The Trust Paradigm: Develop Trusting Client Relationships To Improve Your Career And Life

by Andy Fry

Have you ever wondered why some people always seem to be trusted while others are almost never trusted? Or have you questioned why some people are able to earn more opportunities while others seem to receive very few? Or are you curious why some people always seem to be forgiven for their mistakes while others are given few chances to redeem themselves?

All privileges and opportunities that a person receives in life is based on trust. However most people put little thought into how trust plays a role in their career and life. And even fewer people have incorporated trust building activities into their career to earn those privileges and opportunities. The Trust Paradigm digs deep into trust, explaining how our relationships have a dynamic three-way factor. Understanding and practicing the steps that is explained in detail in The Trust Paradigm will impact each three-way factor which in turn improves trust.

189 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2020

About the author

Andy Fry has worked in the consulting industry since 1997, and as an information technology
(IT) consultant since 1998. As a CMA, CPA, and PMP, Andy has helped many companies
through their IT implementations and business-improvement initiatives. His passion is helping
companies in project-focused industries, such as engineering, utilities, oil and gas, and
construction, among others.

In 2008, Andy founded Quantas Consulting Corp., a consulting company focused on helping clients with their Oracle Applications and tools. He also runs The Consulting Playbook, which is a platform that allows him to share his knowledge and experience with other consultants by providing education and training.

He is also a co-founder, co-host, and contributor to the “Art of Consulting Podcast”, a podcast that provides information and education to consultants. Andy believes that human beings have built-in capabilities to achieve greatness, and he wants to share his skills to see others achieve their potential.

In his spare time, Andy loves to coach hockey and baseball and spend time with his family. He’s grateful for all of the support and advice he has received over the years from his family, friends, and colleagues. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Lino Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Trust Paradigm: A Review
Develop Trusting Client Relationships to Improve Your Career and Life

This book, by Andy Fray, is about caring. It is about being motivated. It is about helping others get motivated. To help others get motivated they need to trust you. Trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. So how do you earn trust? As it turns out the answer is in caring, or care, to be more precise.
CARE spells out the four elements of trust:
• C - Credibility
• A - Authenticity
• R - Reliability
• E – Empathy

At first, I was really into the book. Then I meandered a little with other readings as I thought the book was too much into consulting. Then I finally started the empathy part and WOW. It tied right into a series of seminars that I am helping a client with. It is exactly what his staff need to figure out and feel if they truly want to help him grow his practice to greatest. My client has the potential, but it lacks the systems and communications for effective teamwork. Screaming to work Saturdays is not a system. This book outlines methods to achieve greatness, and not just in consulting.

Another mantra that you can get out of CARE is:
• Competence
• Attitude
• Respect
• Empathy
You may notice that empathy is on both lists. In some ways empathy is the core. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. If you want to add value, as a consultant, an advisor, or even a trusted employee you need to understand what your client is feeling. To understand what they are feeling is not an intellectual exercise, rather it is an emotional one. Therefore, you should feel with them. Not sorry for them, but with them. Like walking in their shows.
Empathy is the driver of trust. People will trust and be trusted more when there is a relationship. Relationships need respect and trust. The author quotes Stephen Covey: “When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.”
Remember that trust is not a one-way street. It actually exists as three sides:
● How the client trusts us
● How we trust the client
● How we trust ourselves
The third side of “how we trust ourselves” is fundamentally critical when working as a team, with colleagues, with clients, and with their team.
Do not despair, the author gives help, advice, and tips on ways to become more credible (see page 40); how to develop authenticity (see page 81 and 84); ways to become more reliable (page 131); and most important of all, ways to become more empathetic (see page 159).
Remember: “The most successful people I know are also the most reliable.” ~ Wayne Gerard Trotman
The author rightly extolls us to, “Exercise empathy to strengthen the three directions of trust; how the client trusts you, how you trust the client and how you trust yourself.”
Good advice for business, for family, and for life.
Thank you to Andy Fry for a delightful read. Only time will tell if this book becomes a classic or literature, but it uses and need are immediate and clear. My copy of the book was provided by @BookTasters in exchange for a review. The review is my own.

Lino Matteo ©™
Twitter @Lino_Matteo
I reviewed the authors prior book, and you can find the link here.

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https://linomatteo.wordpress.com/2021...

[Nikoleta Grigerova · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re like me, and always thought that trust and being trustworthy is something you can’t learn, this book will show you the opposite.

The Trust Paradigm is focused on developing trusting relationship mainly in business, to improve your career. It’s focusing on 4 main words that are directly connected to trust, which are: credibility, authenticity, reliability, and empathy.

This book is written in a very organized way. It’s divided into four main segments explaining the four words. Each segment is split into 3 chapters. The first talks about the authors experience with said word, the second is talking about what experts have to say about it, and the last chapter talks about how you can improve in this aspect.

The thing I love about this book is how the author not only used words, but he also used pictures, charts, tables, points, and many ways to help the reader either visualize the subject, or for the reader to focus on the most important elements. I found every detail of this book helpful (like how to increase your confidence), and surprising since I’ve never thought about it (like that trust goes 3 ways). I also really enjoyed how every information was explained with the author’s real-life experience. It shows that the author is knowledgeable in this topic.

