Leaders Need to Gain Trust — Here's How

Taking care of yourself first doesn’t mean that you put your interests before those of your clients — quite the opposite. This approach improves your ability to serve your clients without having your needs get in the way of helping them achieve their dreams.

Take Care of Others

Slowing down to take better care of yourself speeds up your ability to take care of others. Once you’ve taken care of yourself, you’re better prepared to lead yourself through client relationships and to strengthen them. In addition, you’re setting an example of how clients and employees can best treat themselves.

In the case of employees, it’s critical to be assessable. If you want your team to provide better service to clients, you should show and train them on how they can give better, deeper advice. To do that, you have to be fulfilled in your own business and career, and show that you are meeting your own needs and thus can help other’s meet theirs.

If you want clients and employees to trust you, train them through your actions. Provide them with a clear understanding of what you know, and open yourself up to learning what you don’t.

In doing so, you create a culture in which everyone on your team is consistently willing and able to learn from each other. Plus, as you set the example and then deliver on it, trust begins to flourish.

What the Best Leaders Do

As I’ve studied and learned from some of the best leaders in the business, the leaders who truly have trust operate similarly to each other — and thrive.

The best leaders, instead of looking outside of their own companies, put their focus on setting the example within themselves and then train the people they already have. They keep their attention on the people around them.

How do these leaders gain more trust? Instead of focusing on what they don’t have, they focus on what they do have.

It’s easy to think about the revenue, clients or employees you don’t have. But those feelings of “not enough” are almost always driven by comparison.

Instead of making comparisons, the best leaders maintain their focus squarely on what behaviors within themselves and their businesses they can improve. The more you do that, the more trust you’ll gain.

Future business growth follows trust in the advisory industry and in other fields. Trust will lead you, where you want to go — no matter who comes and goes, into and through, future growth.