As an entrepreneur or founder, increasing trust in your brand should be your top priority.
In Denmark, where I live, we are good at trusting one another.
In fact, according toOECD, Danes are one of the most trusting countries in the world.
This is an encouraging discovery, as confidence is essential for people and organizations to develop.
The German sociologist, Niklas Luhmann, called trust a mechanism for the reduction of social complexity.
In practice, this means that good entrepreneurial culture is about trust.
If your employees dont trust you, they wont follow your instructions.
Equally if theres a lack of trust, a workforce behaves more like a group rather than a team.
In the past, organizations used physical representations to build trust among their clients.
For example, in the banking sector, tall buildings would represent both affluence and security to potential customers.
Trust is something we share
Today, its not necessarily big buildings that build trust.
Instead trust has re-emerged as an important component of the sharing economy.
The sharing economy has increased in popularity partly because it has become easier to measure and assess trust.
But what can startups and entrepreneurs learn from these massive tech-companies that of course also began as small startups?
They show how much confidence others have in us.
Meanwhile, the startup Deemly, gathers your score across various platforms and assigns a personal trust score.
Her research concluded that when trust increases, the probability of a company attracting more customers increases with it.
This means a company can value itself according to its reputation.
In sum, trust has gained real commercial value.
Similarly, Botsman has shown how trust-ratings can be transferred from one context to another.
Stack Overflow is essentially a question corner for software programmers who can get solutions to problems from other users.
This meant that users could transfer their online reputation to real job applications.
Building on this, many sharing platforms are starting to introduce discounts for their most trusted customers.
This is similar to insurance companies which analyze their confidence in a customer when assessing an insurance policy.
Some banks in Asia are experimenting with the idea of providing loans based on customers Airbnb reviews.
Trust is not just something we share, trust is the future currency!
The first score could indicate passion and the ability to build relationships online.
While the second could indicate that they are reliable.
This in turn could send the wrong signal of trust.
Listen Louder
Your employees are unique individuals who have their own ideas and viewpoints.
Ask them to speak their mind, and when they do, genuinely listen.
This is the foundation for positive workplace relationships built on mutual understanding and trust.
Its vital to provide them with frequent recognition in real time.
Telling the truth can be tough, but do it nevertheless always!
Theres no denying that telling the truth can be tough.
Its often easier to tell your employees what they want to hear especially during difficult times.
Every relationship, whether professional or personal, is based on honesty.
One lie can ruin even a long-term relationship potentially irreparably.
Ernest Hemingway
Story byJonathan Lw
Jonathan Lw is one of Denmarks most well-known entrepreneurs and business authors.
He is also former Startup-Advisor and Investor at Accelerace the leading investment fund for startups in Denmark.
Additionally Jonathan Lw is the editor ofThe GuruBook published in March 2018 by Taylor & Francis.
He is also the author of the foreword to leadership-guru Simon Sineks latest book Find your why.
