Today’s best managers know the importance of building trust with their coworkers. Two different types of trust are possible. Trust “from the head” refers to how you feel about someone else’s competence and reliability. Trust “from the heart” refers to how you view someone’s feelings and motives at work. This second type of trust involves expressing concern and care for another person’s welfare, and is more long-lasting than trust from the head. Today’s best managers look for trust gaps, and work to build better and more trusting relationships with employees they don’t yet fully trust.
Source: Chua, R.Y. J., Ingram, P., & Morris, M. W. 2008. From the head and the heard: Locating cognition- and affect-based trust in managers’ professional networks. Academy of Management Journal, 51: 436-452.
