Did you know that our brains show positive changes when we trust each other? Paul J. Zak, Professor and Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, conducted a series of experiments and surveys reported in the Harvard Business Review showing that trust and a sense of higher purpose stimulate the “love hormone” production in human brains. This hormone is released during social interactions, and his study demonstrated that more of the love hormone increases the willingness to trust others.
Zak ran experiments to determine what types of behaviors between colleagues would stimulate this hormone release. These studies showed that there are eight building blocks for organizational and partnership trust. These are skills we can all utilize for better relationships.
1. Recognize high performers.
2. Design difficult but achievable challenges.
3. Train extensively and delegate generously.
4. Facilitate job crafting.
5. Share information broadly.
6. Intentionally build relationships.
7. Promote personal and professional growth.
8. Be authentic and vulnerable.
Channel professionals and partners know there are many ways to build trust during business transactions, such as open communication, delivering quality products and services, and providing outstanding, responsive sales and tech support. However, trust in partnerships isn’t built on transactions alone.
These proven behaviors at work and in partnerships reinforce trust and increase this positive hormone release in our brains. A sense of shared purpose adds to this effect. This is especially important in channel partnerships, where the mission of the company and the mission of the partner should align to create transactions with purpose.
“Trust and purpose then mutually reinforce each other, providing a mechanism for extended love hormone release, which produces happiness. So, joy on the job comes from doing purpose-driven work with a trusted team.” -Paul J. Zak
Here at AchieveUnite, we live by the building blocks of trust and offer interactive channel workshops and leadership programs that help professionals optimize Partner LifeTime Value and build collaborative and successful teams. We observed that our workshops increase team trust and we needed to find a way to define and measure the ways people create and build trust, so with the help of researchers, we built our Partnering Quotient Index (PQi®) assessment tool.
I’ve seen first-hand how PQi helps business teams identify their individual partnering tendencies, and how sharing them releases the love hormone.
How have you created trust in your partnerships? Do you intentionally build partner relationships and stay authentic as they grow? Do you feel better when you work using the eight building blocks of trust? Please message us your thoughts, we’d love to hear from you.
Could a tool like PQi help your organization thrive and grow? Contact us today!
