Trust is one of the most critical requirement for effective leadership. Building and sustaining trust in organisations is a critical leadership practice and it’s one the never ends. Dennis and Michelle Reina, founders of the Reina Trust Building Institute and the authors of “Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace”, have developed a model of trust, which provides a roadmap describing how Transaction Trust is built and sustained. The model is named transactional trust, as the authors believe that trust is an exchange, you have to give trust to get trust in return. The Transaction Trust model is discussed in the article titled “Building Sustainable Trust” (pdf), which is illustrated below:
The three components of the Transactional Trust model as illustrated above are as follows…
Contractual Trust
Contractual trust concerns how expectations are managed and how boundaries are set. Dennis and Michelle Reina describe contractual trust as implying
“… a mutual understanding between people; each will do what they say they will do.”
To improve the level of contractual trust you need to:
- Manage expectations
- Establish boundaries
- Delegate appropriately
- Encourage mutually serving intentions
- Keep agreements.
- Be consistent.
Communication trust
Communication trust is about the context and content of communication between people. Dennis and Michelle Reina describe the nature of communication trust as follows.
“Trust influences communication and communication influences trust.”
To improve the level of communication trust you need to improve communication in the following ways:
- Share information
- Tell the truth
- Admit mistakes
- Give and receive constructive feedback
- Maintain confidentiality
- Speak with good purpose
Competence Trust
Competence trust is about ensuring you have the necessary skills and knowledge, that people involved have the competence to make the journey. Dennis and Michelle Reina describe the essence of competence trust reminding us that…
“Those responsible for implementing change need to be involved in designing the change.”
To improve the level of competence trust you need to involve people, to do that you need to:
- Acknowledge people’s skills and abilities
- Allow people to make decisions
- Involve others and seek their input
- Help people learn skills
In Summary
Dennis and Michelle Reina describe how these three components work together…
“Contractual Trust sets the tone for engagement and direction and shapes roles and responsibilities. Communication Trust establishes information flow and how people talk with one another. Competence Trust allows individuals to leverage and further develop skills, abilities, and knowledge.”
Trust is built or destroy by how leaders behave, how they contract, how the communicate and their competence. Reflect on the above and rate your self on each dimension on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being poor and 5 being excellent):
- The extent to which you have developed contractual trust in your team?
- The extent to which you have developed communication trust in your team?
- The extent to which you have developed competence trust in your team?
What three actions can you take over the next few weeks to improve the area where you have the lowest rating?
Technorati Tags: Trust, Leadership, Management, Business
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