BE TRUSTWORTHY!!!! TRUST WORTHINESS IS THE HALL MARK OF LEADERSHIP!!!

Trustworthy is someone who is honest who can be entrusted with your secrets or with anything else of importance. An example of trustworthy is the person who babysits your kids or who you tell your secrets to.Being trustworthy is admirable and desirable. It's a trait other people look for in a person and it's c onfirmation that you're reliable, supportive and honest. If you'd like to become more trustworthy and have others come to rely on you, there are some great ways to go about doing this.Breaking apart the word trustworthy gives you a clue to its meaning. It combines the common word trust, which describes something you can rely on, and the word worthy, which describes something that deserves respect. So something — or someone — that's trustworthy deserves your trust.

How to Become a Trustworthy Person

Being trustworthy is admirable and desirable. It's a trait other people look for in a person and it's confirmation that you're reliable, supportive and honest. If you'd like to become more trustworthy and have others come to rely on you, there are some great ways to go about doing this.

Part 1

Being a positive force

• Be of good character. Have more than good intentions in life. While it's nice to mean well, it's far better to show people that you're a person who is reliable, tries their best at all times and thinks clearly. Meaning well can end in all sorts of problems, including excusing oneself for failure to follow through. On the other hand, good character lets other people know that you have traits they can always rely upon.
• Actions prove far more than words. Good character is forged in good, caring and thoughtful actions.
• Be reliable and keep your word. When you say that you will do something for someone, then do it. People rely on a promise and seeing it through is the hallmark of a trustworthy person. Hand things in on time. Be where you say you'll be punctually. Arrive when you say you will. Depart when you said you would.
• Don't break your promise. If you have problems keeping it, talk to the person about the circumstances but with a view to fulfilling what you can of the promise. Don't simply fail to do it or slink away if it's not doable.
• Be honest. Be honest in everything you do. Honesty is the keystone to people knowing where they stand with you. Honesty includes having good manners though; when being frank, at least be polite. Sometimes it is necessary to sugarcoat the truth so that its bitter pill is swallowed with greater ease.
• Some honesty can be hard but is still essential. For example: Your least favorite coworker has spinach stuck in his teeth after a work function. Do you tell him? Of course you do. He deserves to know that. Your arch enemy has her skirt tucked into her knickers after visiting the bathroom. Do you tell her? Of course you do. She deserves to know that. You may have qualms because you initially think it's funny, payback or just desserts but realize that by being honest here, you gain respect from people who would otherwise be thorns in your side. They owe you one and know you are someone solid. Even in hard situations always tell the truth.
• Be compassionate, kind and considerate. These traits feed into trustworthiness because they let people know that you give people the time of day and that you're willing to give second chances. Compassion must be felt from within and learned through experience by standing in other people's shoes, seeing things from their perspective. Practice looking at things from the other person's perspective until it feels second nature. When you are able to think of the other person first, because you're already internally strong and well self-nurtured, then you'll be viewed as trustworthy.
• Keep confidences and secrets. People tell you things in confidence because they trust you. That is a bond to never be broken. You must guard these confidences closely unless and until the person who bestowed you with that confidence says that you can do otherwise.
• Make good friends. Avoid befriending the gossiping types other than to say hello to them as you pass by. Instead, find people of good character, who are also aiming to be trustworthy, caring and strong, just like you. Support each other and help each other to continue growing as good human beings throughout life.
• Quality over quantity applies to friendships as much as anything else in life. While being friendly to all is a great trait, having quality friends who are close to you will often mean the group is much smaller.

