How do you speed up your success? Because I am ADD and too old to have been diagnosed, I find myself loving today’s fast paced business world . As a consultant and coach, change is built into my career and, for now, that fits. Yet I know that speed kills as well. Hence my question.
The speed of my progress or success has a direct correlation to the depth of my trustability. Trustability is an inside-out quality that starts with sowing trust first and demonstrating good for your word actions. Without it, no other tool or tactic comes close in working with people.
People who trust me allow me more opportunities to help them and as a result my expertise grows. These same people are my best source of referrals as well. And vice versa. When someone with whom I share trust recommends someone to me, I start by giving that person a leg up on trust scale.
Trust is both intuitive and earned. Intuitive in that all of us make first impressions and those include trustworthiness. If someone comes across as trustworthy, then you are more receptive to listen and more inclined to share more of yourself with them. The reverse also applies and often overlooked as the source of the problem.
Trust is also earned by actions. One of the most counter-intuitive ways to earn trust is to focus on the other person first and last. Counter-intuitive? How many people have you met or spoken with in the last week where you never mentioned anything about you or your agenda? For me, far too few. I am inclined to talk about things I do or provide and how they can benefit the other person first. Speed kills.
Knowing this, in every conversation my goals include to be “quick to listen,” and to “show genuine interest in the other person.” Thank you James 1:9 and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I need to do what I say I will do, when I say I will, and stay honest on my part.
So while my ADD mind will continue to be drawn to the latest and greatest social media techniques to create buzz, my internal success coach will continue to whisper, “Slow down and focus on getting to know more about this person you’re talking with. Trust me, you’ll do fine!” He’s been right so far.