
Hello Reliability, Hello Trust
By Bill Marklein
sayhello@employhumanity.com
Many of the organizations that partner with Employ Humanity for leadership development are searching for improving trust within their culture. These organizations clearly understand the importance of trust when it comes to creating a healthy, thriving culture. It doesn’t take much convincing to know that trust is the currency of both the employee and customer experience. All healthy relationships for that matter are built on trust. But how do we build trust in our workplaces and beyond—the trust that so easily appears then disappears?
Employ Humanity has discovered that trust is the byproduct of… reliability. Reliability doesn’t get the attention it deserves in leadership development. Trust gets all the attention, all the glory. But the truth is that trust only happens with reliability. When we can truly count on people to do what they say they will do (or can do), we trust them. This goes for being dependable for the things you put on your resume and website, the things you say you will do for the team and customer and how we show up with modeling behaviors of our brand promise. When people become unreliable, we start to lose trust in the brand. This isn’t the expectation to be robotic and flawless. We are human and humans are imperfect—life is messy. However, to be a good teammate and successful in business and life, we must continuously strive to be dependable the best we can. Reliability is a promise that, when broken, erodes trust.
Here are 7 ways to be a more reliable leader and have a more reliable brand:
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Be consistent with your core values the best you can
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Be authentic with your strengths and weaknesses (not everything to everybody)
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Don’t overpromise and underdeliver (the death of relationships)
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Communicate clear expectations, roles and responsibilities
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Learn from failures of breaking a promise with a teammate or customer
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Acknowledge your unreliability to others when it happens
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With empathy, hold people accountable when they are unreliable
When we collaborate with reliable people personally and professionally, great things happen. That you can trust!
About the Author: Bill Marklein is a sought-after keynote speaker in the space of leadership, culture and emotional intelligence and invites you to Employ Humanity Leadership Day 2024 in Milwaukee at the iconic Harley-Davidson Museum. If you liked this article, please give it a share.