Part 2

Ridding yourself of negative behaviors

• Don't deceive people, don't lie. There will be times when deception and lying seem like the right way out of something. Yet, the truth will eventually come out and it is better to take control of bad actions, bad news and bad happenings before your deception or untruthful statements unravel. Be the better and bigger person and tell the truth and avoid the temptation to cover things up.
• The truth always comes out, one way or another. Remind yourself of this.
• Mark Twain once said: "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything". This makes for a simpler, happier and more fulfilling life.
• Avoid gossip, rumor mongering or innuendo. None of these things read trustworthy. They're the total opposite. Avoid getting involved in gossip, avoid starting rumors and don't succumb to making insidious suggestions about people. Speak plainly, rely on facts and point out the reality to others when they lack the facts but mouth off anyway.
• Move away from the gossip clan. Gossiping clans make sure you take turns to dish out garbage about those not in the gossip clan. Once it's your turn, you'd probably hurt someone's feelings while you tell them everything. Remember that the truth will always find a way out, so don't even start with the nasties.
• If all else fails, just think about how that person you are talking about would feel and just tell your friends you've got nothing.
• Apologize when it is needed. Tell people you may have hurt that you're sorry for making a mistake, for getting them wrong or for being totally out of order. You may like to explain the reason you did something, but that depends on the situation. Sometimes it's just best to say sorry and to own your mistake. Then, do your best to make it up to the other person. Tell them that you are doing your level best to be a better, more trustworthy person now and that you don't follow any of the old ways that involved hurting people.
• Maintain the long-term relationship in place of the short-term gain. Cheating on, lying to or sneaking around someone you care about because you're focused on an initial current thrill will end in pain. If things aren't going well in any relationship, communication is key, not subterfuge and cheating. Talk openly to try to find solutions to the blockages in your relationship. Clarity and a willingness to solve problems are the signs of a trustworthy person.

Part 3

Staying trustworthy

• Realize that being trustworthy is a journey, not an endpoint. It takes time to change bad habits, a poor attitude and bad ways of reacting to others. Earning trust takes time too, especially if you have been a difficult human being in the past. Yet, it will happen, especially as you continue to prove through your actions that you are reliable, honest and of good character.
• Remind yourself at all times that being trustworthy is a valuable asset to your life and to the lives of the people you care about. When people you care about know they can rely on your word and that you are honorable and honest, you will be given important tasks, you will become the keeper of great confidences and you will be respected. These are worthwhile outcomes to aim for.
• Be strong. It is important to remember that life isn't a popularity contest. Sometimes people won't appreciate your honesty, your strength against unkindness and your unwillingness to gossip or spread rumors. That's just a fact you must live with, understanding that all people have to come to their own realizations about holding better values in life.
• Believe in yourself and validate the good in you, at all times. You do best in life when you begin from strong foundations. Trust yourself and love yourself so that you can relay that inner trust and love to others, trusting and loving them with strength and goodwill. Grow yourself, then you can grow others. Knowing that you do not need others to save you or shape you will aid you in being trustworthy because you don't need to stroke their egos just to feel good. It will also help you when you are occasionally betrayed by someone you trusted (it happens) because you've the capacity, will and resilience to carry on regardless. All courage and strength to you.

How can you prove that you are trustworthy?

Use these guidelines for earning and maintaining trust.

1. Tell the truth.
2. Be sincere. Say what you mean and mean what you say. ...
3. Keep your word.
4. Be reliable.
5. Return things you borrow.
6. Keep private information private.
7. Don't gossip.
8. Don't ask a friend to do something wrong to keep your friendship.

Trustworthiness Character Connection

“I trust you.” Doesn’t it feel great when you know people trust you? Have you ever thought about how you get someone’s trust? You can’t just tell them you are trustworthy. Trust is earned one trustworthy deed at a time, but it can be lost very quickly.

Trustworthiness means:

• Being reliable; do what you say you’ll do
• Having the courage to do the right thing
• Being loyal; stand by your friends
• Being honest
• Not deceiving, cheating or stealing

Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Teaching your child to be trustworthy doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it is something you should model every day. How do you do that? Consistent interaction. Infants have the capacity to learn from others. The first years of life are trust-building years. Every time you respond quickly and appropriately to your infant’s cries, coos and smiles you are building trust. Children who learn to trust others will build trustworthy characteristics in themselves. 

