The toughest part of trust survival is ensuring the positive relationships that preserve trust. The three crucial needs are inoculation (the intentional discussion of trust), cultivation (ongoing conversations and examples of trust), and motivation (reminders of trust maintenance using our own examples of how we build and maintain trust strategies).
Trust is a fragile magical substance like the lignin in trees – it’s the glue that holds the fiber of relationships together. Trust is the most fragile and vulnerable agent in any relationship. Trust begins with a lexicon, a vocabulary of trust concepts.
The Trust Lexicon
Apology: The atomic energy of empathy. Admission and taking on the responsibility pain and suffering caused.
Candor: Truth with an attitude delivered right now. Truth plus the facts, truth plus some perspective, truth that reflects the value of other observations on the same set of circumstances and facts.
Credibility: Always conferred by others on those whose past behavior, track record, and accomplishments warrant it.
Empathy: Actions that speak louder than words ever can.
Fear: The absence of trust.
Integrity: Uncompromising adherence to a code of values by people, products, and companies, with the attributes of credibility, candor, and sincerity.
Sympathy: The ongoing verbalization of regret, embarrassment, or personal humiliation, promptly conveyed, i.e., feeling truly sorry for someone in pain, stopping short of taking the blame.
Trust: The absence of fear; a feeling of reliability in adverse situations that reduces the pain and impact of mistakes because trust cushions the impact.
©2026, James E. Lukaszewski. Contact the copyright holder at jel@e911.com for information and reproduction permissions. Editing or excerpting is forbidden.