Why You Need Trust to Do Business: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #1

Summary

This Crash Course Business video explores the concept of trust as a fundamental aspect of business relationships. It explains the importance of trust in forming a reputation, which is crucial for promotions and job opportunities. The video delves into different types of trust, such as cognitive, dispositional, and emotional, and how they contribute to one's trustworthiness. It emphasizes the significance of competence, intent, and integrity in building cognitive trust, while also discussing the role of dispositional trust and how it can be influenced by risk aversion. The video encourages viewers to be mindful of their actions and reputation, and to understand that trust is a complex and essential component of success in the business world.

Takeaways

• 😀 Trust is fundamental in business and forms the basis of reputation, working relationships, promotions, and job offers.
• 🔍 Trust is influenced by confidence in someone, knowledge about them, and past experiences.
• 🚗 Trust involves vulnerability, like trusting someone with your car or career dreams.
• 🤝 Cognitive trust is based on rational reasons and involves assessing a person's competence, intent, and integrity.
• 🏆 Demonstrating competence means showing you can do what's needed, honing skills, and acknowledging areas for improvement.
• 🌟 Intent is about aligning your interests with others and showing genuine concern for their well-being.
• 📝 Integrity is about being consistent and following through on what you say you'll do.
• 🧐 Dispositional trust is a person's baseline level of trust in others, which can vary from person to person.
• 💼 Building and maintaining trust is crucial for career advancement and requires time, effort, and a focus on actions and their perception.
• 💡 Trust can be affected by competence and intent mismatches, where trust in one area doesn't necessarily translate to another.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the 'Crash Course Business: Soft Skills' series?

The main theme of the series is to help viewers improve their day-to-day business skills, such as negotiation, self-presentation, event planning, and management, to advance their careers and succeed on their own terms.

Why is trust considered a fundamental concept in business?

Trust is considered fundamental in business because it forms the basis for reputation, working relationships, promotions, and job offers. It is the bottom level of the business pyramid, essential for a successful professional environment.

How does one's competence factor into building cognitive trust?

Competence is a key element in building cognitive trust as it demonstrates an individual's capability to perform the tasks required by their employer. It involves showcasing skills, improving abilities, and acknowledging and working on weaknesses.

What is intent in the context of cognitive trust, and how can one demonstrate it?

Intent in cognitive trust refers to whether a person is looking out for others' interests as well as their own. Demonstrating good intent involves showing genuine concern for others, being tactful, and helping coworkers, which can build a positive reputation.

How does integrity contribute to cognitive trust, and what is the advice for maintaining it?

Integrity contributes to cognitive trust by showing consistency in actions and words. To maintain integrity, one should be consistent in performance, avoid being late, and ensure quality in all tasks. The advice is to under-promise and over-deliver to manage expectations effectively.

What is dispositional trust, and how does it differ from cognitive trust?

Dispositional trust refers to a person's baseline level of trust in others, which can vary from person to person. It differs from cognitive trust in that it is not based on evidence or rational analysis but rather on an individual's inherent tendency to trust others.

Why is it important to manage one's time wisely when building cognitive trust?

Managing time wisely is crucial for building cognitive trust because it helps in delivering quality work on time and meeting deadlines, which are key to demonstrating competence, intent, and integrity.

How can trust impact professional opportunities?

Trust can impact professional opportunities by influencing whether one is chosen for team projects, promotions, or job offers. A lack of trust can close doors on opportunities, while being seen as trustworthy can open them.

What is the significance of the 'AUX cord' analogy in the context of trust?

The 'AUX cord' analogy signifies the vulnerability associated with trusting someone with something valuable or important, like one's car or career dreams. It highlights the personal risk involved in placing trust in others.

What advice is given for building trust in a new job environment?

To build trust in a new job, one should focus on demonstrating competence, intent, and integrity consistently. It's also advised to be patient, as trust building takes time, and to work smartly, not just hard.

How does the concept of 'idiosyncrasy credits' relate to trust and reputation?

The concept of 'idiosyncrasy credits' refers to the goodwill or trust one has built up that allows for occasional mistakes without severely damaging their reputation. It's like a bank account for trust, where positive actions add credits, and mistakes require spending them.