Toddlers need to learn simple rules (don’t touch, etc); they are very interested in property rights (mine!); and they need to see you being consistent. Patience and persistence will help your toddler develop trustworthiness.

Your preschooler can learn about telling the truth, respecting property of others and following through. When you pay attention to and model these behaviors every day, your child will develop into a trustworthy individual.

School-age, Middle School and Teens

Trust is an especially big deal to a teenager. Teen relationships are vulnerable to real and perceived betrayals of trust. Help your teen understand that trust has two sides. One is to trust, to have faith and confidence in the intentions and actions of others – to believe that he will do the right thing. The other is to be trustworthy – to demonstrate by words and acts that people can trust him

Your child should understand that trustworthiness is a complicated idea but it is essential to meaningful relationships, long-lasting friendships, and successful associations in school and in the workplace. Talk to your child about the four major qualities of trustworthiness and discuss situations that you both face that challenge each of these qualities.

• Integrity – being true to yourself and living up to your highest and best personal values
• Honesty – telling the truth and doing what is right even if no one else is doing it
• Promise-keeping – keeping your word and being dependable
• Loyalty – standing by, sticking up for and protecting family, friends and country; being a good friend and looking out for those who care about you

Tower of Trust Activity

“Towers of trust are built stone by stone; yet no tower is so tall or so strong that it can stand when lies and deceptions undermine the stones at its base.” Talk about this quote with your child. Each of you think about individual actions that build trust and those actions that erode trust. For example, trust builders might be: meeting curfew, coming to watch your teen play ball; going to work on time. Trust eroders might be: saying homework is completed when it really isn’t, promising to help with a school project and then not helping or leaving the car windows open when you were asked to close them.

Practicing Trustworthiness 1

People with good character are people we can trust. Trust is not automatic. Earning trust takes time, losing trust can happen quickly. Honesty, promise keeping, loyalty and integrity are four elements that are key to building trustworthiness. Use these guidelines for earning and maintaining trust.

• Tell the truth.
• Be sincere. Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you find something that doesn’t belong to you, return it.
• Keep your word.
• Be reliable.
• Return things you borrow.
• Keep private information private.
• Don’t gossip.
• Don’t ask a friend to do something wrong to keep your friendship.
• Stand up for and act on what you believe.
• Do the right thing no matter what you lose in the process.

Are you worthy of trust? Spend some time thinking about how trust is earned and why it is so important. Consider one of the following:

• Your teacher has miscalculated your test score giving you a higher grade than you deserve. What do you do?
• The teacher is in the hall and you need a pencil. There are pencils in the teacher’s desk drawer. What do you do?
• You did some work on your 4-H project but when the fair got closer and closer your mom finished the project for your. You go to conference judging and the judge asks you if you completed your project all by yourself? What do you say?

Practicing Trustworthiness 2

“I trust you.” Doesn’t it feel great when you know people trust you? Have you ever thought about how you get people to trust you? You can’t just tell them you are trustworthy. Trust must be earned by demonstrating honesty, integrity, promise keeping and loyalty. Trust is earned, one trustworthy deed at a time. Think about it like a tower.

• Every time you do something to show you are untrustworthy (miss curfew or not study for a test) a block is removed from near the bottom of the tower that may cause the tower to tumble. You must then start building trust all over again.
• Every time you do something to show you are trustworthy (do your chores, help a friend with homework) a block is added to the top of your tower.

Exercise

You have just made the cover of Honest Confessions magazine. Draw yourself on that cover and list “articles” that indicate in words or pictures some of the stories included in that issue. Here are some suggestions: “When My Parents Trust Me Most,” “When I Trust My Parents Most,” “I Destroy/Earn My Parents’ Trust in Me When I…” and “I Think Trust Is Really Important Because…

What are the qualities of a trustworthy person?

• They are authentic. People want to be around others that are real, meaning they are authentic and have high character. ...
• They are consistent. Everyone has a bad day. ...
• They have integrity. ...
• They are compassionate. ...
• They are kind. ...
• They are resourceful. ...
• They are connectors. ...
• They are humble.

