Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life

Linda, your book looks deceptively simple. It seems to be just common sense, but it packs a wallop. Our highly mobile society means that we are constantly meeting strangers whose true lives we cannot test and whose representations we cannot verify--we buy their stories because they sound good. We had a conference in our village on sexual abuse, and it seems to be rampant all over the country. If we could arm our children with your book maybe we could cut down on this scourge and really make a change in our grandchildren's lives.

'Trust Rules' taught me, in my middle age, that trust is a basic component of a happy life, not a coincidence or a gift, but a real and quantifiable quality that anyone, regardless of background can feel and understand. Making excuses for ourselves or others cheats us all and wastes our lives in useless manipulation. Seeing reality is not only spiritually responsible, but logical, and is the foundation of creative experience.

I always considered myself a trustworthy person but untill I read Linda Stroh's insightful book, I never thought to question just how I measured up. It was a good lesson to check up on oneself as well as wondering about the other guy all the time. Her thoughtful progression and list of characteristics of "good guys" was interesting and helpful. I found her actual examples reassuring to know that others have experienced the same betrayals at times that I had. Her husband's assessment that if you feel you can introduce the person to your family hit the mark. I enjoyed the book and I know that Dr. Stroh is one of the "good guys". Jacqueline McGuire, Lowville, N.Y.

Trust Rules helped me to explore the relationships that I have everyday, both business and private. While this actually might be looked upon as a reference book, it's not. It has a dramatic arc that starts with "How and why do you trust the people you do at work?" It then moves with advice on to how to handle those people at work and the reasons why. All of this, coming from interviews with 300 different CEO's in very different walks of life. Building upon knowledge learned in previous chapters, Dr. Stroh then moves you on into your own interpersonal relationships. Is there any difference between the trust you have for work peers versus your own friends or family, for example? Can you trust too much? Finally, and very gently, Dr. Stroh leads you into a self-examination of yourself. Worksheets help you figure out just how "good a guy" you are to other people. How much do you trust a person right-off the bat? And in the end, where does this leave you as a human being. Insightful, thought-provoking yet entertaining, I don't know why it has taken so long for an author to write on a subject like this. I recommend it as one of those "Course Level 101" books on the basics we all need for human life skills.

Dr. Stroh has written a book that makes us all think about the most important relationships in our lives. It becomes clear that trust is a foundational basis for all of our interactions, and Stroh helps to evolve the concept of trust from an enigmatic 'subjective' concept to something that we can measure and make conscious decisions on whom to trust (and whom to not trust... and the results might be suprising to each reader). It is clear that each of our lives can be improved by taking a methodical approach to trust in the workplace and, most importantly, in our personal lives -- something that is too frequently lacking. Stroh provides wonderful case studies from business leaders and people from diverse backgrounds as points of reference on how trust decisions can improve our relationships. Most importantly, she provides a framework to help us all improve the 'trust' decisions in our own lives. I loved this book and I loved the thoughful and academic approach to trust in our lives.