Daily Leadership Tip #22 – Establish Solid Trust Before Offering Advice

Doug Staneart  |  June 13, 2022

Week #4 Build the Next Generation of Leaders.

Week #4 Build the Next Generation of LeadersContinuing in our Daily Leadership Series Challenge, this week we will cover 7 ways to Build Leaders. The principles in the next section can help build the levels of trust and respect from others…

Many of this week’s principles will help you gain the trust and respect from people around you. As the levels of trust and respect increase, your influence over others will grow. The trust and respect will result from the “Win/Win” relationships that you have already built by using the earlier principles.

  1. Establish solid trust before offering advice.
  2. Keep promises… even small ones.
  3. Be enthusiastic about the success of others.
  4. Recognize the potential in others and help them achieve it.
  5. Catch people doing things right.
  6. Praise the baby steps.
  7. Go out of your way for people.

Leadership Principle #22 – Establish Solid Trust Before Offering Advice.

Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leadership Principle #22 - Establish Solid Trust Before Offering Advice.The term “constructive criticism” is an oxymoron.

Think about it… When was the last time someone gave you constructive criticism and you responded with the following?

“Thank you so much for pointing out that mistake for me! If you hadn’t said something, I would have just continued to screw that up. Thank you so much.”

I know, I’m being a bit sarcastic, but it proves a point. Anytime we criticize someone, that person will always hold some resentment against us.

Can we point out the mistakes of others without resentment? Yes, but we must have their solid trust, and they must know that our only concern is their welfare.

EVERY RELATIONSHIP HAS VALUE.

Picture your relationships with others as a check registry. Anytime you have said something positive to or done something positive for the person, add a deposit into the account.

Anytime you have said something negative to or done something negative against that person, register a withdrawal.

When we use the principles in the book, we build a positive trusting relationship with people, so we have a positive balance in this account. However, if we have violated these principles, then our relationship bank account may be way overdrawn.

We’ll probably need to make more deposits before trying to influence these people or change their behavior.

THE AMOUNT OF INFLUENCE THAT WE HAVE DEPENDS ON THE LEVEL OF TRUST THAT WE HAVE.

When people trust us, they are more likely to want to accept our advice and direction. Without that trust, though, our message, no matter how good it is, will fall on deaf ears.

I was walking in downtown Chicago a short time ago, and a street preacher was standing on the corner yelling, “Jesus saves!” I remember thinking, “What a nut.” A couple of weeks later, I was in church and my preacher said something very similar. This time I was sure he was telling the truth.

The only difference between the two messages was the relationship that I had with the messenger.

Maintain a positive balance in your relationship accounts before offering constructive comments.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.

Principle #22: Establish Solid Trust before Offering Advice.

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author Doug Staneart
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Doug Staneart is president of The Leader's Institute ®. He is based in the Dallas, Texas Region. He is a specialist in corporate team building activities and custom presentation skills seminars.