When we think of “trust issues” many of us think of our personal relationships—those we have with a partner or spouse, children, or friends and family. Trust issues can also affect our home business operations, however, whether they are issues that we have or ones that are coming toward us from our customers and clients.
Writing and talking about trust issues can be sticky. After all, many of us do not even realize what we are wrestling with. We may think we are just being “smart” or preparing ourselves for the inevitable. If we are constantly assuming that our customers or clients are always trying to take advantage of us, that colleagues are talking behind our back, or that we have to manage every tiny aspect of our business to make sure that we don’t get cheated, we may think we are just being diligent and not realize that we may have some pretty heavy trust issues.
This lack of trust on our part can affect our dealings with others. They will definitely respond and pick up on it if we are being distrustful. We may come across as suspicious, controlling or judgmental and who wants to do business with someone who acts like that? I know that it can be incredibly hard to be cautious and trusting at the same time—especially in the business world where it can seem so dog-eat-dog, but being open and trusting that good things will happen tends to invite just that very outcome.
The hardest thing is to open up and trust that people will treat us fairly in our business AFTER we have been burned. I spent a brief half-year working as a real estate agent many years ago (when my children were all toddlers and preschoolers) and the competitive nature of that business scarred me from being able to trust people for a few years. Needless to say, I was not cut out for that line of work and it prompted me to get involved in managing nonprofits which helped me to work on and rebuild my trust issues. People want to work with people they can trust and we need to deal with our own trust “stuff” so that we can be open and interactive with our customers and clients.