Trust is the backbone of any business and a personal brand.  Be it a customer, supplier or employee, trust is what keeps people spending and turning up to work. Building trust is Lyn Bromley and Donna’s Whitbrook’s bread and butter; throughout their careers, Bromley and Whitbrook have developed people and teams and used their unique take to create Trusted: The human approach to building outstanding relationships in a digitised world. *

It comes as no surprise that trust comes up all the time within my coaching; the very human need that people will do what they say they will do. Be it returning to work, developing a working relationship or launching a new business.  I have been aware of authors of Trusted* for several years – you could say their reputation proceeds them.  One that is trusted! So, I was intrigued to read this book. Shortlisted for the Judge’s Choice Award, in The Business Book Awards 2018, Trusted claims to “give clear strategies to build and maintain deep professional relationships, authentically.

This book is for people looking to created or build a trusted personal brand.  Be it for your business or within a team or yourself.  Research has found over and over again that a team that trusts each other is more productive, less stressed, more energy, engagement. It’s a no brainer really! But how can trust be cultivated?

The book talks about their T-Spot Model, five elements that are needed to build trust, which much align with the organisation’s (or individual, if YOU are the business) culture and values: Mindset, Communication, Interaction, Behaviour, Professional Image. Each of the chapters focus on each of these areas, which is backed by research evidence and case studies from the work that Bromley and Whitbrook cover in their businesses.

This is not full of abstract management consultant speak, but a down to earth book, full of practical applications. Not only do they provide detailed reviews of how each technique could be applied, but what it looks like when it’s NOT working out. Recognising, what they call “Credibility Thiefs” provide opportunities for self-reflection that I haven’t seen before in similar books.

At 228 pages it may seem like a quick read, but it’s jam-packed; it’s something that can be dipped in and out of at regular occurrences dependent on what you need.  Some of the content may read like common sense, but then that is the issue with trust and personal branding; it’s easy to recognise it, but much harder to remember and to apply!

Three things you need to know about Trusted*

The smallest thing can make the biggest difference
The concept of marginal gains is slowly making its way into the day to day conversation. You may have heard it as the “1% rule”; “If you improve every area by just 1% and there is a 1% margin for improvement in everything you do, those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement”. Like many things in the world of coaching, this stems from the world of SPORTS coaching, specifically the work of British cycling coach Sir David Brailsford. When he was given the role of Coach and General Manager of Team Sky in 2010, and he was tasked with finding the winner for the Tour De France, he began looking at the 1% positive changes he could make across all areas of the team’s development. Areas such as nutrition, training, bike seat ergonomics, sleep, and wellness. Over time, each of the seemingly small changes added up to exceeding their target. They didn’t hit their Tour De France winner within five years; they won in two years, rather than five!
So, look at all areas that make up your personal brand, your career and your life, and decide what small changes could add up to something quite brilliant!

Communication can make or break a relationship
To be honest, this should be a mantra for everything. How many times have you read an email or a text and wondered what is meant? Or sat in a meeting and felt like you are “losing the room”? This goes beyond the much-trained technique of building genuine rapport and body language, it covers cultural differences (needed in this global world), networking, and presentation.
They stress the importance to acknowledge communication differences. Using this awareness to notice and understand areas like the attitude to risk, evaluation of ideas/situations, level of privacy, pace, diplomacy, temperament, and granularity of information, can help when you are presenting information and ideas.
Not everyone thinks the same!
 

Nothing works if you don’t believe

Paying attention to what works, and developing was doesn’t, won’t work if YOU and your team don’t believe it can work. How often are things rolled out as a change management process or an employee culture strategy, but it feels like a tick box exercise? The reason why the T-models’ first aspect is Mindset is that there needs to be the understanding and the confidence that these approaches work. From recognising that unconscious bias exists to encouraging emotional intelligence, on an individual and group perspective, if you don’t have the wellbeing of your staff and yourself in mind, everything else is just academic.

So, do I recommend this? YES! However, there is one small caveat. I did hope that the book would explicitly acknowledge that humankind, and therefore the world of work, is Neurodiverse; being open-minded to the way that people communicate can help inclusively and diversity in the workplace.  Whilst it is acknowledged that there are cultural and communication differences, it has a Neurotypical slant. There is no doubt how useful it can be to explain how and why people behave in the way they do, I would have like to see a more explicit acknowledgement that,  for example, eye contact isn’t automatically a sign of interest; this could help everyone be more open-minded.

Generally, if you are looking for an easy to read, and understand, book when you are looking to develop a trusted personal brand or a team culture, then Trusted* is for you. And let’s be honest, you can’t trust a team or brand if you can’t trust the people within it!

Want to read other personal development book reviews? Find them here!

*This link is an affiliate link. If you click on it, then buy something, I may get a few pennies. It won’t impact your cost though!