Ray Thompson and Elie Wiesel were born on opposite sides of the globe in 1928; they lived very different lives, but both serve as extreme examples of why a focus on trust alone isn’t enough.
Thompson lost his life along with 12 fellow smokejumpers in a forest fire in Montana in 1949 when they chose not to trust their foreman when he called them to join him in an innovative “escape fire.”
Sixty years later, Wiesel, the Holocaust surviver and Nobel Laureate, lost his life savings and $15 million of the foundation dedicated to his life’s work, because he chose to trust a man named Bernie Madoff.
These two tragic tales, which I relate in more detail in the book, illuminate why choosing to trust or not is insufficient to ensure positive outcomes. What moves these stories from merely sad to truly tragic is the disparity between perceived and actual trustworthiness.
Thompson perceived his foreman as untrustworthy, when he was actually trustworthy. Meanwhile, Wiesel perceived Madoff as trustworthy, when he was actually untrustworthy. The misalignment of perceived and actual trustworthiness lies at the root of most issues of trust.
Many have labeled this the “Age of Distrust,” or attempt to address the “Crisis of Trust.” It’s more accurate to call it a “Crisis of Trustworthiness.” From this perspective, it makes sense the solution would not begin with one’s behaviors, but with one’s identity.
To align their perceived and actual trustworthiness, leaders should first assess and build their own genuine trustworthiness. It then becomes a matter of expressing that trustworthiness in a way individuals can perceive it accurately.
For Reflection: How do you measure how trustworthy you are? How accurate are other people’s perceptions of your trustworthiness?
Update: 18,756 words
I’ve written 18,756 manuscript words out of a goal of 60,000. That puts me about 31% complete with the first draft, which is 2% more than last week.
I’ve been on Spring Break with my family this week, so not a lot of writing—but a little every day to keep the habit up. I’m on track to have the book proposal done by the end of next week.
