I recently listened to a podcast with Tim Ferriss, featuring Jim Collins. Jim is the very successful researcher and author of Good to Great, Built to Last, Great by Choice, and many others. Tim is a very successful writer in his own right, with best sellers including The 4-hour Workweek, Tools of Titans, and Tribe of Mentors, but he is probably better known for his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, these days.
In this interview, they brought up an interesting thought exercise regarding trust and relationships. The question posed by Jim was if you naturally trust others vs. if you feel they need to earn your trust. Does how you behave from the outset of meeting someone help to shape whether they become more trustworthy (at least when it comes to their behaviors/actions towards yourself)?
In other words, are your subtle actions (showing you trust/distrust them) serving to empower them? Will they work harder for you (if they are collaborating with you or an employee for you) because you implicitly trust them? Will they be kinder to you or have a better relationship with you because of the trust you have shown them from the beginning? Or, if you are distrusting and guarded at first, will it indirectly cause them to be more guarded? Will your lack of trust actually become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy and make that person act more untrustworthy?
It’s an unanswerable question, but a good one to think of…my actions affect myself, of course. But how are they affecting others (which, in turn, indirectly affect me yet again)?