Welcome to Part 4 of this six–part series on how to take better control of your life and career through the art of making powerful offers.

In the previous parts, I showed how you can construct offers that connect to the needs and concerns of the people to whom you make your offers—the “listener.” Then I showed you how to practice beforehand so that you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

This week, I want to talk about something that’s easy to overlook, but is a cornerstone of every successful professional’s career: trust. It’s easy to take this for granted. But there is a subtlety to trust and, if you don’t pay attention to it, you may find your career stalled, while you sit at your desk confused about why things aren’t going your way.

My point is simple: For your career to thrive, you have to be someone in whom others are willing to invest their trust. For your offers to be consistently accepted, you must have a reputation for being trustworthy. You might be thinking, Well that’s easy. I don’t rob banks, I pay my taxes on time, I don’t “borrow” supplies from the office. But are these the kinds of things people use to make assessments about whether or not you’re trustworthy? I say, not entirely.

Why does trust matter?

Whether they do it consciously or not, people are assessing your “trust factor” all the time. And you are doing the same about them. For example, think about someone whom you count on to deliver something that you need to do your work. What might you begin to think about them if they are consistently late? After a while, what might you say about them to others?

The issue of trust around your professional career has primarily to do with things like your competence, your reliability, and your “conversational consistency.” I’ll talk about these in a moment, but first let’s look at “simple trust.”

Simple trust

There is a phenomenon that can be thought of as “simple trust.” This is trust that is built on little or no evidence concerning whether or not somebody can be trusted. There are situations where life is made easier by investing simple trust in others. For example, when you slip the waiter $10 for a primo table at Chez Foo Foo restaurant that you’ve never been to before, you’re exhibiting simple trust that your compensation will be rewarded. But what about hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen? What are you likely to get if you choose a contractor based on simple trust, and not gathering any evidence as to whether or not they can be trusted?

It works the same in your career. There are instances when simple trust is warranted. But when it comes to the powerful offers that you want to make, simple trust won’t be enough. Your listeners must have grounds for trusting you. So I suggest you start now, viewing you through your listeners’ eyes, and discovering what there is to see. If you can be trusted to fulfill the offers that you want to make, that’s great. If you have problem areas, now is the time to start addressing them.

And my personal recommendation is to not waste time trying to address the problem areas by coming up with the right “spin.” Rather, I recommend that you commit to remedial action as a sure-fire way to enable your career success.

The dimensions of trust

There are four dimensions of trust that you can work with to ensure that you have an identity as someone with whom others want to do business. By having this identity, along with the skill of making powerful offers, you can make your career be everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

The four dimensions of trust, and their relationship to your offers, are as follows:

1. Competence: Are you capable of delivering on your offer? If you offer to type up a critical report for someone in one hour, your competence revolves around do you know how to type, and do you have the typing speed necessary to complete it in one hour. But it’s important to remember here that, regardless of whether or not you believe you’re competent in the domain of your offer, listeners to your offers will make their decisions on whether or not to accept your offers based on their assessment of your competence. They’ll look, for example, to the results you have already produced and to the assessments of others

   In making powerful offers, my recommendation is to make them in areas in which you are competent. And if they’re offers that require a team, make them in areas in which the team is competent.

2. Reliability: Do you do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’ll do it? In today’s competitive world, it’s not enough to be good at what you do. You will also be judged on your reliability. This includes taking responsibility for your commitments. When you do this, you engage in an ongoing process by “taking care” of the people to whom you have promised a result. You take care, of course, by delivering.

   You also take care by letting people know if there’s a problem that will change either what you are delivering or the date. So when it looks like your report is going to be late, you take responsibility and alert the person you’re delivering it to. Out of that may come a new agreement about a different date, a different scope of delivery, or a shift in priorities to allow you to get it done on time; or you may just commit to working a few more hours to get it done as originally agreed. What’s important is taking responsibility. That builds trust and your reputation for reliability.

3. Consistent Conversations: Is what you say to yourself (and to people with whom you are very close), consistent with what you say publicly? If not, the lack of consistency will show up in erosion of trust in you by others. Worse, you may never know why people “don’t want to do business with you.” My advice: have consistent conversations.

4. Conformance to Standards: Does your performance conform to the relevant standards? This is related to competence. Your competence will ultimately be assessed according to the standards of the community in which or for which you are performing. For example, if you are in a highly technical field, the standards you’ll be expected to perform to are the standards of your field. They may or may not be written down. But there will almost always be a “social understanding” of what these standards are. Non-technical fields may also have spoken or unspoken standards that are worth paying attention to. I’m not claiming that you must perform to the highest standards; I am saying that it is in your best interest to know what the relevant standards are, and to take them into account when you craft powerful offers. Also take into account how your listener may factor in the standards. 

Your Trust Score

Now you’re ready to evaluate your trustworthiness by using the four dimensions of trust and my Trust Scorecard. If you’re courageous, ask some colleagues whom you trust to score you. (I suggest also giving them this post to read so that they understand what you’re asking about):

What is your score for each of the dimensions of trust?

Ask yourself these questions:

• For each dimension: “Does my score support the kinds of powerful offers that I want to make?”

• If the answer is no: “What will I do to raise my score?”

• For each dimension where you want to take action: “What help do I need?” 

Next Time

In Part 5 of this series I’ll show you how to target your offers.

© 2006 Gold Nugget Coaching