to clearly separate opinion from fact. It comes from the ability to lay out the unknowns or obstacles as succinctly as possible so people can make the most effective decisions.
In sales, if you are going to be truthful and create trust then it means you can be going for the “yes.” If you are, it will cause a conflict for you with how you listen. When you go for the “yes” your brain starts to ONLY listen for what fits your parameters, you begin to “shade” the truth so it fits, and you don’t challenge when you should. If you want clients to trust you, they need to know you will always be truthful when working with them even if it means sending them to the competitors. In Miracle on 34th Street, Santa brought more business in to Macy’s by sending people to Gimbles for toys Macy’s was out of.
As a leader you can’t expect to have a high trust culture when you aren’t truthful about your own shortcomings. People need to see that you are willing to be candid about what you are good at and what you are working on. Only then will they be willing to be vulnerable about their own shortcomings. As Nido Qubein said, “Morals are not taught, they are modeled.” People need to see your principles and morals at play so they trust the truth of who you are when they are in the room as well as when they aren’t. In our leadership program we bring leaders through a Trust and Accountability assessment. In every instance they are astounded to find the trust issues they are struggling with in the organization are directly correlated by the trust issues they have with each other. Change the inside and you will change the outside.
Take Action- for the next 30 days really focus on making sure you get the truthful information out. Share with people all of the parameters that can impact their decision. When you share something carefully state what is fact and what is opinion. The more people see your ability to separate the two and not inflict your opinion as fact, the more they will see you as truthful and trustworthy.