Competency and Trust are Critical Components of Reputation Capital

Reputation Capital is a measure of how effective you are in promoting and delivering value. As the delivery of that value is recognized, you start to accumulate Reputation Capital. The two fundamental pillars of Reputation Capital are competency and trust. The following provides some insight into how you can build upon both of these attributes. Competency Strategic business development involves a multitude of constituents and partners, and your success heavily depends on competency or capability. Any alliance partner you engage with will ask, Where else have you done this? Where have you been successful with this project, team, individual, and organization? So that you are prepared to answer these questions, perform your own competency assessment to quickly gauge what your fundamental product and service strengths are. Clearly define your current state (where you are today), and a future state (where you aspire to reach). The difference becomes your developmental gap. This level of competency assessment gives you a direction for improvement in personal and professional development. Trust Think of the concept of a trust barometer. If I am one of your channel or distribution partners, for example, you are asking me to put my reputation on the line to walk you into my end customers. That is huge on the trust barometer. Components of that trust start in an organization, but often come down to trust between individuals. We all start out with a certain level of credibility and, over time, can choose to dilute it by incongruence and inconsistency between your thought, words, and actions. Trust, as an outcome of your competency simply defined, is predictability in what you say and do on a consistent basis over an extended period of time. The challenge with trust is that it takes years to develop and moments to destroy. Individuals, teams, and organizations have to make it their lifelong focus and mission to establish and protect their position on their trust barometer. And that trust barometer is applicable to a whole host of constituents. Take employees, for example. The first time you lie to me as a boss, I won’t trust you again. The first time you mess with my expenses or break our contract, you have diluted that credibility and broken that trust. Conversely, if you are consistently candid and forthcoming and you foreshadow that which others should expect from you, you can build and solidify this fundamental pillar called trust. Reputation Capital is a measure of how effective you are in promoting and delivering value. Competency and Trust are two critical components to make sure you are indeed delivering what you have promised.