The Importance of Having Trust as a Business Owner

The rain is falling again, and for those that live in Kingwood, the Greater Houston area, and essentially anyone impacted by the floods resulting from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey, the last thing you want to hear is that flooding rains are coming. In the last couple of weeks we experienced a down burst of 7 inches of rain in a 25 minute period accompanied with a tornado, and a single day where we accumulated over 10 inches in about 5 hours. Concern is already "flooding" the mind today as another 2 days of rainfall are predicted for the area.

This got me thinking on the topic of trust in my personal life as it has been a challenging week getting our kids from school with street flooding; one of those days included my daughter wading out of the school to our vehicle in knee deep flood water. Mind you, all parents are on edge, and the children are especially on edge having their homes impacted by flooding from the Harvey event. I can only imagine them sitting in their classrooms wondering if their home was going to flood again.

Over this period of inclement weather, I watched parents of children in the schools tear each other down about should the district been more mindful of the weather. Some were insistent on taking their kids out of school while others insisted it to be poor parenting' "helicopter parents of snowflake children". It was just another example of a Facebook echo chamber in which no one was going to be right. Ignoring the banter, my wife and I choose to trust in our children's teachers and administrators. When we dropped our kids off that day at school, we were trusting that they would be returned to us safely by the end of the day. A lot of the banter that was happening between parents in this particular Facebook page showcased a breakdown of trust.

How does this translate to our businesses? I think we are living in a world right now that teaches and coaches business owners to not have trust with strategic partners, colleagues, customers, and/or clients. We are being taught that trusting someone means the opportunity to be burned. We are preached to trust only our own decisions with no consideration of outside influence or consulting. What would happen if we did allow trust in our society?

I believe if we could trust in one another, new opportunities would be created. In trust, more things can be developed out of collaboration instead of horded away and undeveloped. In trust, we can find and build new relationships that benefits everyone in a win-win manner. In trust, we can live a life that thinks in abundance instead of lack. In trust, we can find peace.

Does trusting others mean that you're not going to get burned? Of course not, and suck it up buttercup, it is life. I do truly believe that getting burned would not be the norm, and that we should not filter life and business in light of the one time something goes bad. 

I encourage you to take a stand, and have the ability to create opportunities both in your life and business by placing trust in the hands of others. Just try it, and see what might happen. Be encouraged and productive.

Onward and Upward,
Coach Jeremy Williams
Red Hawk Coaching