TRUST is a five letter word.

TRUST is a five letter word. But, I personally feel , it has a much bigger impact than that.We sleep peacefully trusting our soldiers at the borders of the country to protect our nation.

We eat a packaged food by a company trusting that the food made is through a quality process and is apt for eating.
We invest our lives in the hands of air pilot as we know that he is qualified and will fly the ariplane appropriately.

Trust at the work place is very important. I personally feel that it forms the basis of all relationships at the work place.
There are a few obvious words that pop into my mind as I heard the word Trust - Integrity, Credible, Honest, No games, ethics.
During my 6 years of work experience, I have worked with several people. Some of them were my peers, a few my superiors and the rest my subordinates. As I reflect on my past, I recollect two individuals who were two different extremes.

AB( Only initials kep) was the relationship manager at our organization. His primary task was to interact with the clients and then work with the project team to ensure that requirements are met. On reflection, I realize that he was quite good at self monitoring. When he was with client, he cared about them and acted in a manner that was expected of him. With us, he sounded more like the technical guy. But in this role play, he often commited oto things that were not doable in the specified time frame.
I remember once the technical team discussing a major problem with him , and expected him to inform this to the client. But, he went to the client and informed them that everything was fine. The project got delayed and the client accused the technical team of not communicating the cause earlier. The Relationship manager not wanting to break the bad news had stayed away from delivering the message. A result of this was that the project suffered and we lost face in front of our client. I remember that since then, the relationship manager lost credibility in front of our team. Although,everyone of us talked to him and responded to him, deep inside our heart, we felt that we could not trust him. The biggest impact of loosing trust is that
once it is lost, it is extemerly difficult to regain it. An element of doubt once sets in is difficult to repair. This also results in communiction isseswhich could results in conflicts.

On the other hand, NM was the kind of manager everyone trusted. This was simply because she delivered what she promised and supported the team in front of the mangement if as a team we had come to a common conclusion. Besides that , thee were chararacteristics in our personality such as down to earth, quick follow up by email or phone. communicating releabvant data and immediately clarifying any rumour that we had. The best advanage I noticeced in her by trust was that the team was easily able to rely on her. The team responded to her better and was even willing to take some calculated risks when time case. In short, a feeling of loyalty was instiiled in the team mates because of the trust we had in her.

On rreflection, I realized that if there were two things that I had to do , it would be a) Saying what you do, doing what you say
b) Apologize immedately if I am wrong. I think the first one " saying what you do, doing what you says" is important because trust and credibility are strongly related. If we commit to or act on what was expected of us, it is likely that we will be percieved as someone who is trustworthy. I have often witnessed folks in meetings saying that "I will get back to you with the details" and never seem to answer the questions. Only after constant reminders is the information sent. This is an example of how trust can either be built or broken.

The second case is about apologizing if there was a mistake. I personally feel that it is human for persons to commit an error or mistakes. Some of these are because of a difference in expectations, some due to cultural mismatch and some due to perceived understanding of the situation. I feel that in cases where things have gone wrong, it is apporpriate that a one on one conversation happens and things are settled out. This will eliminate any negative thoughts arising in the minds of indiviudas and result in better trust than before.

As I intend to follow the two instances of trust in me, am reminded of the German Scholar Friedrich Nietzsche quotes about trust which states that "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you”