Ron Friedman

It allowed us to feel like we were on the same page and seeing each other's faces and we weren't alone.

But there are some important costs to video calls that we often ignore.

So in real life, it's completely unnatural to stare someone in the face for an hour straight.

On video calls, looking away feels rude, and so we overcompensate, and it's exhausting.

And so there's research showing that if you are on video calls all day, you're going to have less energy and make worse decisions than if you had those same conversations on the phone.

Now, to be clear, there are opportunities for doing video calls when they're actually quite valuable.

So, for example, if you're just establishing a relationship or –

there's a disagreement, in those cases, getting on video calls makes complete sense.

But because you see the other person's face and you're less likely to misinterpret what they mean.

But unless that's the case, if you already have a relationship and there's no disagreement in place, there's no reason to use video calls.

Stick to phone calls.

You'll have a lot more energy as a result.

Well, one of the things that is, I think, really fascinating is that trust is built on reciprocity.

And so the more trust you give, the more likely it is to be reciprocated.

Now, let's take a step back for a second because one of the things I do in the book is I talk about what are the three pillars of trust.

What is trust actually founded on?

And trust, by the way, just to define it for people because it tends to get fuzzy for a lot of folks in terms of like the idea of trust gets –

thrown around in leadership circles a lot.

But what is the actual definition of trust?

Well, trust is being willing to take on risk while still expecting a positive outcome.