Over the past 12 months, I’ve been involved in many personal development workshops involving interpersonal, communication and counselling skills. The common theme that emerges is the critical importance of establishing trust in work, home and other relationships. Trust takes a long time to build, can be easily destroyed and is hard to regain.
Resent research (Robbins, Millet, Cacioppe and Waters-Marsh 1998 Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall: Sydney) has identified five dimensions that underlie the concept of trust:-
⇒ Integrity – honesty and truthfulness ( feedback given in a caring manner, acknowledgment and acceptance of successes and mistakes, relevant information being communicated). Integrity seems to be rated the most critical characteristic as a positive perception of another’s moral character and basic honesty, the other dimensions of trust begin to have meaning.
⇒ Competence – technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills including the ability to initiate new ideas, to be creative and communicating relevant information.
⇒ Consistency – reliability, predictability and good judgement in handling any situation.
⇒ Loyalty – willingness to protect and save face for a person and project a positive attitude and retaining confidentiality.
⇒ Openness – willingness to share ideas and information freely. That feelings, experiences, concerns can be aired safely, knowing