Trust is Integrity and More.

If you show low integrity in day-to-day activities — like cheating in squash or making small promises that you don’t keep — people will…

No matter how isolated you are or how innovative your business is, there will always be people. To operate well — socially or in business —you need to trust others, and they need to trust you.

The level of trust we have in someone depends on how we view their integrity and capability (personal factors)It is also affected by the alignment of interests and the stakes of the game (environmental factors).

Integrity — Will you do what you say you’ll do? Will you cheat? Will you fight for me? Will behave predictably?

Capability — Can you execute? Are you competent? Can you do what you say you’ll do? Do you communicate clearly?

Alignment of Interests — Do we want the same thing? Do we have similar skin in the game?

Stakes of the Game — How much risk is there? How big are the potential losses or gains?

We trust people with low integrity if our interests are aligned. Likewise, we will trust someone with limited capability if it doesn’t matter if they execute or not (low stakes in that particular game).

Heres the kicker. While it is harder to control the environmental factors, the way people perceive our personal factors is the result of signals and our history.

If you show low integrity in day-to-day activities — like cheating in squash or making small promises that you don’t keep — people will believe that you have no integrity, full stop.

If you execute and communicate on all small projects, people will believe that you are capable of handling more significant projects.

If you send the right signals and are always trust worthy, people will trust you more.