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The Thin Book of Trust
Book

The Thin Book of Trust

An Essential Primer For Building Trust at Work

Charles Feltman
Berrett-Koehler, 2021
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Editorial Rating

8

getAbstract Rating

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Trust is essential in an effective workforce. But what is trust? The usual definitions are ambiguous, so dealing with a trust problem can be a painful process that triggers defensiveness, blame, and more distrust. Discussing a trust problem with your colleagues or employees can be difficult because they may feel you’re judging their character. In this succinct, down-to-earth manual, leadership coach Charles Feltman avoids framing trustworthiness as a character issue. Instead, he redefines it as an assessment of someone’s actions in certain areas of performance: caring, sincerity, reliability, and competence. He then outlines steps for addressing these specific behaviors and building trusting relationships.

Summary

To work together successfully, people must trust each other.

Trust among colleagues fuels superior performance, and companies must take deliberate actions to cultivate it. Building trust is a skill – a way of behaving and speaking you can learn and teach by following specific strategies and using “the language of trust.”

Trust means exposing something you value to another person’s scrutiny and actions, so it calls for being vulnerable. You may value tangible assets, such as your income or job, or intangibles, like your reputation, your principles, or your well-being. You entrust other people with what you value because you believe you can achieve more working together than you could by acting alone. When you trust people, you share ideas and thoughts with them. You are confident they will not be careless with what you share or try to benefit themselves at your expense.

Members of a trusting team feel safe sharing their ideas and thoughts. The team members may disagree about ideas or assessments, but they treat everyone’s contributions with respect. In a trusting environment, participants engage in vigorous debate on proposals, making a sincere, collegial effort...

About the Author

Charles Feltman, founder and president of Insight Coaching, is an experienced executive and leadership coach.

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