Developing Trust While Working with People: Why Patience, Understanding, and Confidentiality Matter

In our increasingly fast-paced world, it’s easy to forget that the most meaningful human connections still rely on qualities that take time and care to cultivate: patience, understanding, and confidentiality.

When dealing with people—whether professionally or personally—patience and understanding aren’t optional; they’re essential. Everyone is fighting a battle we can't always see. We live in a world that pushes for immediate responses, fast fixes, and instant validation. But people aren’t machines. Emotions, circumstances, and personalities vary.

The ability to listen without judgment, to pause before reacting, and to give someone space to process can be the difference between miscommunication and mutual respect.

But while patience and understanding open the door to connection, confidentiality is what holds the trust together.When someone shares something with you—whether it’s a concern, a confession, or a creative idea—it’s not just information. It’s a gesture of trust. How you handle that moment defines the future of the relationship. Break that confidentiality, and you don’t just lose trust—you lose the bond.

This brings me to a subject I’ve grown increasingly wary of: online networking.

While technology has undeniably created global opportunities, I’ve become less of a fan of digital connections that depend heavily on cloud-based platforms, social media, or messaging apps. The reason? One word: security.

We hear it all the time—data breaches, identity theft, compromised systems—and yet we continue to pour our personal and professional lives into platforms that often treat privacy as an afterthought. No matter how many privacy policies are updated or how many "end-to-end encryption" promises are made,breaches keep happening. And with every one, trust erodes a little more.

In many cases, it’s not about having something to hide—it’s about wanting to preserve what should be private. Trust doesn't just mean telling the truth; it means guarding the truth when others entrust it to you.

So how do we move forward?

• Be intentional with your communication. Whether in person or online, treat every conversation with care.

• Guard confidentiality like it’s sacred—because it is.

• Don’t rush trust. It grows best when nurtured slowly with consistency and respect.

• Question convenience. Just because a platform is easy to use doesn’t mean it’s secure.

• Choose depth over reach. Sometimes fewer, stronger relationships are more valuable than a broad but shallow network.

At the end of the day, the most valuable things we can offer each other are respect, presence, and trust. Those things may not be flashy or fast, but they’re what truly build strong, lasting connections in a noisy, uncertain world.

As always some realtime shots from my morning nature connection. At Oakfield Park in Nova Scotia it looks like they are setting up for a family day, a new business for raft tours setup and it’s a clear sky warm morning. That is pretty perfect.

Have an amazing Thursday,

Danielle Pointon

Live Blue Consulting