Take a pulse-check. How professionally trustworthy are you as you serve colleagues and clients? Are you committed to continuously serving each other, first, so you better serve clients, together? Or, are you self-focused, often opting to serve your own professional needs at the expense of others?
There is a will and a way to be both trustworthy and career-focused, simultaneously. However, you need to have the will first. Because the way involves the set of professional ethics under which you operate.
When you have an inconsistent track record of being professionally trustworthy, people will not invest in you.
First, because they are never quite sure which professional version of you will show up each day. The goodwill your trustworthiness creates during one meeting may be compromised by your detached or self-focused performance at subsequent meetings.
Next, because the quality of your deliverables is highly variable. Often impacted by your willingness to be a cross-functionally collaborative team member. Versus a tendency to transform into a rogue and solo performer. Because you perceive all other team members as competitors (and yes, some may be).
Also, because the outcomes your team produces are inconsistent. Clients will not buy into your solutions because they do not recognize their stated and unstated needs in product designs. When the solutions you create serve your needs, rather than your clients’, then clients are not confident in their future relationship with you or your team.
With trust at an all-time premium these days, check your own pulse. Are you professionally trustworthy?
Yes, we all are riding the waves of personal and professional uncertainty vs elation, self-confidence vs self-doubt and fear, loss vs gain, indecision vs decisiveness. Often on a daily basis.
My advice? Set a daily intention. Move one millimeter beyond whatever thoughts hold you back from moving forward, professionally. Often, you are the individual sabotaging yourself, not anyone else. To become more professionally trustworthy, the first person you need to trust is yourself.
Building self-trust, together, one millimeter at a time, connects your story to your colleagues’ and clients’. Ready to take your next steps, together? Click here and let’s start building your trust-based, purpose-driven professional story. Together.
Babette Ten Haken translates across unprofitable and unproductive communication and collaboration disconnects between the business-operations continuum. She is a card-carrying STEM professional and left-brain thinker specializing in cross-functional leadership, new product development and professional innovation. Her One Millimeter Mindset™ virtual and in-person speaking programs get everyone to where they need to go, together: one millimeter at a time. Optimize strategic business and human capital value in your organizations. Build trust to retain employees and clients co-invested in each other’s success. Her playbook of cross-functional tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Contact Babette here.
Image source: Adobe Stock
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