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Top 5 Tips on Building Trust Amongst Your Peers

Having written two other posts on trust this week, I thought it only appropriate to focus this week's top 5 on tips to build trust amongst your peers. While I am no expert in this area, I have found the five tips shared below to have helped me build camaraderie amongst my teammates over the years. I hope they can help you, too!


1. Be mindful of the the symbols you surround yourself with. Okay, this one is kind of a cop out since I already wrote a whole post about this earlier in the week. It's still an important thing to keep in mind, though. If trust means a consistency of character, then that means the environment you choose to surround yourself with should be in alignment with your behavior.

2. Watch how you portray yourself in social media. The internet is a place where things never die, so things you post today may very well come back to haunt you literally decades from now. For better or worse, that means we need to build a consistent character for years and years, and that means being very mindful of how we use social media.

3. Take a light interest in what is important to your peers. I'm not saying go all out and get super invested, but do take some interest to show you care about them. In my regular job, I work with a lot of Indian people who are more than willing to welcome somebody like me to partake in eating some Indian food with them. I never say no to these opportunities because I understand their appreciation and interest in this. It's the little things like this that go a long way in building a trusting relationship.

4. Let your own personality shine through. Relationships are a two-way street. As important as tip #3 is, people don't trust what they do not know. If all you do is take interest in others but show know personality of your own, people may have suspicions about who you are. Again, don't go all out and plaster posters of your favorite movie all over a conference room. Strike a balance between being professional and being a personable human being.

5. Don't bury your weaknesses. I wouldn't flaunt them either, but isn't that what this blog is all about? There is no way we know everything. We all recognize that, so when somebody attempts to come in as a know-it-all, we naturally develop suspicions since nobody can know everything. Instead, when those times come when you have to do something you are not strong out, reach out with a humble mind to somebody who is more experienced to find out how to get it done. People will appreciate the honesty and authenticity with which you display your skills.
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