Chapter 2
Fundamental Attitudes
This chapter explores five attitudes that provide the foundation for building trust. These attitudes arise from the fundamental truths about trust explored in Chapter 1, and in turn inform the specific trust skills we will explore in Chapter 5. Understanding and adopting these attitudes will increase your success in your efforts to build trust and lead with trust.
Being trustworthy requires more than following a behavioral checklist—it demands getting right the underlying attitudes, mind-sets, outlooks, and ways of thinking. Adopt them, and you will find the behaviors come far more naturally and with less difficulty. In contrast, if you jump ahead to skills, tips, and tricks, you will be working the hard way. Get the attitudes right, and the actions will follow.
Fundamental Attitude 1: Principles over Processes
Processes are important to business life—without them, wheels would constantly be reinvented. Leaders do not want a client-facing consultant to stare off into space when asked what his firm does, nor a receptionist to improvise when answering a phone call. Processes are a form of routine that foster consistency, scale, and a host of other benefits.
Insight: Trust-Building Is Learnable1
“You can communicate your intent without even saying a word. When people can sense that your intent serves their best interests, they are willing to open the trust valve at least a little. If that little bit is rewarded, they can risk a little more, and ...