Outlines

00:00

👔 The Essence of Businessperson

This paragraph introduces the concept that everyone can be considered a businessperson, regardless of their job or appearance. It uses everyday examples to illustrate business skills such as negotiation, self-promotion, and event planning. The script aims to help viewers develop these skills for career advancement. The presenter, Evelyn, emphasizes that the goal is not to turn people into 'business robots' but to help them succeed on their own terms by capitalizing on their unique strengths. The importance of trust in business is introduced as a fundamental concept, affecting reputation, working relationships, promotions, and job opportunities.

05:01

🔍 Building Cognitive Trust

This paragraph delves into the concept of cognitive trust, which is based on rational reasons such as evidence and a person's character. It outlines the three elements of cognitive trust: competence, intent, and integrity. Competence refers to a person's ability to perform tasks, intent is about looking out for others' interests as well as one's own, and integrity is about being consistent and following through on commitments. The paragraph uses the example of working at a coffee shop to illustrate these points and provides advice on how to demonstrate and improve these elements to build trust and reputation.

10:03

🕒 Trust and Reputation in the Workplace

This paragraph continues the discussion on trust by addressing the importance of consistency and reliability in maintaining a good reputation. It introduces the concept of dispositional trust, which is a person's natural inclination to trust others. The paragraph explains how risk aversion can influence dispositional trust and suggests that building trust can take time and effort. It also touches on the idea of 'idiosyncrasy credits,' which are earned through a history of reliable behavior and can be used to offset occasional mistakes. The paragraph concludes with advice on how to protect one's reputation and the importance of treating others with respect.

🌟 Trust as a Cornerstone in Business

The final paragraph summarizes the key takeaways from the video script, emphasizing trust as the cornerstone of all relationships in business. It reiterates the importance of perception, reputation, and the elements of cognitive trust. The paragraph also hints at the next episode's focus on how emotions can influence trust and the factors that contribute to trusting the right people for the right reasons. The script concludes with a call to action for viewers to support Crash Course through Patreon and a mention of other educational channels like SciShow.

Keywords

💡Businessperson

A 'businessperson' is an individual engaged in commerce, industry, or a profession. In the context of the video, the term is broadened to include anyone who engages in activities that require negotiation, self-promotion, or event planning, suggesting that business skills are not just for traditional office jobs but are part of everyday life.

💡Negotiation

Negotiation refers to the process of discussion and mutual agreement between parties. The video uses the example of deciding on a chore schedule with roommates to illustrate that negotiation is a fundamental business skill that can be applied in various aspects of life, not just in formal business settings.

💡Elevator Pitch

An 'elevator pitch' is a brief, persuasive speech that one gives to spark interest in a product, service, or idea. The video humorously suggests that telling someone about yourself on a first date is akin to an elevator pitch, highlighting how business communication skills can be used in personal contexts.

💡Management Position

A 'management position' typically involves overseeing a team or project. The video uses the example of organizing a bar crawl and ensuring friends' safety to demonstrate that managing events involves taking on a management role, which is a transferable skill from social to professional environments.

💡Career

A 'career' is a person's professional journey, including their job history and future prospects. The video's theme revolves around enhancing one's career by developing soft business skills, emphasizing the importance of personal and professional growth through continuous learning and adaptation.

💡Core Competency

Core competency refers to the unique strengths or capabilities that an individual or organization possesses. The video encourages viewers to capitalize on their core competencies to stand out, suggesting that understanding and leveraging one's strengths is key to success in the business world.

💡Trust

Trust is the confidence in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. In the video, trust is depicted as the foundational element of business relationships, affecting everything from promotions to job offers. It is presented as a complex concept that underpins all professional interactions.

💡Cognitive Trust

Cognitive trust is based on rational reasons and evidence. The video explains that cognitive trust involves assessing a person's competence, intent, and integrity. It is built through visible hard work and consistent behavior, which are critical for establishing a positive reputation in the business world.

💡Competence

Competence refers to the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. In the video, competence is one of the three pillars of cognitive trust. It is exemplified by the ability to perform tasks required by an employer, such as making a complex coffee order quickly and accurately, which demonstrates one's capability and reliability.

