Sean GlazeWorkplace Culture Speaker | Facilitator, Great Results Team Building · Leadership lessons from the locker room that change how your people work together.

COMPETENCE IS NOT MOST IMPORTANT PART OF TRUST

15 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief motivational talk, the speaker argues that while competence—the ability to perform one’s role—is a necessary foundation for trust, it is actually the least important of the three trust components he will discuss. He notes that most people, except in high‑stakes professions like brain surgery, are willing to give newcomers a grace period to be imperfect while they improve. This grace allows individuals to develop competence over time, suggesting that other factors (implied later) play a larger role in establishing trust.

Chapters

The first thing that builds trust is competence in your role. Interestingly, competence is the least important of the 3 that I'm going to talk to you about. Most people, unless you're a brain surgeon, are willing to give you the grace to be bad long enough to get better. Competence is important. You need to be able to do your job. But most of you, when you first started the job that you hold today, you were nowhere near as good in that role when you started as you are today. And the people around you gave you the grace to be bad long enough to get better.