Building Trust in Relationship

In an article for the blog 800CEORead Stephen M. R. Covey, son of the famous Stephen R. Covey, describes the cost of trust in America as follows.

"When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up. My experience is that significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done."

Trust is the essential component of a successful mentoring or teaching relationship. As in face-2-face, building trusting relationships online requires a high level of communication skills. A key aspect to building any successful relationship centers around providing for and, perhaps, even structuring appropriate communication. This is especially true for distance education and mentoring relationships. In order to establish bonds for support, people must have avenues and opportunities for communication. The need for instructional themes which support opportunities such as:

-- presenting topics and ideas

-- offering guidance

-- instruction

-- practice and

-- assessment

exist in distance education communication as well as in mentor relationships.