Thursday Edition

dispatches from the new world of work

Trust Assessment

We got an email from a friend of a friend. Charles Green, coauthor with Cool Friend David Maister of The Trusted Advisor, wrote to us to ask if we could put this before our audience: Your Trust Quotient. Go to this link to take the assessment. I like it, though others at tp.com have reservations. Everybody says the same thing: It is very subjective. But, I found that its results described me fairly accurately. So, I'm putting it out to you. Try it out. Leave some comments for Charles. If you are not sold on his online integrity assessment, tell him how to make it better. Also, let him know, did it get you right as I found it did me? And, most importantly, do you see any uses for it in your work?

Cathy Mosca posted this on 05/29/08.

Comments

'Everybody says the same thing: It is very subjective.'

ABSOLUTELY – that sounds a lot like life as far as I’m concerned :-) I liked it and felt my result was fair about me - I tried to be honest. Thanks for the tip off Cathy and thank you Charles.

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 29, 2008 6:13 PM

A relevant instrument. In my experience, people with high self-orientation have significantly less self-awareness which makes coaching them difficult in many cases. In its worst form, the individual becomes un-coachable with looking good taking priority over getting better. We use the trust equation in our high-performance work teams and I have seen it significantly improve team-based outcomes when used to improve understanding during conflict.

Posted by David Porter at May 29, 2008 6:15 PM

I too took the assessment and saw value in most of the feedback. Subjectivity...who cares? It gave me stuff to think about and perhaps take action on. I'm thinking that's the point.

Passion, People, Principles. I read the interview with David Maister and went to the website. I really like the Big Three...The Trifecta for Success. Will have to read more.

Great stuff here folks...thanks for the tips and the tools!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at May 29, 2008 11:17 PM

I came up with low (4.3) trustworthiness score so should you believe anything I say about the test?

Posted by Mark JF at May 30, 2008 4:03 AM

Mark, you've just convinced me that you are supremely truthful, because, when I took the test, I couldn't imagine anyone giving themselves low marks on any of the questions. So, to score on the low end, you either gave yourself some hard judgments, or you're proud of things I wouldn't dream of doing!

Thank you all for good comments on this. I'm sure Charles will appreciate them.

Posted by cathy mosca at May 30, 2008 9:21 AM

I'd be curious of Tom's take on Scott McClellan from a trust point of view. At what point does the PR "code of ethics" go out the window? Does the over-hyped virtue of trust ever take a backseat to truth?

Posted by Cal at May 30, 2008 3:37 PM

Good question, Cal. I took the test and it accurately describes me. Thanks.

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 30, 2008 6:00 PM

I've been asking my clients to take the Trust Quotient for one simple reason - most sellers have it all wrong. They believe they can either us tricks and tactics to get buyers to buy their offering or they are clueless about what makes them come across as trustworthy.

The Trust Quotient and the four factors that impact ones trustworthiness bring to light the importance of trust in selling, which trumps sales methodology every time.

Posted by Mark Slatin at November 3, 2008 4:59 PM