Trust is valuable. It affects everything. Being trusted by others is one of the things you must have to go far in life and to achieve your greatest success.

Before starting my own company, I worked in the security and investigations industry for 20 years, and I learned that trust isn’t a quick thing you can gain. It is something earned over a period of time, after consistently being honest, always acting with integrity, never lying or misleading. It is how you act. It is who you are.

If you want to be a person other people trust, take a look at your actions, the decisions you make on a daily basis.

Here are 9 traits of trustworthy people. Do you have them? Can people trust you?

1. They are authentic.

People want to be around others that are real, meaning they are authentic and have high character. Authentic people are not trying to be above anyone else. They are likeable, humble and easy to talk to.

2. They are consistent.

Everyone has a bad day. But people want to see consistent, positive behavior in the people they trust. Affirmative actions and smart decisions make a difference in the eyes of others. 

3. They have integrity.

People want other people around them that stand up for what is right in life, even when no one is watching.

4. They are compassionate.

Trustworthy people put themselves in other people’s shoes. They are always thinking of others, feeling for others—it’s not all about them.

5. They are kind.

People build up trust when they look out for others, when they are there for them when they need someone most, not just when everything is going OK. 

6. They are resourceful.

Trusted people are always learning and growing. They are constant students. They always know there is room to get better, and because of that, they know ways to help inspire and support others—and they give and share those resources.

7. They are connectors.

They look for ways to align like-minded people, and they connect people who have the knowledge or experience to help them get what they want.

8. They are humble.

Trustworthy people want to get others out there first, before themselves. They realize that the efforts of the team really make things happen, versus what they can individually accomplish. 

9. They are available.

They are there for people, available to others to support them always. They go out of their way to make time for others.

What is being trustworthy?

Trust. Trust in another people has several meanings: Trust means that you feel that the person is honest and will not lie, cheat or steal from you. It also means that you can count on the person to do as he or she promised and that the person is reliable.

Being Trustworthy Shows Character

People will trust a person who has a reputation of being honest, reliable and responsible. Dishonesty can easily tarnish that reputation can easily be tarnished, such that others consider you untrustworthy. Being considered trustworthy provides benefits from the way people deal with you, as well as your own self-esteem.

Questions you may have are:

• What is trust?
• How can you become untrustworthy?
• What are the benefits of being trusted?

This lesson will answer those questions.

Trust

Trust in another people has several meanings:

1. Trust means that you feel that the person is honest and will not lie, cheat or steal from you.
2. It also means that you can count on the person to do as he or she promised and that the person is reliable.
3. Finally, trust in a person means that you feel he or she can be counted on to do something important, will not shirk from duties, and will take personal pride in what he or she does.

An illustration of trust can be seen when you are on a trip, and you stop at a filling station to ask the attendant for directions. You trust that he will not purposely give the wrong directions. You also trust that he is competent and responsible in being able to give correct directions. If he says he has to go in the back to get a map and will return right away, you trust that he will do just that and not take off for lunch.

Being considered untrustworthy

If you are caught lying or deceiving people, they will consider you an untrustworthy character. It is then very easy for that bad reputation to spread. Once others consider a person as untrustworthy, they will tend to be cautious in dealing with that person or may avoid him or her all together.

Doubt about relationship

For example, suppose someone you know had lied and deceived you. If the person apologized and said he wouldn't do it again, you might forgive him. But if he deceived you again, you would have serious doubts about any relationship with that person again. This is a major source of divorces.

Unreliable friend

Likewise, a person who is unreliable--such as a friend who promises to pick you up from the airport but then never shows up--cannot be trusted to do things. An irresponsible person also cannot be trusted, because he or she does not seem to care about how things are done.

Benefits from being trustworthy

There are numerous benefits from being trustworthy.

