🦸 Being Trustworthy is a Superpower (That Doesn’t Come with a Cape)
When you hear the term, “self-regulation”, it’s immediately associated with “self-control”. But as you now know, that’s just one attribute of this internal EQ competence.
Managing your emotions and staying unflappable under pressure is all good and well, but what happens when you’re all alone, and your back is against the wall? ⁉️ Would you be tempted to take a shortcut or play a bit dirty to keep your company afloat?
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Even if taking the moral high ground could mean retrenching your team?
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And even if your competitor has gotten away with it for decades?
Trustworthiness
📖 Trustworthiness refers to your ability to act with integrity, honesty, and ethical consistency, even when no one is watching.
Can you imagine a life without trust? On one hand, our lack of trust is why we lock our front doors and check intersections even when the robot is green. The flip side is that, without trust, we would be paralysed by inaction. Trust is an essential part of life.
What’s more, trust isn’t about good intentions, but self-regulation to ensure your actions match your words. You are trustworthy if you:
- Behave ethically and above reproach
- Build trust through your reliability and authenticity
- Admit your mistakes
- Confront unethical actions of others
- Take tough, principled stands even if they are unpopular.
Why Honesty Pays 🏆
Trustworthiness is such a delicate commodity. From historic wars in ancient times to current celebs persuading us that we need lighter skin/ butt implants / penis enlargements, we have grown weary and distrustful. In a world full of empty promises and half-truths, being someone others can count on truly is a superpower. No cape required!
💏 In Real Life
- Stronger bonds
People don’t just like you, they rely on you. No trust? Get ready for surface-level small talk forever. - Street cred
Being the person who actually does what they say? Rare. Valuable. - Less drama
Trust cuts through misunderstandings before they turn into full-blown feuds. - Sleeping at night
No 3 a.m. guilt spirals over shady choices.
💰 In Business
Trust is the invisible currency of entrepreneurship. And making decisions with (or without) integrity builds (or breaks) the long-term success of your brand.
- Loyalty magnet
Employees stick around, customers come back, and suppliers don’t ghost you. - Leadership that works
Teams follow leaders they trust, not just ones with fancy titles. - Long-term wins
Ethical businesses don’t just survive; they outlast the sketchy competitors. - Fewer dumpster fires
No scandals = no frantic PR apologies.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Warren Buffett
Ethics and Ethical Behaviour
“A (wo)man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon the world.”
Albert Camus
When you behave ethically, you gauge the moral implications of your actions in any given situation, regardless of whether they directly build trust or are visible to others. Your decisions are guided by societal norms, laws, or organisational codes of conduct. Applicable in both your personal and business relationships, you demonstrate ethical behaviour through integrity, transparency, honesty, and fairness. It involves choosing right over wrong, even when it’s difficult.
Reliability
Customer satisfaction and loyalty goes through the roof when you can ensure high-quality products or services that are delivered on time and within budget. Consistent delivery builds trust, support, and brand value, while failure leads to customer loss and reputational damage.
“Reliability is the precondition for trust.”
Wolfgang Schauble
The nuts and bolts of a reliable operation involve robust risk management practices, a resilient infrastructure, effective communication channels, and more. That is covered in People Dynamics’ other entrepreneurial development course. From an EQ stance, though, YOU can pledge now to stop making any promises unless you will keep them. Commit to yourself that if you say you are going to do something, you do it.
Authenticity
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let out true selves be seen.”
Brene Brown
Hands up if you know someone who acts one way in private with you, but then changes completely when surrounded by an in-crowd? Isn’t it maddening? Don’t they make you feel betrayed? Doesn’t it seem dishonest?
Authenticity means being true to who you are. Or even being true to who you want to be. Either way, it is genuine, honest, and comes from within. Authenticity requires vulnerability.
When you are living authentically, you won’t be everybody’s cup o’ tea. But by being true to yourself, you will attract the kind of people who will be good for you.
To be authentic, you need to align yourself to your values and goals ALL. THE. TIME. Do not give in when faced with conformity and mediocrity. Don’t trade authenticity for approval.
“Ignore the critics… Only mediocrity is safe from ridicule.”
