Trust is so crucial in every relationship and every situation. If you don’t have it, it make it very difficult to move things forward. If you’ve lost it, things can go south very fast.

Trust is not something you can take for granted. It takes months—sometimes years—to build. Unfortunately, you can lose it overnight.

Click to Listen

If you are in a situation where you need to build trust—or even rebuild it—here are four specific steps you can take. These will work with your employees, your colleagues, your customers, your vendor or even your spouse.

Keep your word.

Tell the truth.

Be transparent.

Give without any strings attached.

Trust can always be rebuilt. Granted, in some situations, it can take years. It takes doing the right things over a long period of time.

But in most cases, it won’t take that long. Relationships can be turned around quickly if you own the problem and take the steps I’ve outlined above.

Listener Questions

Alan Williams asked, “How do you allow someone to regain their trust with you when they have done something to cause you to distrust them or their leadership?”

Chip Hutcheson asked, “How can I tell if a client or a prospective client has the ability to trust me?”

Evan Umberger asked, “What methods do you suggest for building your trust momentum?”

Jane Graham asked, “How can you rebuild trust with people when doing so might require you to betray someone else’s privacy?”

Kimberley Wiggins asked, “When you are trying to build or rebuild trust I know it is important to be transparent. Is it possible to be too transparent and share too much?”

Kristine Canavan asked, “When you are your own boss, should you let your clients know when you have been unhappy with your performance and given yourself a reprimand?”

Matt Coachran asked, “How do I help someone I lead rebuild trust with those they lead?”

 Mike Burns asked, “How do you discuss sensitive performance issues with someone without out betraying the trust of the person you are discussing?”

Nicky Nics Cahill asked, “How do you rebuild trust with a person who has lied to your face and spread spiteful lies about you to other people, especially when it is someone with whom you have to work on a daily basis?”

Special Announcements

I am speaking tomorrow in Palm Springs, California at the INVEST Financial Corporation’s annual Leaders’ Conference. I will be talking about “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World,” specifically tailored for people in the financial services industry.

On Friday, I will be speaking at the CEO Summit in Dallas, Texas, along with my friends, Bob Goff and Francis Chan. I will be doing two keynote sessions: “Why Vision Is More Important Than Strategy” and “Platform.”

I’ll be off the road the next week and then I’m headed to the SCORRE Conference in Orlando, Florida. We are sold out. But we do have a waiting list.

If you are considering launching your own platform, you need to start with a self-hosted WordPress blog. This is not as complicated as it sounds. In fact, I have put together a step-by-step screencast on exactly who to do it.