I decided on the topic for this month's column from a place of personal frustration. It seems everywhere I look recently, there are large problems caused by an absence of trust. Starting at the top, we have a Congress stuck in paralyzing deadlock because neither party is able to trust the other's motivations. Even the smallest overtures are weighed against political gamesmanship. Consequently, polls show the American electorate has little trust in its leadership to accomplish what most agree are critical steps to continue the country's recovery.

Perhaps held in even more contempt than government are corporations. It says a lot that Up in the Air is being heralded as a movie of the times. We've gotten to the point where we expect companies to obfuscate, omit or flat-out lie--and when they operate with integrity, we are surprised (and often doubt their real motives).

Is the whole country in a funk caused by an absence of trust?

I certainly see it in my work with leaders. The majority of the corporate issues I've witnessed in the past year have had underlying trust issues that either caused them or exacerbated them. There's some really bad behavior happening at companies, undoubtedly fueled by insecurity in the marketplace. Fear leads to self-preservation, which often turns into a profound skepticism about anyone else's motives. And I can tell you that when no one trusts, nothing is heard and nothing changes.

Luckily, this is a column for entrepreneurs--who have the ultimate power to set the tone in their own companies. Not sure if you should be concerned about trust at work? Without it, you'll never have these key attributes of a successful company:

• Employees who feel comfortable speaking truth to power, and express ideas and concerns freely
• Teams whose members hold each other accountable and depend on each other for feedback on improvement
• Employees who have loyalty to you and to the company
• Customers who tell you you're messing up when you can still fix it, rather than just fire you
• Colleagues who let you know the "word on the street" about your company
• And of course, the motivation for anyone to do her best work

Trust is important, but sometimes it seems elusive. We hire people who appear to develop other, unstated motives. We have a customer who is quick to place blame. Or we meet a colleague who gives us a bad gut feeling. How then do we build trust and our own trustworthiness?

One of my favorite coaching tools in recent years is called The Trust Equation. It was developed by Charles H. Green and is discussed in his book, The Trusted Advisor, and on his website, trustedadvisor.com. It challenges us to break down the components of trust to discover where we might be falling short in a trust relationship.

Note: TQ = Trust, C= Credibility, R= Reliability, I= Intimacy and S=Self-Orientation.

I use this frequently with clients (and myself) to diagnose what's happening when a relationship isn't working--whether with a subordinate, customer or supervisor. Most compelling is the role of self-orientation. It alone is the denominator with the power to greatly diminish any building up of credibility, reliability or intimacy you may feel you've done. Think about it and it becomes clear. If someone has selfish motives, we cannot let our guard down. The challenge to you is to determine where your self-orientation is in a relationship, and try to reduce it. Because if it's high, you can bet that the other person will not be able to trust you. And conversely, if you come from a place of low self-orientation, the other person may feel she can follow.

Green gives a lot of practical tools on his site for how to work on trust building. He talks extensively about the need for transparency in our dealings with others, so motives are stated rather than hidden. Lack of transparency is self-orientation's partner in crime. I have many coaching conversations where clients feel they are being played and have to guess at someone's motivations. (And they always guess them to be bad, which is another coaching discussion.)

I'm guessing there are others out there who are yearning for more trust at work. It's not a Pollyanna attitude, it's good business (and sure beats the alternative in the human condition).

So for all of us, from Congress to Wall Street to your own corner office, here's a guideline and a lesson. Trust is the basis for any successful endeavor with more than one person. And if you want it, be the first to extend it.