Others like to deal with you

People like to deal with those they can trust. You like to shop at a store where you know that the owner or sales clerk will deal with you honestly. Supervisors like to have workers they know will be reliable and show up on time each day. They also like workers who they can trust to take responsibility.

If people trust you, they will like you and give you more opportunities than others.

Feel good about self

If you are honest, do as promised and are capable of taking on responsibility, then you feel good about yourself. You feel that you have integrity and cannot be influenced by negative, outside forces trying to bring you down. You feel self-respect, knowing that you are worthy of others' trust.

When your team trusts you as a leader, it increases commitment to team goals. Communication improves, and ideas flow more freely, increasing creativity and productivity. Perhaps most important, in the hands of a trusted leader, employees are more comfortable with change and more willing to embrace a new vision.

The Most Important Skill for Great Leaders? Trustworthiness.

It doesn’t matter how competent you are as a leader, you won’t get very far if your team doesn’t trust you.

What makes a great leader? You are probably thinking it’s something buzzword-worthy like confidence. Or maybe vision. Or emotional intelligence—you hear about that one all the time. For sure, those are all good qualities for a leader to have, but the answer is actually trustworthiness. Technically, it’s not just being trustworthy that is key, but being seen as trustworthy.

The question “Can I trust you?” is always on our minds whenever we interact with other people (particularly when we meet them for the first time) though we usually aren’t consciously aware of asking it. Studies suggest that in order to figure out whether or not someone is trustworthy, we analyze their words and deeds to find answers to two questions: “Do you have good intentions toward me—are you a friend or a foe?” and “Do you have what it takes to act on those intentions?”

So how do we find the answers? Decades of research show that we are all highly tuned-in to the warmth and competence of those around us. Warmth is being friendly, kind, loyal, and empathetic. It is taken as evidence that you have good intentions toward others. Your competence—being intelligent, creative, skilled, effective—is taken as evidence that you can act on your intentions if you want to.  Competent people are therefore valuable allies or potent enemies. Less competent people are objects of compassion, or scorn.

When your team trusts you as a leader, it increases commitment to team goals. Communication improves, and ideas flow more freely, increasing creativity and productivity. Perhaps most important, in the hands of a trusted leader, employees are more comfortable with change and more willing to embrace a new vision. When your team doesn’t trust you, you don’t get their best effort. You’ll then find yourself unable to inspire, influence, and create real change—an ineffective leader.

When your team doesn’t trust you, you don’t get their best effort.

We can all agree that trust is good. The problem, however, is that we are so eager to prove that we “know what we’re doing” as leaders that we neglect the arguably more important part of the trust formula: proving that we will act with our colleagues’ interests in mind. In other words, trust is an afterthought.

Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy, author of many of the key studies on trust and leadership, has argued that when you project competence before warmth, you run the risk of appearing cold and eliciting fear from your employees. They might respect you, but fearful employees are rarely able to work at their best. And you certainly can’t blame them for wanting to jump ship once an offer to work for someone who doesn’t make them constantly anxious comes along.

Fearful employees are rarely able to work at their best.

In a nutshell, being competent is certainly important, but it must be coupled with the sense that you have your employees’ welfare and interests in mind and that what they experience matters to you. Think about how you can use the following strategies to up your trust quotient:

#1 Pay Attention

Make eye contact, and hold it—both when you are speaking and listening. Nod from time to time to show you are understanding what’s being said to you (and if you don’t understand, ask). Smile, especially when they do. And above all else, really focus and internalize what is being said to you—everyone needs to feel that they have been heard, even when you can’t give them what they are asking for.

#2 Trust Them First 

Human beings have a deeply-rooted tendency toward reciprocity. We are naturally inclined to want to do favors, give gifts, and work to promote those who have done these things for us in the past. And the same holds true when it comes to trust—we are more likely to feel we can trust someone who has trusted us first. So assign tasks and projects that reflect this trust. Socially, share personal (but appropriate!) stories, talk about your struggles and challenges, let them see your fallible, human side. Allowing yourself to be a bit vulnerable is a great way to project warmth.

