Coaching practices for The Trust Equation at Work

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Trust Equation at Work, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I keep everything at work behind a polished, guarded front
• With new people I try to fast-forward to being close
• I won’t hand anyone real responsibility until they’ve completely proven themselves first
• I’m competent and I deliver, but people still hold me at arm’s length
• I say "I’ll send that over" or "I’ll get to it" and then a bunch of those little things quietly slip my mind

Practices that may help

1. The Trust Equation, Made Practical
   The Trust Equation (Maister, Green, and Galford) holds that trustworthiness = (credibility + reliability + intimacy) ÷ self-orientation. The model is a practitioner framework rather than a rigorously tested theory, but it usefully names the levers — especially self-orientation, which is the single biggest trust-killer most leaders overlook.
2. Lower your guard to raise the intimacy score
   Sharing something real about yourself makes others feel safer sharing something real with you.
   The Trust Equation, Made Practical
3. Earn the right to deepen the relationship in stages
   Trust compounds over time — start with technical credibility and expand into intimacy as it is earned.
   The Trust Equation, Made Practical
4. The Trust Triangle
   Charles Feltman’s Trust Triangle (from The Thin Book of Trust) identifies four distinct assessments that together constitute trust: sincerity (I mean what I say), reliability (I do what I say), competence (I have the ability to do what I say), and care (I have your interests at heart). Trust breaks down when any one of these assessments fails — and repairing trust requires identifying which assessment was damaged.
5. Extend trust deliberately to invite it
   Trust others first, in bounded ways, before they have earned every dimension — it is how trust is built.
   The Trust Triangle
6. Audit and reduce your self-orientation
   Self-orientation is the denominator: a small increase in it wipes out gains in all three numerator variables.
   The Trust Equation, Made Practical
7. Build reliability through small, visible commitments
   Reliability is built not by big promises but by flawlessly keeping small, everyday ones.
   The Trust Equation, Made Practical
8. Give away the answer even when it costs you
   When the right answer reduces your value or authority, give it anyway — that act is the trust signal.
   The Trust Equation, Made Practical
9. Invest in the relationship before you need it
   Build relational credit through reliability and initiative, not charm or performance alone.
   Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Made Practical
10. Signal credibility without claiming it
    Let your knowledge show through questions and specifics, not through declarations of expertise.
    The Trust Equation, Made Practical

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