Building Trust: The Cornerstone Of Great Sports Relationships

No matter what you do or where you go in life, in your association with others, trust is the most important asset that you can have. It’s crucial for business, sports relationships, friendships, love and marriage.

What if trust is not solidified yet?

What steps can you take to build trust?

A great motivator, Michael Hyatt offers these suggestions on building trust.

1. Keep your word. This is where it starts. People have to learn that they can count on you to deliver on your promises. If you commit to following up on something, do it. No excuses. If you can’t do it, proactively let the other person know.
2. Tell the truth. This is harder than it sounds. Most of us like to think of ourselves as truth-tellers. But it’s easy to round the numbers up, spin the facts, or conveniently leave out the evidence that doesn’t support our position.
3. Be transparent. People will not trust you unless you learn to share yourself, warts and all. You have to take a risk and be vulnerable. This creates rapport and rapport builds trust.
4. Give without any strings attached. Nothing builds trust like love.

I have a close friend who shared an experience with me that made it a challenge to ever trust people again though he knew that he had to if he was to continue to engage and grow in his life.[adToAppearHere]

For years, unknown to him, he was a person of extremely low self-esteem with all of the usual suspects. He was eager to please, in relationships he gave far more than he received and above all trusted too much in the wrong people. He refused to look at their defined behavior which would be more reflective of who they actually were as opposed to the rose colored view that he had air brushed them with.

Certain events in his life occurred that forced him to re-evaluate all of his relationships and to his horror he began to understand that his friends and relatives didn’t respect him and consistently took advantage of him.

As a result he severed ties with most of them but the most difficult challenge that faced him as he began to walk in new worlds was to trust people again.

His new approach was to trust……..but verify.

The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it’s very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer.……….Thomas J. Watson

Mr. Thomas John Watson, Sr. was an American businessman. He served as the chairman and CEO of International Business Machines, and oversaw the company’s growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956.

Here are three suggestions from wikihow.com[adToAppearHere]

Be predictable. A lot of people believe that mixing things up makes a great relationship. First, although surprises are nice from time to time, stability and uniformity will strengthen, and are far more important in a relationship. Uniformity sounds boring, and we would all like some surprise in our life, but you need to be predictable to make things work in the long run. Predictability builds trust.

Be Reliable. Trust is just another way of saying you can rely on someone. You trust your partner to do certain things no matter what at all times. This trust builds security in a relationship. The same thing is true when you are able to depend on all the other things that happen in a relationship to be just as reliable.

Mean what you say. Whatever you say, keep it simple and actually mean it, otherwise why say it?

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.…….Arthur Ashe

Motivational speaker and expert Mr. Michael Hyatt at michaelhyatt.com essentially says the same thing in a more colorful way.

Keep your word. This is where it starts. People have to learn that they can count on you to deliver on your promises. If you commit to following up on something, do it. No excuses. If you can’t do it, proactively let the other person know. Also, be prompt to meetings. Tardiness also erodes trust. Sometimes, circumstances beyond your control prevent this, but you can’t allow it to become a habit. And, if you are late, apologize. Show some empathy and explain briefly why you were late.

Tell the truth. This is harder than it sounds. Most of us like to think of ourselves as truth-tellers. But it’s easy to round the numbers up, spin the facts, or conveniently leave out the evidence that doesn’t support our position. But if we are going to build trust, then we have to commit ourselves to telling the truth—even when it is difficult or embarrassing. People are more forgiving than you think. (Witness all the celebrities who have publicly blown it, apologized, and received a pass.) They don’t expect you to be perfect. However, they do expect you to acknowledge your mistakes and to come clean when you screw up.

One of the greatest and most important relationships in our lifetimes are the friendships that we have built in the sports world where we competed and battled together. In so many of those intense situations it involves trusting in your teammate and them in you.

It’s nice to take a moment and reflect upon your current associations and friendships within your team. Are you mired in conflict with a few? What can you do to quickly resolve that?

If some of your relationships are not quite right, please remember it’s not wise for you to wait for them to make the first move. You’ve read this article so what can you do to open or re-open the door to a sports relationship built upon trust?

One of the strongest suggestions above was to give without strings attached. Humility may be in order as well. Given what’s at stake, it’s worth the effort and if you initiate positive change, your teammates will her about it and their respect for you will grow. The respect of your Coach will expand as well.

So, now is always the best time to start.

Let’s go out there and build trust.

~ ~ ~

Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, femcompetitor.com, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.

http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-build-trust.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-Trust-in-a-Relationship

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the-3-biggest-mistakes-people-make-when-trying-to-build-trust