Coaching practices for Trust Triangle Feltman

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

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

  • To smooth things over I say "sounds good," "I’m fine with it," "I understand" when none of it is actually true
  • I won’t hand anyone real responsibility until they’ve completely proven themselves first
  • I keep everything at work behind a polished, guarded front
  • Trust with this person has cracked and I just keep apologizing for "not being trustworthy" in this big vague way
  • My partner sided with their family over me again, or didn’t back me up in front of others, and I’m left unsure whether they’ll actually put us first when it counts

Practices that may help

  1. 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.
  2. Build sincerity by saying only what you mean
    Only make commitments and assertions you actually believe — and retract the ones you don’t.
    The Trust Triangle
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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.
  6. Diagnose which trust dimension is broken before trying to repair
    Name the specific trust assessment that failed — then address that one, not trust in general.
    The Trust Triangle
  7. Create and protect the couple bubble
    Agree that you each put the relationship above any third party, including family of origin.
    Secure-Functioning Relationships
  8. Demonstrate care through visible acts in the other person’s interest
    Show that your interests and theirs are genuinely aligned — not only when it’s convenient.
    The Trust Triangle
  9. Use the horsemen as an early-warning system, not only a post-mortem
    Notice which horseman is present in the first 60 seconds of a conflict and intervene before it escalates.
    The Four Horsemen: Gottman's Warning Signs of Relationship Breakdown
  10. Have explicit trust conversations when trust is at stake
    Name the trust issue directly rather than managing it indirectly.
    The Trust Triangle

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