Follow the Joy - Take Trust to a New Level

You don’t have to look any further than our current political landscape to see how much professionals are challenged to build trust. Similarly many networkers focus on proving their value by what they say not what they do. The most aggressive networkers will often dominate conversations by sharing everything they can about themselves. They’ll tell you every detail about their product and service and why they think that they are so good.

In the famous words of John Maxwell, “people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” We begin to build long-term trust when we help people get what they want. A friend of mine calls it, “helping people find their joy.” Is some cases an individuals joy is business related, but more often it is personal and their business endeavors are more of a means to an end.

Joy is uniquely defined by each individual. The specifics of learning how each of your key contacts defines their joy are situational. Most often the best way is to learn about their goals and interests over time. The more thoughtful and curious you are the more each individual will give you clues about their joy. Examples of how an individual might describe their joy could include: retiring at 50, spending more time with their family, sailing around the world, or seeing their kid’s graduate college.

Simply being aware of your contacts interests will make you more sensitive to recognizing valuable knowledge and relationships that would benefit them. Connecting people to what they need, when they need it is the essence of networking. When we are aware of how someone defines their joy and we can help them realize their dream, we build trust.