Clarify Your Capabilities: Building Trust Through Competence

Practicing Connection

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Did you know that trust isn’t just about what you can do, but also about how honest you are about your limits?

This week, we’ll share a simple practice to help you build trust through clarity, confidence, and communication.

In this episode of Practicing Connection, Jessica and Coral explore how competence, one of the four key distinctions of trust, lays the groundwork for strong, reliable relationships.

Drawing from Charles Feltman’s The Thin Book of Trust, Coral introduces the “Clarify Your Current Capabilities” practice, a quick but powerful reflection to help you honestly assess your strengths and limits before taking on a new task or commitment.

You’ll learn step-by-step how to name what you can do well, where you might need support, and how to communicate this with your team or supervisor. This practice not only helps you deliver on your promises, but also normalizes asking for help as a sign of competence - not weakness.

Whether you’re leading a project, joining a new team, or just want to strengthen your reliability, this episode will help you build trust by showing up with clarity and confidence.

Links and resources from this episode:

The Thin Book of Trust (Third edition), by Charles Feltman

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