Trust — Meaning, Definition, and How This Core Value Shapes Your Life
What Is Trust as a Core Value?
Trust is confidence in others’ reliability and good intent. People high in Trust extend good faith and enable decentralized action.
Why Trust Matters
Honoring Trust helps you:
- reduce monitoring overhead,
- empower teams to move faster,
- deepen relationships quickly,
- create psychological safety.
How Trust Shows Up (High vs. Low Expression)
High Expression
- delegates with clear expectations,
- assumes positive intent until disproven,
- shares information openly,
- forgives honest mistakes.
Low Expression
- micromanages tasks,
- withholds context,
- expects failure without evidence,
- imposes heavy oversight.
Common Challenges of High Trust
- vulnerability to exploitation,
- slower detection of misconduct,
- disappointment when trust is broken,
- difficulty tightening controls later.
Trust in Conflict With Other Values
Trust vs. Control
Control requires verification and tight oversight; Trust grants autonomy.
Tension: governance checks vs. empowered leeway.
Trust vs. Security
Security minimizes risk via constraints; Trust relaxes constraints for speed.
Tension: protective restriction vs. enabling freedom.
Examples of Trust in Daily Life
- Sharing edit access instead of view-only.
- Delegating outcomes, not tasks.
- Defaulting to transparency in documentation.
- Backing up a teammate publicly after a mistake.