9 trust-gaining strategies (Part1 / 3)

Trust is something that is gained through hard work over a long period of time. It can be broken in a wink of an eye, and broken trust will leave you on a long and lonely road to recovery. It is therefore best to keep trust in tact, and not allow it to be broken.
Most of us is far from perfect, and at some stage in our lives we will be guilty of breaking someones trust. When you find yourself guilty of breaking someones trust you have to acknowledge your mistake, explain it, apologise and pledge to do everything in your power to prevent it from happening ever again.
I have put together 9 strategies to gain trust, and divided it up into 3 parts. These 9 strategies represent the building blocks and requirements for building trust:

1. Have clear goals

Always be clear on where you are going and you will not be overwhelmed by confusion. If the people around you can not clearly identify what your goal and purpose is they are most likely going to doubt you and find it difficult to trust you.
Without a clear vision and set of goals you will leave those around you disillusioned and bewildered.

2. Become an honest, fair and willing listener

This is an interesting concept that helps you to gain trust in other people. If you are open, willing and honest when you listen to someone else, you are more likely to trust the person talking to you.
It is a scientific fact that your attitude towards someone else is reflected back to you through their attitude towards you. People mirror the emotions sent out to them, and it is therefore important that you do your best to trust someone else first.
If you do not trust someone else, there is a strong possibility that you are also not trusted.
Encourage people to discuss their concerns with you, and make sure that your door is always open to people who need to talk to you.
Share your knowledge and keep clear of power-play. People in general, especially the new generation is known for their lack of trust in authoritative figures.
Powerful, intelligent people in authoritative positions can cause those around them to feel insecure and inferior. To gain trust you need to loosen your grip of power and start to listen with an honest, willing and fair hart.

3. Stop being so indecisive

Making decisions without a clear course of action on how you are gong to execute these decisions is very frustrating draining on those around you.
I am a firm believer that it is better to do something than doing nothing. It is therefore better to make bad decisions with a clear course of action than to make no decisions at all. If you want to gain trust you should stop being so indecisive. Make decisions and execute them.