In every domain of life, people have to trust you. If they do not, it doesn’t matter what your personal qualities are you won’t succeed.
I have shared that too often on LinkedIn people DM me and when I look at their message and/or profile I can see that I can’t trust them. They are either a scammer or come off as crazy if I don’t contact them. Here are the steps to help people trust you.
- Reverse your role with the other person. Ask yourself, if I was approached in the way I am approaching others, would I want to give this person a chance? Be honest. Many of you don’t realize or care that how you approach others is unhelpful at best, and counterproductive at worst.
- Show in your profile and actions that you can be trusted. Have you worked with companies that have trusted you? Have you worked in environments that require more extensive background checks and fingerprinting like financial/Fintech? Do you have proof on your LinkedIn Profile you are real like the CLEAR verification I have talked about before? Can you meet over video to verify you are who you claim to be?
- Have good boundaries. If you talk about things you aren’t supposed to then you aren’t going to be trusted. Honor your NDAs. Be straight up and say I can’t talk about that because I signed an NDA. You will lose opportunities, but you will be good that you are a person of your word. Don’t be drawn into discussions that focus on negatives. When people are looking for negatives they aren’t the kind of people you want to work with.
- Respect people. If you don’t respect people even though others may not consciously be aware of it, they will not trust you. Honestly try to find a win/win in every situation you are involved with. If you can’t find a win/win then don’t get involved in that situation. Situationships may work for relationships, but they don’t help your professional career.
- Be kind. When you are arrogant, a jerk, focusing only on benefits to yourself, you come across as a user. Be aware and demonstrate that you can empathize and that you have emotional intelligence and want to use it. If jobs were fun and easy, they wouldn’t pay people to do them. People would volunteer. Jobs are hard because people can be challenging, and you have to demonstrate that you have the skills to handle people.
There are more ways to show you are trustworthy but if you focus on these things, you will be successful. This is what has worked very well for me.