Dita von Teese
💡 Pro Tip: Lean into your authenticity by using storytelling as a leadership and marketing tool. Sharing stories about the real you is a masterful way to get your message across. Your messy, imperfect, totally human story is your secret weapon.
Admit Your Mistakes
As an authentic individual, you will have no choice but to admit your mistakes. A bonus is that it is only possible to grow and improve yourself when you can pinpoint your errors and then work to rectify them.
No-one is perfect, but how you handle your mistakes is the difference between surviving and thriving. As an emotionally intelligent business owner, you will use your mistakes as learning opportunities.
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
Elon Musk
What you may not realise is that by admitting your bloopers, you not only lift up yourself, but you allow others to feel more comfortable about theirs. Your vulnerability can inspire those around you to take ownership of their errors and rise above them. If you admit mistakes, your team will breathe easier, knowing that they can – should – too
Confronting Unethical Behaviour
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Desmond Tutu
If the Arch said it, it’s a gem! Seriously, though, being a passive spectator in life is not living. Being trustworthy, ethical, reliable, and authentic is easy when things are going swimmingly. A true test of your emotional intelligence is what you do in sticky situations.
Can you stand up for what you believe is right in the face of adversity?
Not every fight needs to be fought. However, when you become aware of someone behaving unethically, do you have the courage to call them out? It can be risky. It will make you unpopular. But perhaps a better question is, can you afford not to call unethical offenders out?
Before you fight the good fight, ask yourself these questions:
- Do I know enough about the situation?
- Are the behaviours of the offender a matter of opinion or fact?
- Do I have proof?
- How can I handle this in a non-confrontational, win-win manner?
- If #4 is not possible, how far am I willing to take this?
Making Unpopular Decisions
As social creatures, we humans tend to have a pack mentality. We want to fit in, be liked, get approval. This has tremendous benefits to the survival of our species and boosts the pleasure in our lives.
However, it can be dangerous if we value approval above all else. When no one steps up to the plate to hold their “pack” to a moral standard, the decline of society rapidly snowballs. It is too easy to justify doing what we know is not right when everyone around us is doing the same thing.
“It might take just as much effort to fit in as it does to stand out, because you’re standing up for yourself. It’s those who take a risk and take chances who achieve greatness. Those who play it safe never can.”
DvT
As a trustworthy entrepreneur, your business relies on you to make principled decisions – however contrary, unpopular, and tough they are. Doing the right thing – the thing that aligns with your values – is the only path to enlightenment.
⚠️ If your decision is truly principled and your pack rebels – find a better pack.
Practical Steps to Foster Lasting Trust 📋
✅ Be Honest
- Even when it’s hard, speak truthfully without exaggeration or deception.
- Admit your blunders instead of trying to cover them up. No spin, no blame-shifting.
- Stay away from gossip and destructive speculation.
✅ Keep Commitments
- Don’t make pledges you can’t keep. Rather under-promise, over-deliver.
- Follow through, i.e., if you say you’ll do something, do it. Even if you hate a task, still do it. Or don’t agree to it in the first place.
- Communicate proactively, for example, if you can’t meet a deadline, warn people. Silence reads as disrespect.
✅ Have Integrity
- Make sure your actions consistently match your values. Don’t compromise principles for convenience.
- Hold yourself to the same standards you expect from others.
- If it feels shady, it probably is.
- Stand firm under pressure, e.g., don’t bend the rules for short-term gains.
✅ Establish Reliability
- Be punctual. It shows respect for others’ time – and yours.
- Own your responsibilities.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Abraham Lincoln - Be transparent by sharing relevant information openly (and without hidden agendas).
✅ Deal with Conflicts Ethically
- Address issues head-on (with absolutely no passive-aggressive behaviour, sarcastic comments, or silent treatments).
- Don’t manipulate situations for personal advantage.
- Listen before reacting.
“Seek to understand before being understood.”
Unknown
Trust in Leadership
People can smell a fake leader from a mile away. The real ones:
- Keep promises (even the small ones).
- Put the greater business first with no ego-driven decisions.
- Reward honesty instead of punishing messengers.
🖼️ A boss who says, “I messed up the timeline, let’s fix this together” earns way more respect than one who throws their team under the bus.
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