As tales of massive fraudsters take over in the news, business people may be increasingly edgy nowadays about... just about everyone with whom they interact. One expert calls it a “trust crisis.”

 

Human resources consultant Sandy Allgeier has tips on how to maintain and build your business credibility, which she defines as “what we do and how we do it that causes others to find us believable, someone that can be trusted, someone that can be respected.”

 

Don't be late, don't reschedule too often and keep your commitments.

 

Nurture your ability to suspend knee-jerk judgments; don't make immediate decisions. Ask questions and think over situations before offering an opinion, whether in conversation or over e-mail.

 

Be self-aware. Understand how you come across to others and what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you are honest and objective with yourself, you are more able to be open with others, better at building trust and better able to tell others what they need to work on, Allgeier says.

 

Have humility and acknowledge making mistakes. Ask others how you can improve.

 

Don't constantly make excuses for negligent behavior - instead apologize, learn from mistakes and don't let them recur.

 

Avoid blaming others for mistakes, even if it is justified; instead seek to rectify a problematic situation without singling out individuals for errors.

 

Sometimes avoiding a problem rather than dealing with it seems like it’s an easier choice. But the problem will catch up to you and become even bigger and more difficult to manage  the longer you let is fester.

 

This is especially true when dealing in a business environment, where people are expecting things to be managed in a timely manner and they are expecting to be kept updated on how things are going. 

 

The longer you wait to deal with a situation, the worse it will get.