My dad loved his pickup truck. He drove it everywhere except to church and to visit me in Charleston.

I don’t know why he sold it. Perhaps it was mother’s Alzheimer’s or his retirement, but he grieved for that truck. On the way home from town one day he saw a similar truck for sale. He bought it on the spot.

“Didn’t you drive it first?” I asked.

“No,” he said.

“Didn’t you at least bargain on the price?’I continued.

“Listen,” he said. “I have known that man all of my life. He isn’t going to cheat me.”

“That’s naive,” I can hear you saying. But wouldn’t you like to trust like that? More important, wouldn’t you like to be trusted that way? What a reputation! What a testimony to both men!

Trust is the number one trait we want in our leaders, supervisors, significant others, and friends.

Twenty-five years ago when I was searching for a chief audiologist for the Charleston Speech and Hearing Center, Dr. Doug McDonald, director of the speech and hearing program at the Veterans Hospital in Columbia and someone whom I respect greatly, told me, “If you can persuade Stuart Cohen to come to Charleston, you’ll have a winner.”

Stuart and I worked together for 22 years in an unbelievable professional relationship. I often heard Stuart counseling patients about the purchase of a hearing aid. Many times he was persuading the patient that he/she did not need to buy the most expensive model or that he/she was not ready for one at all. This in spite of the great profit to be made in the sale of hearing aids, but Stuart chose his integrity and ours over profit.

Consequently he built a large following of people who trusted his every word. After attending the burial service for Stuart’s father, David, and listening to the eulogies I know where that trust in the truth came from.

What greater compliment can there be than, he is a man of his word or she is a woman of her word?

Too many people make glib promises that they have no intention of carrying out. “Oh, leave it to me. I’ll take care of it.”

The reason I like management by objectives as a planning strategy so much is that it provides a clear-cut decision making process. At the end of the specified time there are only two possible answers – yes I did or no I didn’t. It is a process that can help establish credibility.

In many ways business is suffering. Part of it is due to the economic conditions before the events of Sept. 11. Some of it is due to the events of Sept. 11, but much of it is due to the lack of credible service.

Businesses do not stand behind their products or do not provide dependable quality service.

There is a wonderful sales adage that says, “Promise a lot; deliver more.” If you can’t deliver then don’t make the promise. Customers will respect and accept honesty. Don’t string people along. Don’t bait and switch.

Trust is earned one transaction at a time.

Tags: Business, Integrity, Success, Trust