Given that my French is still very limited, I spend a lot of time these days practising conversations in my head and working out ways to phrase what I want to say using my limited vocabulary. This is a strategy that works brilliantly, I find, right up to the point where I’ve used my practiced phrase and the person I’m speaking to responds. At that point, my strategy tends to fall apart, and I become a quivering mime artist. C’est la vie, as we say in France.

Anyway, the other day, I found myself mentally preparing for a conversation in which I envisaged using the word ‘confidence’.

“Ah”, I thought. “I know the word for confidence; it’s ‘confiance’.”

“Are you sure?”, asked my inner voice. Which was ironic, I thought.

My confidence broken, I checked Google Translate, which told me that ‘confiance’ actually means ‘trust’.

Confused, I looked up the French word for confidence. The answer popped up: ‘confiance’.

So, it turns out that, in French, confidence and trust are the same word. Which got me thinking. In English, the two words appear to have separate meanings, but, of course, when you think about it, they don’t really.

For self-confidence, surely, is trust in ourselves? Trust that we can complete a task, succeed or overcome challenges, for example.

And what is confidence in others if not to trust in their abilities, principles and values, amongst other things?

It’s no coincidence that whenever we talk about any of the topics we’ve been writing training materials around for more than 20 years, whether that’s leadership, remote team management, negotiation skills, communication skills, equal opportunities, the word trust invariably comes up.

Trust is fundamental to our ability to perform as individuals and to work effectively with others. We cannot have confidence in ourselves or in others, without trust. And when trust is broken, so is our confidence.

If you’d like to find some training activities that focus on trust, head on over to Trainers’ Library, where there are loads including “Alien Invasion – The Fragility of Trust”, “Blind Guiding - Exploring Leadership and Followership”, “Flenda’s Tale”, “Police Chase” and “The Wheel” as well as “Glasstap Sheep Trials“ (pictured).