The Reina Trust & Betrayal Model®

Transactional Trust™—What Builds Trust



The Reina Trust & Betrayal Model® defines trust as Transactional Trust™. Trust is reciprocal—you have to give it to get it—and it is built incrementally, step-by-step over time. There are three types of Transactional Trust: Contractual Trust™ which is the Trust of Character; Communication Trust™ which is the Trust of Disclosure; and Competence Trust™ which is the Trust of Capability.

Contractual Trust™ sets the tone and direction for your company and shapes roles and responsibilities. Communication Trust™ establishes open information flow and how people respectfully talk with one another. Competence Trust™ allows individuals to leverage and further develop their skills, abilities, and knowledge.

We have identified sixteen behaviors that build Transactional Trust™ and they lay the foundation for effective relationships, trustworthy leadership, and strategic performance. Consistent practice of these behaviors in your organization creates an environment where people want to produce and gives the organization a competitive advantage.


Betrayal—What Breaks Trust



The Reina Trust & Betrayal Model® defines betrayal as a breach of trust or the perception of a breach of trust.




Betrayal occurs along a continuum from major to minor and may be intentional or unintentional. Our model helps people see that it is not just the big things that break trust. Small things break trust and they add up!

People feel betrayed when others fail to do what they say they will do, take credit for work they did not perform, micromanage others’ efforts, use information for their own gain, spin the truth rather than tell it like it is, talk about others behind their back, focus on trying to make themselves look good, and violate confidentiality; people feel betrayed when they are held back from opportunities for advancement and are not included in decisions, particularly those that have an impact on them.

Nine out of ten people experience gossip and backbiting in the workplace! It is the number one destroyer of Communication Trust™!


The Seven Steps for Healing™—How to Rebuild Trust



The Seven Steps for Healing™ serve as a framework for working through the pain and frustration of betrayal to rebuild trust and realign responsibilities. We’ll briefly explore each step here. Although we talk about the steps in numerical order, people should understand that the process of healing is not linear. You may work through more than one step at a time and may circle back through particular steps. 

Step 1: Observe and acknowledge what has happened to break trust and the impact of that break on you and your relationships. When you are betrayed, you experience a loss: the loss of a relationship, the loss of a role, the loss of an opportunity—in short, the loss of what was or the loss of what could have been. You may have experienced an accumulative loss, such as multiple restructurings. Or you may experience a single event that causes significant loss, such as someone’s stealing your ideas for a presentation and benefiting from them. For healing to take place, you need to acknowledge the loss.

Step 2: Allow the feelings to surface, to be heard, and to be understood. When you experience betrayal, you feel emotions: pain, anger, or confusion, among others. The emotions stemming from betrayal are powerful, and the Seven Steps encourage you to honor those emotions. Expressing your feelings allows you to actually begin to “work through” the betrayal, and supports the healing process.

Step 3: Get support to help you understand what happened and how you have been affected and to explore how you want to respond. Some people may choose to remain bitter and resentful and to assume the posture of a victim. Support helps you shift from blaming to problem solving—shift from being “the victim” to taking responsibility for yourself, your job, and your life. Everyone needs support from others to grow from an experience of betrayal.

Step 4: Reframe the experience. This is an important aspect of the healing process. In reframing you use your hurt and pain as stepping stones. You consider the bigger picture, extenuating circumstances, and the underlying meaning of the experience. You reflect on how to your understanding of yourself, and consider what you have learned about relationships.

Step 5: Take responsibility for the experience by looking at what part you may have played in what happened. You are not responsible for what was done to you, but you are responsible for how you choose to respond. You take responsibility when you consider what you could have done differently and what actions you can take now to change the situation.

Step 6: Forgive yourself and others by asking, “What needs to happen for forgiveness to take place?” You seek to feel compassion for both the individual who betrayed you and for yourself. You try to understand how this betrayal occurred. This does not mean excusing the offending behavior. You are clear that you feel that what was done was “wrong,” and you observe how the betrayal has affected you. You identify the feelings—hurt, anger, resentment, and fear—that accompany the betrayal, and decide that you want to release yourself from the burden of carrying those feelings.

Step 7: Let go and move on by asking what needs to be said or done to put this experience behind you. This is the action step. You let go of the feelings that keep pulling you back to the betrayal. You do not forget the betrayal or fail to protect yourself from further betrayals. There is a difference between remembering and “hanging on” and remembering so as to help yourself and others by drawing on the lessons learned. You acknowledge that you are in control of your reactions and choose to react in a way that supports you. You look forward rather than backward.

Transformative Trust™—How to Sustain Trust



When people practice Transactional Trust™ behaviors consistently, trust reaches a critical point: it increases exponentially and becomes self-generating and synergistic. We call this Transformative Trust™.

There are four core characteristics that must be present to support Transformative Trust™: conviction, courage, compassion, and community. For instance, you must hold the conviction that trusting relationships are vital if you are to pay attention to trust in the first place. You need courage to practice trust-building behaviors, such as admitting a mistake and telling the truth. You need compassion to give feedback in the spirit of support rather than criticism, and you need a perspective of community to be aware of the needs of others rather than merely acting solely in your own best interest.

The core characteristics of Transformative Trust™ help people practice trust-building behaviors consistently. Transformative Trust™ in your organization energizes relationships and transforms your business culture!

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