#3 Show Empathy

As a leader it’s easy to have a laser-like focus on the tasks at hand. But take the time to mentally put yourself in your employees’ shoes, to really try to grasp their perspective. Use phrases like “I imagine you must have felt…” to convey that empathy directly.

All that said, if you just aren’t the warm-and-fuzzy type, and maybe talking about “feelings” makes you uncomfortable, fear not. Evidence suggests that the moral character aspects of warmth—the sense that you are fair, principled, courageous, and honest—are also highly effective for establishing trust. In other words, to get your employees to trust you, be someone they can always count on to do the right thing.

How about you?

How have great leaders earned your trust?

Great Leaders are Trustworthy

To get started, there is a pattern to what constitutes an effective leader: First, getting things done through others; and second, mutually accomplishing goals by influencing others with integrity.

Leaders that understand and act with integrity are more likely to succeed by engaging the hearts and minds of those they lead.

This “Top 10” series is like following a recipe to make the best pie ever – you need all 10 ingredients, but we are going to add one ingredient at a time. I want to clarify – everyone is a leader. We all influence and teach other every day, so this series is for everyone!

Leadership Skill #1: Great Leaders are Trustworthy

What makes one leader trustworthy and another not? We’ve asked people from all walks of life this question and have found five specific qualities that let you know this person will have your back and you can tell them anything.

1. Take a Look at Yourself

This may be a surprise, but the first ingredient of being trustworthy is taking a look at your own behavior before judging others. Knowing oneself, or increasing self-awareness, is a primary quality to being viewed as trustworthy.

When a leader is willing to look inwardly, they become vulnerable and uncover qualities that may impact his or her ability to lead. By looking inwardly a leader is more effective at leading outwardly.

2. Increase Your “Flex” Ability

A necessary ingredient for being trustworthy is being adaptable and flexible to change. When leaders are not flexible they spend more time and resources avoiding change instead making the change work.

“Flex” ability allows leaders to become more adaptable to unknown situations and display a consistent reaction that people can trust. In other words, rather than flying off the handle, a trustworthy leader adapts and controls his reactions.

3. Tell It Like It Is

Trustworthy leaders know how to communicate with those they lead. Keeping team members informed is critical. Listening and really understanding what others have to say before telling, giving advice, or providing direction makes a huge difference in results.

Do you delay having tough conversations that allow people to keep doing the same thing over and over? A good rule of thumb is to have a tough conversation within 24 hours. This keeps you from procrastinating and enhances your credibility.

4. People Need Someone to Believe in Them

A trustworthy leader is a person that believes the best in people. This means the leader operates on the premise that most people want to do the right thing. They give people room to succeed rather than “being skeptical” that it just isn’t going to happen. Trustworthy leaders expect the best in others and enjoying being around people.

These leaders are approachable, accept responsibility for their actions, and are mutually supportive of everyone, not just the people that they like. This leadership quality is an essential ingredient. Without it, a leader will not be viewed as ethical or having integrity.

5. Firm and Fair

Last but not least, trustworthy leaders know how to be firm and fair. This allows them to stay true to their convictions. The reason this quality promotes trust is you know where you stand with this leader – no walking on eggshells.

Related: #5 Barrier to Leadership – Not Believing

No guessing what will happen next. When leaders practice this daily, they instill the expectation that each person is responsible for achieving success.

Trustworthy leaders create leaders that are better than they are. Staying true to your convictions means holding tough discussions, clarifying expectations, and letting those that choose not to contribute know they are no longer a match for the organization’s purpose and mission.

A leader can become more self-aware, be adaptable, believe in others, and communicate clearly, but without holding others accountable, the leader quickly loses trust.

Great Leader Action Plan

Recognize Your Dark Side

• The first step to becoming more self-aware is to be in touch and reflect on what characteristics, traits or habits exist that may not contribute to leadership success. This action requires courage, honesty, and the willingness to recognize that the dark side itself is not negative. It is only when the dark side is suppressed, ignored, and avoided that leadership tendencies may become untrustworthy.

