Quite often, people seek to build trust by trying to reassure their audience.

They’ll step up in a difficult situation and explain that everything is ok. They’ll react to someone questioning them by stating that they can be trusted. They’ll reach out to the team to highlight how that specific customer is a great one.

And yet, people then often find out that it didn’t land.

When this happens the person seems to have forgotten that what they are doing is making a statement as well as asking others to trust them and what they said.

It is betting on their reputation.

A bet that is often received by others like a desperate move. It raises the question as to why they are doing so at that moment. People rarely seek to reinforce trust in a situation in which everything feels fine, they let time and actions do the work to establish trust.

Pushing trust or betting on one’s reputation paradoxically brings up the possibility that doubt is the better assessment.