💡Intent

Intent refers to the purpose or intention behind an action. The video discusses intent in the context of aligning one's interests with those of others, suggesting that showing genuine concern for others and being tactful can build trust and a positive reputation.

💡Integrity

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. The video emphasizes that integrity involves being consistent and following through on commitments. It is crucial for maintaining trust, as inconsistency or failure to meet expectations can damage one's reputation.

💡Dispositional Trust

Dispositional trust refers to a person's inherent tendency to trust others. The video explains that some people naturally trust more readily than others, which can affect how quickly trust is built in professional relationships. It is a part of the trust 'smoothie,' indicating that it is one of multiple factors that contribute to overall trust.

💡Risk Aversion

Risk aversion is the tendency to avoid risky situations or actions. In the video, it is tied to dispositional trust, suggesting that those with high risk aversion might be more cautious in trusting others. This concept is used to explain why some individuals might be slower to trust, even when there is evidence of competence and integrity.

Highlights

Everyone can be considered a businessperson in their daily life, as everyday activities involve business skills.

Negotiating a chore schedule with roommates is an example of a negotiation skill.

Introducing yourself on a first date is akin to delivering an elevator pitch.

Organizing a bar crawl demonstrates event planning and management skills.

The series aims to help viewers enhance their everyday business skills for career advancement.

Trust is a fundamental concept in business, forming the basis of reputation and working relationships.

Trust is influenced by confidence in someone, knowledge about them, and past experiences.

Vulnerability is inherent in trusting someone with personal items or career dreams.

Trust can affect the balance of work and the efficiency of a team.

Lack of trust can limit opportunities and hinder professional growth.

Cognitive trust is based on rational reasons and involves assessing a person's character.

Competence, intent, and integrity are the three basic elements of cognitive trust.

Demonstrating competence involves showcasing skills, improving abilities, and acknowledging weaknesses.

Intent is about aligning personal interests with those of others and showing genuine concern.

Integrity is maintaining consistency in actions and following through on commitments.

Dispositional trust is a person's baseline level of trust in others, which can vary.

Risk aversion is related to dispositional trust and affects how much one is willing to trust.

Building trust takes time and effort, and it's important to protect one's reputation.

Mistakes can be managed with a 'bank account' of trust, where consistent good behavior builds credits.

Understanding and building trust is crucial for success in the business world.

Transcripts

Picture this: a businessperson.

What do you see?

A grey suit in an office job?

A former advertising agent who quit her job to be a freelance YouTuber?

Maybe you picture someone who looks like you.

Or maybe you don’t.

But when it comes down to it -- everyone’s a businessperson.

Like, have you ever decided on a chore schedule with roommates?

That’s a negotiation.

Have you told someone about yourself on a first date? I know it's uncomfortable.

But, that’s an elevator pitch.

Have you organized a bar crawl and made sure your friends all got home in one piece?

You’ve planned an event and held a management position.

So in this series, we’re going to help you hone those day-to-day business skills, look

for a job, get along with your coworkers, and really take your career to the next level.

We’re not turning you into a ‘business robot.’ I mean, do I look like a suite? No.

We want you to succeed on your own terms and identify what works best for you.

As they say in the business world, we’re here to help you “capitalize on your core

competency” -- or use what makes you special to really strut your stuff!

And before anything else, we need to sit down and have a chat about trust.

I’m Evelyn from the Internets, and this is Crash Course Business: Soft Skills.

[Theme Music Plays]

Trust may seem like a basic idea, but it’s actually a challenging and fundamental concept

like the bottom level of a business pyramid.

Not a pyramid scheme.

Trust forms the basis for your reputation, which is the foundation of working relationships,

promotions, and job offers.

Your decisions about whom to trust are affected by how confident you are in someone, as well

as what you know about them and your experiences with them.

How have they acted?

What have they said?

What kinds of decisions have they made?

If you’re planning a road trip, who would you trust to navigate and also make a fire

playlist: Your best friend who you’ve gone to concerts with since high school, or her

roommate who blasts techno and wrecked his car last Tuesday?

