The Trusted Advisor

Kurt Brouwer July 24th, 2007

Charles Green, author of the Trusted Advisor, has an interesting piece on his blog describing a formula for trust [emphasis added]:

‘…When I wrote (with Maister and Galford) The Trusted Advisor, we introduced the Trust Equation:

T = (C+R+I) / S, where
C=credibility, R=reliabilty, I=Intimacy, and S=self-orientation.

(To be precise, it’s a formula not for trust, but for trustworthiness of the one who would be trusted.)

The numerator factors are pretty clear. It’s the denominator that gets most readers’ interest, and rightly so—it’s the most powerful. On a personal level, we trust someone if their focus and interest is about us: we do not trust them if their focus and interest is about themselves.

It’s why we’re sceptical of used-car dealers, telemarketers, and other stereotypes of sellers—people who clearly want our money, but less clearly have our interests at heart…’

I never really thought of a formula for trust, but I think this one makes sense. I think the key element is what he calls self-orientation. Is the person in question thinking about your best interests or about his or her personal interests?

In the financial industry, the term fiduciary is the one that best describes the right kind of self-orientation. A fiduciary is one who places your interest first.

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