Culture & Leadership January 2020 5 min read

Why I Value 'Trust' More Than 'Performance'?

Its has been more than a decade that I have been hiring people, whether for the companies that I worked for or for my own venture and one of the key things that I look for in a candidate is 'Can I trust him/her?'

It is not that the skill, will, capability of the candidate (which I collectively call as 'performance') is not important, but when it comes to making a decision, I would select a 'high-trust' 'medium-performance' candidate over a 'high-performance' 'medium-trust' candidate.

My choice ✓

Trust

Performance

High-trust · Medium-performance

Passed over

Performance

Trust

High-performance · Medium-trust

Not just as an employer, I have been striving to ensure that my clients also 'trust' in what I do for them as an individual or as a business partner.

So why do I value 'trust' so much?

Imagine you have kids (in case you do not have any) and you are looking for a nanny for the kids. You have two candidates in front of you one of whom seems to be very knowledgeable, has a lot of experience, knows basic first aid and other requisites that are needed for a nanny to 'perform' in the job. The second candidate is someone with much lesser experience, but your kids starts to smile at him/her.

📋

Candidate A

Knowledgeable, experienced, knows first aid, meets all requisites to 'perform' in the job

😊

Candidate B... the choice

Much lesser experience, but your kids starts to smile at him/her. Meets the bare minimum requirements.

You know that the second candidate meets the bare minimum requirements, but in all likelihood you would go with the second candidate. The reason is that our brains are wired to understand when to pick up vibes for a 'trustworthy' person (we may fail at times) and in our personal lives, we always value 'trust' more. Look at your loved ones and friends, they were chosen by your brain because you could trust them, not that they could 'perform' better in the roles of a friend, girlfriend/boyfriend or husband/wife.

Businesses are run by humans and for humans, therefore, something that is inherently present in our psychological as well as sociological behaviour; it cannot change between personal and professional lives.

Let us see some of the most successful products and have they enjoy our 'trust'

A woman driving at night, navigation map on the dashboard mount, eyes on the road... completely relaxed, trusting the route... the calm of someone who has surrendered to a product they believe in — As a user of Google Maps, you would have been routed through bad roads, closed roads or even the wrong location. Every time, this happens it does not deter you from opening the Maps next time you are driving. The reason is that you 'trust' that Google is doing their best.

A) As an iPhone user, has your phone never hung? I am sure it has, however, every time you have an issue with it, you check if you have done something wrong. Like checking the storage you have used, or doubting you are not using the right charger. So the trust is Apple, creates a self doubt in us rather than doubting the product

B) As a user of Google Maps, you would have been routed through bad roads, closed roads or even the wrong location. This would have happened multiple times with majority of us. Every time, this happens it does not deter you from opening the Maps next time you are driving. The reason is that you 'trust' that Google is doing their best to get you the best route

C) As a user who buys only Amazon Prime products, you are well aware that the products are sourced from the suppliers. However, just the fact that the product is being shipped from an Amazon Warehouse, you trust that it would be of genuine quality.

There are numerous examples of businesses that have built trust in their consumers and enjoy loyalty.

So if you want to build such a product or service, start at home. Start trusting employees, or hire the ones whom you can trust. Three startups taught me that this is the only filter that actually holds.

To the next decade

To the next decade of building another product that can gain trust of consumers.