When you trust someone with your AUX cord, your car, or your career dreams, you’re

being vulnerable.

And when you start a new job, you’re trusting that organization to treat you fairly as much

as they’re trusting you to do the work.

Trust can also make or break professional relationships.

When a team is running smoothly, coworkers rely on one another to get their jobs done.

But if you don’t trust someone, it can create an imbalance of work, or you might feel like

you have to double-check everything they do.

And that can make for a rough work environment.

Lack of trust can even close the door on opportunities.

If people don’t see you as trustworthy, they won’t want you on their team or suggest

you for that promotion.

So how do you decide who’s trustworthy, and what can you do to make others trust you?

Now, I do not have all the answers.

But I can tell you that there are a few different kinds of trust, like cognitive,

dispositional, and emotional.

They all blend together to form a picture of how trustworthy someone actually is.

It’s like a trust and reputation smoothie, y’all.

Trusting or not trusting someone for rational reasons is known as cognitive trust.

And what do you look for when you’re analyzing a person’s character?

It’s elementary, my dear Watson.

You need evidence!

That’s why it’s important for your hard work to be seen by others.

Your reputation can’t improve if people don’t know what you’ve been up to.

To build up cognitive trust, you can focus on its three basic elements: competence, intent,

and integrity.

Let’s imagine you’re paying off those soul-crushing student loans and take up a

side-hustle at a local coffee shop.

[Too real?]

First up is competence -- are you capable of doing the things that your employer needs?

Can you make an extra-hot, double foam, non-fat caramel macchiato, with two pumps caramel

and one pump cinnamon dolce, in under 3 minutes flat?

Or are you going to give up during the morning rush and slap down a plain black coffee with

a misspelled name.

[It’s Evelyn with a V and a Y.

Not Ellen or anything else.

I’m salty.]

If you want to build your competence, think about how to demonstrate what you can do,

hone your skills, and acknowledge your shortcomings so you can work on them.

Find new ways to showcase your work, or take classes to build skills -- like a workshop

on latte art.

And if you don’t have the time or money to sign up for something official, you can

keep watching free educational content on YouTube.

Next up is intent -- are you looking out for others’ interests, as well as your own?

Intent is sort of on a sliding scale.

You’re generally not taking a job for incredibly pure or nefarious reasons.

Maybe you mainly just want to be able to pay rent.

And that’s okay!

If your interests align with someone else’s, you can work together.

Although one of you may be less invested.

So while you’re probably not going to be begging your boss to explain how the coffee

beans are farmed, ground, and shipped, you can still demonstrate intent.

Show genuine concern for others, be tactful, and help your coworkers.

Chatting with them or doing favors like picking up an extra shift can help build your reputation.

Finally, there’s integrity -- can you talk the talk and walk the walk?

Do you show up to your 5am shifts and open the store, make sure the tables are set, and

write the daily special with a pun on the chalkboard?

Or do you show up late and forget to spell-check “frappuccino”?

It's okay, it's hard.

Remember that consistency matters.

Doing an amazing job 90% of the time and falling flat 10% of the time is sometimes worse than

doing an acceptable job all the time.

Little mistakes can make a big impact on your integrity, so follow through with what you

say you’re going to do.

A helpful trick is under-promising and over-delivering.

If you’ve ever started something last-minute, you’ll know that it takes longer than

you expect to get things done.

So manage your time wisely, and don’t deliver half-baked work or miss your deadlines.

It kills cognitive trust.

These three parts of cognitive trust are like the legs of a tripod.

If one’s missing, trust collapses and you’ve got a mess on your hands.

But just because you’ve done your best to make sure your tripod can stand on its

own, doesn’t mean you’ll immediately earn someone’s trust.

Like we mentioned earlier, cognitive trust is only one ingredient in this trust smoothie

-- although it’s a big one.

There’s also dispositional trust: a person’s baseline level of trust in others.

Some people will trust you automatically, while others take a bit more time and evidence.

To see what I mean, let’s go to the Thought Bubble!

Imagine you’ve just joined a fashion magazine as a junior assistant to the editor-in-chief,

and you don’t know if you’re meeting her expectations.

Your boss is hard to read, and she keeps giving you menial work like picking up her dry cleaning.

