Trust is the bedrock of value creation, says top UAE educator

Yalla — if there’s one universal currency, it’s trust: the invisible thread weaving through every meaningful relationship, transaction, and career leap. After 27 years in insurance, where trust defines the client-advisor bond, I transitioned to real estate investment advisory, where credibility is everything. The lesson? Whether safeguarding assets or guiding investments, trust isn’t incidental; it’s the bedrock of value creation.

Who better to unpack this force than my neighbour, Professor Dame Heather McGregor? As Provost & Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai and a luminary in leadership, business, and social capital, Heather embodies trust in action. I’m deeply grateful she shared her time and insights with me to explore its power.

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The foundation of trust  

In my transition from insurance to real estate, I am reminded that trust is the common denominator in client relationships - whether safeguarding assets or advising on investments. From your perspective, what are the non-negotiables for building and maintaining trust in professional settings?  

I believe that you can build trust between people and between companies through the principal of reciprocity. If you behave towards others honestly and with generosity of time and spirit, they will learn that you are a person of your word and will develop trust in you. Trust is earned by you, and learned by others dealing with you. 

The “trust economy” in career transitions

As per my count you have shifted three times successfully to very different professions during your career. Can you please share some key trust-learnings, especially when credibility is tied to tenure in a specific field?

The first advice I have to everyone is to do a professional qualification with a very good – and therefore highly trusted – institution.  Am I a better reader and interpreter of financial statements because I am a CGMA? Probably not — I was pretty good at that before I qualified. But my qualification is a validation of my experience, and it creates trust, not least when people are considering me for audit committee appointments, or major leadership roles in education. I am a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the highest level awarded by the UK’s professional body for educators working in universities. I am just as good (or bad!) a teacher as I was before I did the qualification, but it confirmed an independent assessment of my contribution and means people trust me to lead other educators.

But it’s not all about qualifications. It’s also about experience. So my second piece of advice is to invest in experience. For example, I served as a trustee (and a chair) of several not-for-profits long before I became a director of a public company. So people trusted that I knew the dividing line between executive and non-executive. I volunteered for part-time teaching at City University for years before I was employed by a university full time, so people knew that I could design content and teach it. Both these examples were poorly paid or unpaid, and both took up time, but I invested my time for the purpose of building trust in my capabilities.

Finally, I sought out relationships with people who were well-connected and could serve as my advocates. When it comes down to the wire, and all other things are equal, people will place trust in the recommendations of others that they already trust.

Digital trust: Authenticity in the age of AI  

With the rise of AI, deepfakes, and curated online personas, authenticity feels both scarce and scrutinised. How do you suggest professionals leverage technology to enhance trust without slipping into artificiality?  

Authentic leadership and professional identity are critical in an age where no one knows who or what to trust. I personally believe that everyone who want to build trust with the public has to decide what values they identify with and what impact they want to have on the world, and then consistently back that up in everything they say and do, including online. Everyone who works at Heriot-Watt in Dubai have what we call an Impact Statement, which they develop with me or one of our other trainers on arrival. Mine can be summarised as ‘building relationships to create opportunities for others’ and in everything I say online I try to reinforce that through regular and carefully curated content. People are more likely to trust you, even if they don’t know you, if they know what you say. 

Final note: Trust as a competitive edge  

In a world where differentiation matters, could trust be the ultimate competitive advantage? If so, how do we measure its ROI?  

Trust significantly lowers transaction costs.  This creates competitive advantage – for example, you can lower the cost of customer acquisition if you get more word-of-mouth referral, and you can lower the cost of staff acquisition if you lower staff turnover and attract applicants without the need for agencies. When businesses (and people) trust each other, they can streamline processes, minimise bureaucratic hurdles, and expedite decision-making.

You can measure the ROI of the trust you have built up by tracking customer retention rates, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and repeat business (or repeat referrals – who is referring you business? Are they doing so repeatedly? How much is business acquisition costing you over time?). High trust leads to loyal customers and positive word-of-mouth. Trust within the organisation can lead to a more motivated and stable workforce and I commend this article by Deloitte on how to measure trust within the organisation.  

The writer is a Dubai real estate investment specialist