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Trust
CHA P T E R 11

” Few things help an individual more than to
place responsibility upon him, and to let him
know that you trust him.”
—Booker T. Washington

imilar to the concept of respect, relationships don’t
work without a basis of trust. When we trust peo-
Sple, we have confidence and faith in them and their
word. Trustworthy people are reliable. Without much thought,
we do a lot of trusting in our lives. We trust that our car will
start when we turn the key, we trust that our alarm clock will go
off in the morning, and we trust that our friends will keep our
secrets. In fact, we go through our lives assuming and trusting
in hundreds of such things each day. If we did not, we would be
paralyzed with anxiety.
Unfortunately, there was a precipitous decline in trust dur-
ing the first decade of the twenty-first century, particularly in
regard to financial institutions, politicians, and big businesses.
Most employees no longer believe that their employers will do
right by them and, concomitantly, have decreased their commit-
ment and loyalty to their organization. According to research by
Gallup, level of trust is a fundamental differentiator of employee
engagement. While nearly all actively engaged employees trust
their company’s leadership (95 percent), less than one-half (46