You want to help out with the fall fashion show in Paris, but you’re not sure she trusts

you enough.

So let’s go back to our tripod.

You were hired with a gleaming resume and great recommendations, and show up with her

coffee in hand every morning -- so you’re obviously competent.

You care about the magazine’s reputation and applied because you love writing, so your

intent is good.

And you’ve shown this intent by protecting your boss from embarrassment at charity functions.

Despite her doubts, you consistently achieve her impossible last-minute demands, like a

signed first edition of The Deathly Hallows.

And that shows some stellar integrity.

So what gives?

Well, your boss may just have low dispositional trust.

Like we said, trust involves vulnerability, which involves risk.

So dispositional trust is tied to an idea called risk aversion -- or how much you avoid

risks.

It’s not particularly bad to have high or low risk aversion.

But, like anything, there needs to be balance.

Having high risk aversion can protect you from being exploited, but too much can stunt

your relationships.

And having low risk aversion may open up more opportunities, but if you’re too trusting

you could easily be taken advantage of.

So, your boss might think that taking a chance on a journalist fresh out of college is an

uncomfortably high risk, and have low dispositional trust.

And you just have to try not to take it personally and give it time.

Be conscious of how others perceive your actions, do your job well and consistently, and build

your reputation.

You don’t need to overwork yourself -- work smart, not just hard.

And if you can go above and beyond by getting ahead of deadlines, that’s great!

Before you know it, you’ll be helping with the next big project.

Thanks, Thought Bubble!

Now, let’s say you’re great at your current job.

You’ve shown competence, intent, integrity and jumped over dispositional trust hurdles

to build your reputation.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be trusted in every situation.

Trust also depends on the circumstance.

A competence mismatch is when someone may trust your skills in one area, but not others.

For example, you might trust an actor to deliver high-quality entertainment.

But no matter how well they played a loveable but crotchety E.R. doctor, you wouldn’t

trust them with your knee surgery.

An intent mismatch is if you might help someone in one way, but not others.

Like, you might ask the English major down the hall who roots for a rival basketball

team to read over your essay.

But you’re not going to ask her to seed your picks for March Madness.

Building trust in all these ways can take years of time and effort, so it’s important

to protect your reputation and act professionally in all your jobs.

Treat others with R-E-S-P-E-C-T, hold yourself to high standards, and think about how your

actions will be perceived.

But it’s okay to make mistakes.

We’ve all shown up late to work some point, or had to ask for an extension on a deadline.

Like I’ve said before, no one is perfect.

And if you have a solid track record of delivering on promises, you’ll have earned a stock

of idiosyncrasy credits.

Think of these credits as a sort of bank account, but for trust.

Improving your reputation adds credits, but you’ve got to pay for your mistakes.

Serious mistakes can quickly drain your account, while smaller mistakes can be built back up

with patience, time, and careful attention to spending.

So, hopefully you have a positive balance and some credits saved up for when you need

them.

Because if you want to do anything in the business world, you first need to understand

and build trust.

If you remember nothing else from this episode, here are some key takeaways:

Trust is the building block of all relationships.

It’s tricky to navigate, and involves risk.

Pay attention to how your actions are perceived and make sure they’re being recognized.

Building your reputation takes time and effort, but it pays off.

Cognitive trust can be earned from competence, intent, and integrity, so use that to place

your trust in the right people and earn the trust of others.

But, like we said, cognitive and dispositional trust are just part of the puzzle.

Next time, we’ll talk about how emotions can influence trust, and what else you can

do to make sure you’re trusting people for the right reasons.

Crash Course Business is sponsored by Google and is filmed in Missoula, MT and it’s made with the help of all these

nice people and Thought Cafe is our amazing animation team.

Crash Course is a Complexly production.

If you wanna keep imagining the world complexly with us, you can check out some of our other

channels like SciShow, and delve into the scientific subjects that defy our expectations

and make us even more curious!

Also, if you’d like to keep Crash Course free for everybody, forever, you can support

the series at Patreon; a crowdfunding platform that allows you to support the content you

love.

Thank you to all of our patrons for making Crash Course possible with their continued

support.