As a foreigner I was a little scared I won’t be able to understand (mainly the “experts’ thoughts” parts), but even if there were any difficult words, the author explained it, and I didn’t have any problem to understand at all.

I would recommend this book to mainly those, who would like to improve their business relationships, since it’s written mostly from the “business point of view”, but on the other hand, I’m sure I can use what I just learned to improve any relationship I have or will have in the future.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trust is a palpable belief, you can only feel it but the book 'The Trust Paradigm' by Andy Fry made it tangible for me  I could touch and see all the dimensions as if Trust was a person standing right in front of you.

I read this book over the course of a month just to chew, soak,ponder and retrospect.

The book has 4 sections and 12 chapters which feels like an exhaustive training program and you come out armored to take on the world.

Although the book has been written for consultants I feel that each and everyone in the corporate ecosystem would relate and benefit out of it.

Eschewed with so many stories which give that recall and relatability to each aspect.

The favourite chapter of mine was the one on authenticity and the 3 way trust model which is an extremely useful exercise to develop skills on increasing Trust with clients, internal or external.

Each section comes with a chapter on 'What experts say' which makes this a book based on extensive research and provides credibility. One of the 4 pillars of Trust often reiterated is as :-

C - Credibility
A - Authenticity
R - Reliability
E - Empathy

I could not help but remember Simon Sinek's concepts of 'Start with Why' and Empathy throughout the book. And I love Sinek's pearl of wisdom for the corporate world

An insightful book in all!

A notable quote from the book which I enjoyed.

"Reliability is knowing that winter is coming, and spring
follows winter, and summer follows spring, and autumn
follows summer. Some people may not like winter; some
people may not like spring. But knowing they’re coming
allows us to prepare. Some people love spontaneity, but
human beings in general prefer reliability"

[Marina Elias]

Thank you to Booktasters and the author for providing this copy!

This book was amazing, it's jam-packed with helpful tips and information that would be handy in your daily life. Despite the fact that the book is geared towards consultants, the book has so many nuggets of wisdom that can be applied in many areas in your personal life, not just in business. Also, I usually find non-fiction books to be a bit dry, but this book is anything but that. I loved how it's written in a very dynamic way that will keep you engaged. And the author adding some personal stories throughout the book, makes everything resonate a bit more.

Here are some of my favorites parts of the book:
-Indecisiveness and the 7 Strategies for Making Objective Decisions, as someone who struggles with decision making I found this part very helpful.
-The chapter about how to become more authentic, I feel like this should be an essential reading taught in schools.
-I was so glad when I came across the part about compassion fatigue because it's not a topic that is discussed often and it felt very timely.

This is one of my favorites quotes from the book is "Clients want to connect with people who
seem like everyday, normal human beings. It doesn't mean that you should air all your dirty laundry or show every imperfection that you are hiding. But it does mean that you are not required to cover up every blemish or be ashamed of who you are."

[Molebatsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book lived to my expectations, unpack trust and how to apply it in my career and my everyday life. Trust and its significance are oftentimes taken for granted and spoken of loosely as if they are of no consequence.
Until I read The Trust Paradigm, I had never thought seriously about trust as a principle to be consciously cultivated and applied in life and career.
Through reading the book I wised up to what trust is, and how to build it into a tool to earn opportunities and privileges in life and career.
Andy Fry breaks down trust into the following components:
- Credibility
- Authenticity
- Reliability
- Empathy
For ease of reference he sums the components of trust into one word – CARE.
When someone distrusts someone else, that person is missing one or more of these components.
The ultimate goal in life and career is to be trusted. In normal life, we all go about our lives and careers like trust will effortlessly descend upon us like manna from up yonder. Our ignorance of trust and its cultivation leads to failure in our lives and careers.
Andy Fry’s book comes in handy in unpacking trust and providing pointers to implement it for the betterment of our careers and lives.
For those that want to develop, grow and improve, get the book. It reads easily, and can be read in one sitting like I did.

[Het · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author begins the book with a very non formal life experience and how it brought him him to conclusion that trust is important in client based services. Although I would like to point out it didn't seem like a Eureka moment or something out of the box and felt forced especially since it needed to be highlighted out in bold.

That being said, I would say the book has lots of it's strengths. The author has outlined the 4 core things to built trust and each aspect if further divided into 3 chapters each per aspect under - what the aspect it, what the experts say about it and finally how to develop it.

I felt many of the points in developing the aspect chapters were repeatitive and could have been clubbed under a a chapter. Also an index sort of or summary in a tabular form of all exercises would have tied up the book really well.
Overall a good read.

[Manal Jamaleddine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trust Paradigm suggests four elements to build trust with the client: Credibility, Authenticity, Reliability and Empathy. The book also provides guidance on how to apply each element and how to make it relevant to gain the client's trust. While this book is mainly talking about the trust between a consultant and their client, I couldn't help it but compare the ideas to relationships in life in general; it is useful both ways.

[Exevion Book Club]

Available from Darren Schindler in hardback