Good morning everyone,
Following up from last week’s blog post on trust I am looking forward to unpacking one of the characteristics of trust. Over the next few weeks I will show you how to build trust in a simple equation that you’ll be able to understand quickly and then focus on building great trust with those you come in contact with.
This week we are going to talk about one of the ingredients of trust and that is credibility. Credibility is important to people because they want to get information to answer their questions on their particular subject. You and I want to gather information that is correct if we are going to succeed. Gaining incorrect information will only set us back in our quest to move forward. Whether it is a software package, power tool, insurance, or any other product or service that will help us. We do not want to pick the wrong one so we research on the internet, watch videos, ask those around us as social beings.
We have to put trust in those that provide the information so that we can make the best decision. Depending on the high cost of the decision we are making we may want a very highly qualified individual to help us gather information, or someone that will be able to point us in the right direction.
How do we find these individuals?
Most people think that they have to be an expert to be credible, but that is just not true. Being a person that will help the person find the answer will also make you credible. That’s right I work hard to help people every day find answers to solve their problems. I am not an expert in everything. I do have a degree in electrical engineering, but that degree will not help me when picking a paint color especially since I am slightly color blind.
Someone that will offer up suggestions based off experience is just as important as an encyclopedia in my opinion. I have seen old mechanics walk up to a vehicle and diagnose the electrical issue in minutes while engineers had spent hours trying to figure it out. The mechanic experienced the issue prior and was able to help. He did sit back and smile a bit while the engineers suffered through.
Don’t think about having to have a degree to just be credible and to build trust. Use your experiences to help offer help as well. Life has taught me many lessons that have helped me point others in a direction to avoid making the same mistake.
I had a discussion with a millennial the other day that was worried about building credibility which is different discussion with baby boomers who seem to have all of the answers. I informed the millennial that building credibility is more of a heart thing than being a book thing. Being willing to research a bit and use your experience will help you gain credibility with others just as much as any degree in most cases. I mean as long as you are not trying to launch a rocket into space with precious cargo. Then I would say a degreed individual might trump that. Just as long as they do their calculations correctly. Remember the mars rover that crashed into the surface because they didn’t convert from metric to English? Even rocket scientists get things wrong on their specialized topics.
Focus on being a credible person by helping people find their answers, or connecting them to people that can help them. Doing this will be the way to build credibility with those you are helping.
For today I’ll give you the first part of the equation.
Next week we will talk about the next part of building trust.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom