Volume II Part 15

themilliondollarathlete
"Bring Out The Greatness Within You"

"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect it’s successful outcome.”
–William James—

Building Trust

How important is trust and do you think you can win without it? Let’s assume you are a cheerleader and your routine is to be thrown in the air, perform a back somersault, and then be caught in the arms of two other cheerleaders. What would be your trust factor with the two cheerleaders that are there to catch you? It better be nothing less than 100%!

What if in that same scenario one of the cheerleaders was a sub—someone you’ve never done this routine with. Think about what your trust factor is now. Whatever it may be, it’s certainly less than 100% and that could be an issue in your mind.

It takes a long time to build trust, and it takes an instant to lose it. This happens every day in business and also on the athletic field. Once you lose trust in someone, you no longer feel secure around them. You just don’t have the feeling they can get the job done, and that’s when the problems occur.

If you’re a positional player, you overcompensate by trying to do someone else’s job along with your own. Now you get other players doing the same thing and you can see what happens. It’s like a domino affect and tempers run high. Has this ever happened to you?

So, How Do You Gain Trust?

One of the most important attributes you need to have is to listen intently to others. This will begin to open the doors to cooperation—the basis of solid teamwork. You will begin to be well-liked by others as they will respond favorably to you. Once this happens, the trust factor begins to grow.

You also build trust by sticking together “through thick and through thin.” As a winning team you need to think like one person. The best teams are those that know what the other teammates are going to do—they think alike. Think of a quarterback and a receiver, a point guard and a power forward, a pitcher and catcher. They can all anticipate each others next move and are on the same page. In short, they know their own strengths and weaknesses (DiSC Assessment / TMDA Volume I Part IV).

Start building trust by beginning to listen with intent to your teammates, coaches, and teachers. The payoff will be amazing!

Next Blog

Focus on what you can control.

Take that step to beat the competition by registering for the DiSC assessement today. Email me at tpperformer@aol.com and I'll tell you how.

Tony Falco
“TheCoach”
www.milliondollarathlete.blogspot.com