Trust - Leadership

How do I interpret actions and words? Is my default to trust or distrust? In what ways does this allow me to facilitate/block trust?

I would say that my default is usually to trust people. At least depending on the situation. In most aspects, I would default to trust people. In situations that I find more risky, I probably default to distrust and self-reliance. I talk to my students a lot about how we have trust in each other and that I trust them to do the right thing. There have been a few times where kids have lied to me and we've had the conversation about how they have broken my trust in them and what are they going to do to gain it back. One of my coworkers once told me about an experience she had with a kid who just made a bone-head decision during an assembly that year. They had said something inappropriate during a very serious discussion and she pulled them out of the auditorium to talk to them. She laid it out for them straight: you have lost my trust and respect at this moment and you have lost the trust and respect of your classmates. How are you going to earn both those things back? She was very much like this with everything; if you did something wrong, you knew it and you knew you had to make it better. The student ended up coming into her room the next day and asking her if he could apologize to the whole class quick for the day beforehand to restore that trust; he did and it was a way for the student to take care of it.

I would say that depending on who I'm dealing with, my trust is easy to re-establish the first few times. In my personal life, I know when someone loses my trust, it takes a lot for me to build it back up. In my school life, it's relatively easy; but I guess, I'm dealing with 13/14 year olds, and they make bone-head decisions and need those countless opportunities to make things better to learn. I know if I don't trust someone, I typically don't share a lot of personal details with them; it's usually necessary conversation only and I won't invite them to important events and such. This allows me to kinda keep them at arms length so they can't ruin my trust further.