You have the natural ability to sense the authenticity of people you meet. Authenticity relates to the integrity that should exist between who someone says they are and who they really are. In other words, you can sense whether someone is being true to who they really are.

You have a deep desire to establish lasting relationships that are solid, genuine, and mutually rewarding; relationships built on the deepest level of trust. Trust for you must be earned over time and there is no rush. In your mind the only way to build this level of trust is to walk and work alongside someone long enough to observe how they behave in different situations.

In your personal life, you create a committed, confidential, private space where people are fully committed to being there for each other, no questions asked. In your public life however, you create something slightly different; an authentic, respectful space with consistent boundaries in which people can simply get on with what they need to do without having to be 'friends'.

Working with people who proven themselves to me;

taking time to work alongside people so that I can understand how they can be trusted as people;

taking my time to build authentic, high trust relationships with a few key people;

separating my private life from my public life.

I have known for a long time;

are happy to be who they are with no pretenses;

are confident, confidential and consistent;

just get on with the job at hand with the right level of respectfulness and no fuss.

Rushing into commitment with any other person;

making new friends easily;

trusting people I have just met.

I have to depend on people who are inauthentic, lack integrity (they are not who they say they are) or who are not honest;

work in a situation where, in my mind, trust has been broken.

Being aloof;

being 'cliquey', or in other words, preferring to hang out only with certain people;

someone who is easily suspicious or sceptical of others.

I enjoy keeping things professional - we don't have to like each other to work together, but we do have to be respectful towards each other.

Don't bullshit me - be straight and don't hide things from me.

Be consistent in the way you behave.

You can form close relationships with people, and you enjoy doing so.

You receive profound satisfaction from working hard with friends to accomplish an important goal.

You know many people, and you can relate with all kinds of people. But you also have a very small group of friends with whom you have incredibly deep relationships.

Some people may feel threatened or uncomfortable because they don’t have the close, intense personal relationships that you thrive on.

By connecting deeply with the right person, you gain a friend for life.

You tend to be at your best when you are part of a stable group of friends you can trust. Find a workplace in which friendships are encouraged. You will not do well in an overly formal organization.

Deliberately learn as much as you can about the people that you meet. You like knowing about people, and others like being known. In this way, you will be a catalyst for trusting relationships.

Show people that you trust them, and they will be more likely to trust others. You can be an important role model in this area.

Let your caring show. For example, find people in your company to mentor, help your colleagues to know each other better, or extend your relationships 'beyond the office'.

No matter how busy you are, stay in contact with your friends. They are your fuel.

You have a very clear expectation of how people should treat each other. You lose respect quickly for people that do not meet these standards consistently, to the point that you will have nothing to do with them. Be careful of the impact that this could have on your professional and personal relationships. Interrogate periodically whether your criteria are valid.

Watch out for: Excluding valuable people simply because it takes too much effort to learn to trust them.

What criteria do you use to judge whether someone is trustworthy or not?