Audience: Leaders and Managers
By: Cynthia Kyriazis, Chief Experience Officer, The Culture Think Tank
Trust. The key to all types of relationships. Family. Friends. Work.
Of the various dimensions of culture I review with organizations, it’s my favorite. In my viewpoint, it is the basis for everything else. A large part of why I feel this way is the magnitude of its impact is both powerful and pervasive. It seems to me that we all need to pay attention on how to develop and protect it in order to have full and meaningful relationships and lives.
But with something this powerful, caution is in order.
It can be easy to gain, but oh so easy to lose.
And if you’ve lost it, it takes a long time to get it back…if you can.
The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman was published in 2009. It’s easy to read and understand and provides clear ways to apply lessons learned. I’ve used it with clients as a fundamental guide on the subject.
The book is, in fact, truly thin and comes in under 65 pages. But don’t let that fool you. What needs to be said, learned, and practiced can be found in these pages.
Yes, there are many, many of books on trust that can be found in the business, psychology, and self-improvement sections of bookstores and they provide lots and lots of information. This one gets to the heart of the matter.
The book speaks to how others will assess whether or not to trust you and identifies four distinctions of trust that they ask themselves when working with you. They are also questions you can ask yourself to see how you’re doing.
They include:
Sincerity…are you honest?
Reliability…do you meet the commitments you make and keep your promises?
Competence…do you have the ability to do what you are doing or propose to do?
Care….do you have the other person’s interests in mind as well as your own when you make decisions and take action?
It goes on to outline exactly how you can improve your own trust quotient. And it also talks about how you can help someone else develop into someone who is seen as a person who can be trusted.
The book defines distrust as ‘a choice not to make yourself vulnerable to another person’s actions.’ It goes on to provide steps on how to have a conversation with this individual. Food for thought.
Think about the types of leaders you may have been exposed to in your own career.
Were they individuals you could trust all the time? Sometimes? Never? Now think about how that impacted you and your actions. What thoughts came up? What behaviors changed?
Now think about that happening to others within your organization. How do you manage this?
Trust and communication are two dimensions of culture that we measure. The stronger they are the healthier the organization’s culture. I’ve known some who want to engage in a conversation about which is more important…communication or trust. I say they’re equal, some of us just have favorites. I’ll leave that to others to debate.
All in all, The Thin Book of Trust is a read that doesn’t take much time but might provide you with some information that is priceless about how to think, act and feel differently about this subject.
“Mistrust doubles the cost of doing business.” — John O. Whitney
Cynthia Kyriazis is the Chief Experience Officer at The Culture Think Tank. Her experience includes executive coaching, meeting facilitation, consulting and training.