Reinvent Yourself

• Encourage change. For fun, take a journey into the unknown by acting on a personal goal or dream that you feel may be unattainable. Upon taking this leap of faith, your level of confidence will ignite you to take actions you may have only imagined doing. This level of personal change creates a new beginning which causes higher levels of thinking, motivation, inspiration, and discipline.

Live Your Core Values

• With continual change and leadership being closely associated, it is imperative to identify personal core values to live by. Leading with clear and firm values are not only a priority, but are critical during times of crisis and uncertainty.

Find a Confidant

• Find someone you can “debrief with”, a thinking partner. A confidant is an individual that will help you uncover your blind spots, be candid about areas to improve in, and propose actions for enhancing leadership ability. A confidant is not an individual that agrees with a leader’s thinking or tells the leader what she may want to hear.

Be You

• Your core values create a foundation for being you. Trustworthy leadership gives leaders a high sense of awareness, an understanding of self, and a platform in which to operate. It is through this level of introspection and honesty that a leader creates a blue print in which to live and lead by.

7 Essential Traits That Will Make You an Admirable Leader

Relationships forged on trust are maintained through heart-centered words and actions. Here are the most important traits that will earn you faith and admiration from your team.

Eerything we do in life revolves around relationships -- and the happiest, most successful ones are grounded in trust.

However, the results of a 2016 Edelman Global Trust Barometer survey of more than 33,000 people around the world shows that only 27 percent of leaders were seen as upholding open and transparent traits. Another study confirms that a high percentage (85 percent) of employees are not comfortable approaching their bosses about work-related grievances.

Studies like these reaffirm why emotional intelligence is so central to the development of trustworthy relationships in the workplace. Emotionally intelligent leaders have a heightened ability to accurately evaluate emotional data (social inputs), and then direct this information to positively manage social situations and relationships.

Relationships that are forged on trust are maintained through heart-centered words and actions. Here are seven trust-affirming traits that will assure your team that you are worthy of their faith in you:

1. You do what you say you're going to do.

Nothing promotes trust more than keeping your word. Always uphold your end of the bargain. If circumstances change, as they often do, communicate these changes to your team and explain the shift in plans and how you intend to deliver on your promise.

2. You have grace under fire.

No one respects a tyrant. Your colleagues are less likely to trust you if your primary mode of communication involves raising your voice, or humiliating others. When under pressure, buy yourself some time. Take a moment to step back and take a breath before saying something you may regret.

3. You come to the rescue.

Let's say someone is publicly embarrassed at work, such as in a meeting. Try to find a way to uphold any aspect of what the person is saying, and support it. If you can't reinforce any part of it at least say, "That just prompted me to consider another idea," before offering an alternative. In other words, help the person save face.

4. You avoid gossip and cynicism.

Your character becomes tarnished when you gossip. Sarcasm is another characteristic that can engender resentment and animosity. People need to be listened to, appreciated, involved and connected. Transparent and direct communication tempered with respect, is key.

5. You set realistic targets and offer your help.

Allow enough time for a job to be done well -- the first time. Remain aware of the progress of a project and don't overload your associates with an unrealistic deadline. If the task is too challenging or time-consuming, ask how you can support them. Arrange for assistance from other team members, if necessary.

6. You let go of control when warranted.

When you let go of the need to control everything -- you open up the opportunity for your associates to take on more responsibility. Employees are still held accountable and given productive feedback when necessary, but allowing them to take the reins on occasion kick starts creativity, and galvanizes them to become more resourceful.

7. You routinely express gratitude.

We all need to hear that our work is valued. Never underestimate the power of "thank you." Remember, what you appreciate, appreciates.

Summary

Being trustworthy is an admirable character trait. It is being honest, reliable and responsible. Others will respect you more and want to continue relationships and dealing with you. Also, you will feel a sense of self-respect.

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