How can I trust colleagues and staff?

Grant Leboff:  One of the things that everyone talks about – I’m not sure if most people know how to do it and how to live it – but everyone talks about it, is the importance of trust in business. I know that this is something that you are very big on and I would just like to understand a little bit more about your views on that.

Nigel Risner:   Let’s use the real example of today. So we know each other, we have spoken before, but we really don’t know each other that well, so the question is; do I trust you to do the best job you can to make me look good in these interviews?

The question is, I trust everyone until they let me down. Now if you are an open heart surgeon I want to know your credentials! But the minute they put the gas on me and I’m starting to go to sleep, I’d better trust you, because I can do nothing about it.

So I find that if you trust people to do the best they can do, you normally get a great job. Now here comes the reverse, 2% of the world are going to let me down. Now that means that 98% of the world are going to do it right for me. The problem is, that a lot of people are so worried about the 2%, they don’t trust the other 98%. So I trust 98% of the world because I know 2% are going to let me down anyway.

I have a phenomenal PA who has been with me for 19 years who I trust 100%, because trust is like being pregnant, you either are or you’re not! You either do trust or you don’t. When people say to you, ‘I don’t know if I trust you or not’, what they are actually saying is ‘I don’t trust you’. So, when I work with people, I allow people to video me, because I then tell them what the guidelines are. Now one or two people don’t follow the script, but 98% of the people do.

I trust people will pay me after the event and 99.9% do and 0.1% don’t. When we sell our books – and this is a really cool thing that we do from a marketing point of view – and if you don’t like the book you can ask for a refund, but we don’t even ask you to send the book back. We just say, if you don’t like the book we’ll send you your money back. People say to us that people can con you. 2% do. I’m okay with that.

Live a life of trust and you’ll get let down, live a life of not trusting, and you’ll still get let down. You might as well have some fun with it.

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