1. Be Transparent and Accountable
“Help make your intentions known. Be clear about what you want from someone else and what they can expect from you,” neuroeconomist Paul Zak, PhD, advises. “Provide information on the progress toward goals, and if you can’t meet your obligations, tell the other party as soon as you know this and make up a plan to resolve the difficulties you’ve caused them.” If you need to interact with someone who has breached your trust, Zak says, a third party can be useful for mediating disputes and future interactions.
2. Keep Confidences
Sharing information that isn’t yours to share diminishes your trustworthiness using the person whose confidence you betrayed in addition to with those you shared the gossip with.
3. Set and Respect Boundaries
“There is no trust without boundaries,” says social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW. “I trust you if you're clear about your boundaries and you hold them and you’re clear about my boundaries and you respect them.”
4. Be Vulnerable
It might feel risky to spread out up, but a study of workplaces discovered that people were more likely to perceive others as trustworthy once they felt they shared common interests, values, or goals.
5. Have Discussions — In Person
A survey of employees discovered that 90 percent of respondents preferred face-to-face communication, but they spoke with their manager in person only 49 percent of times.
6. Serve Others
“Being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably,” writes University of California, Riverside, psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, in The How of Happiness. This “fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community.
7. Show Your Gratitude
Research indicates that expressing your thanks can strengthen relationships. One study indicated that couples who took the time to thank each other felt more positive toward each other and more comfortable expressing concerns about their relationship.
