The Code of Trust: An American Counterintelligence Expert’s Five Rules to Lead and Succeed

Complex problems can have simple answers, as FBI agent Dreeke (It’s Not All About Me) shows in this guide to building trust. He exhorts would-be leaders to follow the five principles of his “code of trust”—suspend your ego, be nonjudgmental, honor reason, validate others, and be generous—and the “four steps to inspiring trust,” which are an action plan that implements the code. The four steps—align your goals, apply the power of context, craft your encounters, and connect—are explained in detail. As an example of aligning goals, Dreeke uses the story of another agent who managed to recruit a difficult source by listening carefully to what the source wanted. “Applying the power of context” means using psychologist William Marston’s “science of finding human similarities” to mesh together different people’s communication styles. “Crafting the encounter” involves preparing opening remarks, asking for assistance, making an offering, and sticking to the subject—the other person. The fourth and arguably most important step is making an emotional connection. Smart, empowering, and easy to follow, Dreeke’s manual should become a classic business—and personal—primer on the art of building trust. [em](Aug.) [/em]