Of all the traits and abilities associated with being an effective leader, trust has got to be at the top of the list. The first job of any leader is to inspire trust. People are not willing to recognize someone as their leader and follow them unless they trust them, not just intellectually, but ethically and morally as well. Trustworthiness is one of the most valuable attributes a person can ever acquire. It will often be the main determining factor in whether another person will associate with you, do business with you, enter into a relationship with you, take your advice or follow your directives. It is by far the most important quality of a leader. No one is ever inclined to follow someone they do not trust.

 

Trust consists of two dimensions: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motives, and intentions. Competence includes your knowledge, past results, and overall track record. Both dimensions are vital. Developing other people's trust essentially means creating the belief in them that we will do what they expect us to do and that we will act in a way that is in their best interests. Followers need to believe that their leaders know where they are going and that they are doing the right thing. People come to trust others either because they have evidence of the other person's trustworthiness or because they develop faith in the other person's commitment to act in a promised manner. Trust is a concept we feel about others and plays a critical role in defining our relationships with them in the areas of friendship, love, business and many other types of personal interactions.

 

The willingness of others to cooperate with you will depend to a high degree on whether they trust you. Without trust, why should people do what you ask, especially if you're asking something difficult? Why should they accept your judgment? Above all, why would they devote the care and extra effort that quality work requires? As the boss, you can demand compliance but you must earn commitment.

 

The Servant Leader

 

Servant Leadership is a management concept that has become very popular over the past few years. Servant Leadership stresses the importance of the role a leader plays as the custodian of the resources of a business or other organization, and advocates that leaders achieve organizational results by serving the people in an organization. Its aim is to build more creative teams and increase worker morale and motivation to improve bottom-line performance. Several books have been written about this concept including Servant Leadership by Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant Leader by James A. Autry, and The Servant Leader by Ken Blanchard.

 

In the words of one of these authors, Robert Greenleaf, "Trust is First," meaning that the primary focus of the Servant Leadership approach is to develop the followers trust in a leader. The Servant Leader achieves this by clearly demonstrating that he or she is working for the good of all, not just their own and that of the organization, is focused on building a community of workers, thereby creating a sense that everybody is in it together rather than going it alone and by committing to helping others grow as individuals. This all helps contribute to followers trust in the leaders because it expresses a concern on the part of the Servant Leader for the followers' best interests. This in turn inspires and motivates colleagues to want to follow the leaders' direction, thereby generating greater productivity than might otherwise be achieved.

 

Like other values, trust is something that must be gained over time. We are not "entitled" to others' trust; we have to earn it. Other people make the determination about our trustworthiness; it is not ours for the asking. Unlike other values, trust is very personal. That is, we put ourselves in a position of vulnerability when we trust others, so our wellbeing rests partly in their hands. In effect, because we give control of some part(s) of our lives to those individuals, we have a vested and personal interest in the outcome. Our hope is that their actions will justify the faith we have entrusted to them, and that they will live up to our expectations.

 

Trust Is a Two-Way Street

 

While leaders must earn trust to be truly effective, they must also demonstrate trust in order to get a team enthusiastically committed to their objectives. If there is mutual trust between leaders and followers, the followers will be more willing to learn the attitudes and skills necessary to produce productive outcome. In order to build quality and lasting relationships, you need to trust others. Trust doesn't necessarily happen right away. In fact, it usually happens after you get to know people.

 

If your behavior makes others feel that you believe they are untrustworthy, they will tend to feel that you don't value or respect them, and they will be less likely to act in a trustworthy way. Everyone deep down likes and wants to be trusted. It makes them feel worthy and appreciated. It's a good feeling. If your behavior expresses trust for others, they will be inclined to want to continue to experience these good feelings by continuing to behave in a trustworthy manner. People have a tendency to live up to our expectations.
See Self-fulfilling Prophesy 

 

It's often important to go with our gut feeling and give people a chance if you feel good about a situation. This is not to suggest that you put complete trust in someone after a first encounter. There will always be people who will try to take advantage of you and you do certainly need to try to take the time to get to know people before you trust them. But at some point in any relationship, you need to put trust in others if you want them to place their trust in you.

 

Trust is the 'gateway' to persuasion. If you have the trust of another person, he or she will be much more motivated to really listen to you, consider your persuasive arguments and act positively and enthusiastically on your requests.

