Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life

By Linda K. Stroh

Book Overview

Trust is at the root of all positive relationships. This accessible and empowering book teaches how to form an inner circle of trusted confidants in your workplace and at home that will allow you to live a more peaceful and more effective life, reduce stress, and better deal with negative emotions.

Building trust is crucial for effective leadership, and trusting others is a necessary part of working with others. But knowing whom to trust--and whom not to trust--eludes many people. A surprising number of people report that being betrayed by someone in their "inner circle" either at work or in their personal lives is one of the most devastating things they have endured. Lack of trust is also expensive in that it costs companies money to surveil employees; and in our personal lives, if we live with people we cannot trust, we expend needless amounts of energy protecting ourselves from these untrustworthy people. How do we increase trust, bounce back from betrayal, and form alliances and positive relationships with those who ARE trustworthy?

This book provides a unique examination of trust and its often-overlooked importance to our work and personal lives. It identifies the characteristics of a trusting relationship, considers the decision-making process that people should make before granting individuals admission to their own "inner circle," and teaches how to tell the "good guys" from the "bad guys" in our work environments and life in general. This revised and updated edition contains new information on the negative mental and physical aspects of telling lies; how to better manage our emotions, which allows us to become "better guys" ourselves; strategies for building more trusting relationships in our families; and how trust works--and doesn't work--online in the Internet age. It also includes a useful "Family Board Meeting" tool for having family meetings in a way that encourages honest and open dialogue between family members regardless of age or family structure.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1440840644
• ISBN13: 9781440840647
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 7 to 17 years

Customer Reviews

Good for All Ages

Linda, your book looks deceptively simple. It seems to be just common sense, but it packs a wallop. Our highly mobile society means that we are constantly meeting strangers whose true lives we cannot test and whose representations we cannot verify--we buy their stories because they sound good. We had a conference in our village on sexual abuse, and it seems to be rampant all over the country. If we could arm our children with your book maybe we could cut down on this scourge and really make a change in our grandchildren's lives.

Thank you, Linda.

'Trust Rules' taught me, in my middle age, that trust is a basic component of a happy life, not a coincidence or a gift, but a real and quantifiable quality that anyone, regardless of background can feel and understand. Making excuses for ourselves or others cheats us all and wastes our lives in useless manipulation. Seeing reality is not only spiritually responsible, but logical, and is the foundation of creative experience.

Trust Rules

I always considered myself a trustworthy person but untill I read Linda Stroh's insightful book, I never thought to question just how I measured up. It was a good lesson to check up on oneself as well as wondering about the other guy all the time. Her thoughtful progression and list of characteristics of "good guys" was interesting and helpful. I found her actual examples reassuring to know that others have experienced the same betrayals at times that I had. Her husband's assessment that if you feel you can introduce the person to your family hit the mark. I enjoyed the book and I know that Dr. Stroh is one of the "good guys". Jacqueline McGuire, Lowville, N.Y.

"Trust Rules" gave me the tools to think about myself and others in a different, more thoughtful way

Trust Rules helped me to explore the relationships that I have everyday, both business and private. While this actually might be looked upon as a reference book, it's not. It has a dramatic arc that starts with "How and why do you trust the people you do at work?" It then moves with advice on to how to handle those people at work and the reasons why. All of this, coming from interviews with 300 different CEO's in very different walks of life. Building upon knowledge learned in previous chapters, Dr. Stroh then moves you on into your own interpersonal relationships. Is there any difference between the trust you have for work peers versus your own friends or family, for example? Can you trust too much? Finally, and very gently, Dr. Stroh leads you into a self-examination of yourself. Worksheets help you figure out just how "good a guy" you are to other people. How much do you trust a person right-off the bat? And in the end, where does this leave you as a human being. Insightful, thought-provoking yet entertaining, I don't know why it has taken so long for an author to write on a subject like this. I recommend it as one of those "Course Level 101" books on the basics we all need for human life skills.

Though provoking and Wonderful.

Dr. Stroh has written a book that makes us all think about the most important relationships in our lives. It becomes clear that trust is a foundational basis for all of our interactions, and Stroh helps to evolve the concept of trust from an enigmatic 'subjective' concept to something that we can measure and make conscious decisions on whom to trust (and whom to not trust... and the results might be suprising to each reader). It is clear that each of our lives can be improved by taking a methodical approach to trust in the workplace and, most importantly, in our personal lives -- something that is too frequently lacking. Stroh provides wonderful case studies from business leaders and people from diverse backgrounds as points of reference on how trust decisions can improve our relationships. Most importantly, she provides a framework to help us all improve the 'trust' decisions in our own lives. I loved this book and I loved the thoughful and academic approach to trust in our lives.