#188 Trust

Trust is complex.

It probably wasn't always this way.

It's because our lives are more complicated, and we are influenced far more by the way we communicate including what we say and the way we say it.

For many, trust is a mental attitude essential for success while for others it describes behaviour that influences our interactions.

At a professional and community level, from trusting ourselves to trusting our colleagues, there are key relationships in workplaces and teams and clubs and places of social interaction that help drive better outcomes.

Leaders rely upon trust; trust in themselves to do jobs to the best of their ability, and through recognising the need to place trust in colleagues to help achieve team goals.

However, trust, while still crucial in a variety of settings, is made more challenging because of our modern world.

To trust there must be a level of accountability between parties that ensures the way we interact is underpinned by consistent behaviour.

There is regular testing of the trust paradigm through a plethora of surveys and questionnaires asking us which professions we trust the most.

And although we should always be cynical of opinion polling, it provides a guide.

Consistently, scientists, doctors, nurses, police and teachers regularly top the list, with their role as people who can support us in a crisis the reasons we identify.

On the flip side, politicians, car salespeople, advertising executives and bankers top polls of the least trusted.

Of course, there are good and bad performers in any job or club or organisation, those you can trust, and those who you should stay clear of.

The theme of trust and its antonyms, distrust, or mistrust, has not only been a key attitude and behaviour for as long as we can remember, it has also been a theme that has dominated famous literature and song.

Arguably the most famous of all writing concerning trust is from William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth.

Shakespeare wrote in Act 1.4.13-16, "He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust," the fictitious King Duncan said describing his relationship with the Thane of Cawdor, a title of Scottish Peerage.

The Thane of Cawdor eventually betrayed the King and was executed for treason. King Duncan trusted perhaps too easily, and it led to dire consequences.

General Macbeth ascends to the title of Thane of Cawdor rewarded for his war heroics on behalf of the King.

Tragically, Macbeth driven by a premonition and the unwavering ambition of his wife, Lady Macbeth, murders King Duncan and they descend into madness as a result.

King Duncan's willingness to trust was his Achilles Heel that eventually led to his death.

From the genius of William Shakespeare this column heads to a far more modern space to explore the theme of trust.

In 1986, Billy Joel who had married Christie Brinkley the year before and had a child, penned:

The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned

But that won't happen to us

Because it's always been a matter of trust

Joel is reassuring Brinkley that he knows what it takes for a marriage to survive after the unbridled passion of early courtship inevitably wanes.

In Joel's mind trust is key.

Sadly, Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel divorced in 1994.

A song that brings us much closer to home is an Irish folk tune describing the folly of falling for a Colleen when out drinking in local British establishments during the 19th century.

The Dubliners made the song popular when they released The Black Velvet Band in 1967.

So come all ye jolly young fellows

A warning take from me

Whenever you're out on the liquor, lads

Beware of the pretty Colleens

For they'll fill you with whiskey and porter

Until you're unable to stand

And the very next thing that you know, me lads

You've landed in Van Diemen's Land

The drink, the allure of a beautiful woman with hair tied up in a black velvet band, the willingness to trust despite potential risk, and the consequences of betrayal led to penal servitude in a place we now know as Tasmania.

In modern times trusting people is complex and difficult yet still arguably required to enjoy life to its fullest.

With technology and social media bombarding us with constant news stories and updates and posts and photographs, we automatically have a level of distrust, questioning why people are doing this or sharing that or telling us what they had to eat or who they went to dinner with.

Perhaps questioning is a good thing; however, second guessing and constantly trying to unpack or justify the reasons why something has been shared is not.

I can't live without trust. I know others who can and their discipline, usually because they have been burned one too many times, intrigues me.

In response, I have decided to keep a bit of myself to me.

Oversharing is the bane of modern-day existence.

I'll let you know how it goes...