 

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People often associate the topic of persuasion primarily with the concept of selling, but the importance of effective persuasion skills really pertains to every one of us regardless of our individual vocation. Every day each of us is involved to some degree in influencing the thoughts and actions of others. In fact, the path to success in life lies to a very large extent in gaining the cooperation of others. In this edition of Insights, we continue with our ongoing segment dedicated to the topic of persuasion.

 

The First Three Minutes

Making a positive first impression when meeting someone for the first time is a crucial factor in determining a person's persuasive effectiveness. What you communicate within the first three minutes will usually set the stage for everything else that is to follow. In that short period of time the people you meet whether in business settings, social situations or when networking, will begin to draw important conclusions as to how much they like you, trust you and want to cooperate with you. This will be based on what you say, how you say it, your body language and your appearance. There is a direct correlation between how you communicate and your overall success both at work and outside of work. You cannot not communicate; everything you say or do sends a message.

 

Psychological studies indicate that once someone has made a first impression of you, it's very hard to change their mind later. That's why it's so important to make a fantastic first impression when persuading others because you want them to be as receptive as possible to your ideas and intentions. The clich� is true: "You never have a second chance to make a good first impression." This applies to both our professional and personal lives.

 

Your Body Speaks First

 

In most face-to-face initial meetings, your appearance and body language are what other people experience first before any words are spoken, and your body says a lot!. When it comes to making the first impression, body language as well as appearance speaks much louder than words. A full, firm handshake and good standing posture shows confidence and composure. Steady, relaxed eye contact communicates interest and says you are listening. Try to avoid staring too long, as it can make others uncomfortable. All of this will help put both you and the other person more at ease and facilitate rapport. A sincere smile also breaks the ice and expresses relaxed self-assurance. Imagine how important this is for a job interview, initial client meeting or a first date.

 

Your gestures and movement also contribute significantly to other's first impression of you. To anyone observing you, body movements you make that are jerky, tense and uneasy can convey that you are anxious, nervous and uncomfortable and are usually associated with a lack of confidence. Erratic movements, out-of-sync gestures and rapid-fire sentences can be annoying and can evoke negative responses such as doubt and suspicion which are definitely not helpful in creating a positive first impression. Furthermore, it can be very difficult to overcome the initial negative impact of your body language and appearance with words.

 

The Importance of How You Say It

 

A speaker's vocal qualities play an important role in shaping the listener's first impression. Vocal qualities include a wide array of non-verbal vocal behaviors such as voice pitch, rate, volume, inflection, and tempo as well as the pronunciation of words and the use of silence. Vocal qualities can lead listeners to form a variety of impressions about a speaker based on their interpretations of what certain vocal qualities mean.

 

Vocal quality can have an especially powerful influence on a listener's perception of a speaker's feelings, emotions or even state of mind. How often have we heard others comment to the fact that someone sounds happy, angry or confused? The sound of what a person says can even indicate the exact opposite of what his or her words are intending to convey. Bob may be saying "I'm O.K," but the tone of his voice and the hesitancy with which he expresses his words may clearly indicate that he is definitely not O.K.

 

The main reason that vocal qualities are such powerful indicators of a person's emotional state is that they are considered to be very genuine reflections of what someone is thinking or feeling. This is because their origins are usually in our subconscious minds. We each use our voice in our daily interactions to teach, manage, praise, encourage and reprimand, etc., and much of our meaning is conveyed through its use. Unfortunately, however, we don't generally think much about how we are going to articulate a word or phrase or consciously process in our minds how we want something to sound to the person or persons we are addressing; we just let our vocal characteristics flow out of us naturally.

 

This is just fine if the manner in which we say something is consistent with the literal meaning of the words we use, but it can be a problem when our voice and our words appear to be at odds with each other.

 

To be an effective persuader, our voice and our words need to be in synch. Both should convey the same or complementary messages. If they don't, our believability will be diminished or sacrificed completely.

 

You have just a few seconds to make a good first impression and it's almost impossible to ever completely change a negative first impression. So it's worth giving each new encounter your best shot. Much of what you need to do to make a good impression is common sense. But with a little extra thought and preparation, you can hone your intuitive style and make every first impression not just good but great. Then you will be in the position to effectively persuade someone to your ideas.

 

Talk in Terms of the Other Person's Interests

 

Try to talk about things that the other person might be interested about. For example, if you are at a party, ask who invited him or her and how they know each other. If possible, try to find out things about another person before you met with them. People are usually attracted to those who appear to be genuinely interested in them.

 

Ask us a question about Persuasiveness. 

 

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