“Trust” by Terry Johnston, Creative Commons license, Flickr

Trust is fragile. Experience demonstrates that a bond of trust, once broken generally makes re-establishing a relationship tougher. The challenge is to identify those behaviors and attitudes to avoid that can fracture the bond of trust. These examples are generally pretty obvious, yet happen far too often:

The Lexicon of Trust Busters – Part IV

1. Lies:  Often starting with simple misunderstandings, the truth to one individual or organization can easily seem untruthful to a victim, competitor, critic or angry neighbor. Truth can be complicated and emotional.

2. Minimizing Danger:  The moment you hear the phrase, “It’s just an isolated incident,” or “It’s one in a million,” instinctively you know it is probably just the reverse.  The phrase, “It’s old news,” tells you instantly that something based on old circumstances is about to become new and adverse. Or, “They’re just troublemakers or disgruntled employees,” you become uneasy. We trust people who appropriately characterize situations and avoid hurting people.

3. Negative Surprise:  Taking action out of character, out of sequence, out of selfish opportunity, or simply without advance notice to those directly or indirectly affected can seriously damage the relationship of trust and cause a loss of confidence. Surprise implies guilt or cover-up.

4. Stall, Delay:  A great source of frustration is when it’s obvious that a situation could be resolved easily and quickly, but isn’t.  Procrastination and denial go hand-in-hand.  Keep in mind one of the great axioms of military strategy: timidity, hesitation, and indecision are the basic ingredients for defeat.

James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, Fellow IABC; APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus

If you have questions, or would like to dive more deeply into the subject of this blog, you can reach me 24/7 at jel@e911.com; 203-948-7029 (voicemail, email, text). I look forward, as a friend and colleague, to helping you achieve the objectives you’ve set for yourself for having a happier, more influential, successful and meaningful career.

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