Individuals with an Enterprising Design orient toward trust through initiative, confidence, and the ability to produce forward movement. Trust is built when someone demonstrates courage, decisiveness, and a willingness to take ownership of outcomes. Enterprising individuals tend to trust those who are action-oriented, resourceful, and capable of navigating uncertainty. They are less likely to base trust primarily on emotional transparency or procedural perfection, and more likely to base it on whether someone can “move the ball down the field.” For them, trust is strongly linked to momentum: if progress is happening, trust increases; if stagnation dominates, trust begins to erode.

Enterprising Design trusts based on:

• Initiative

• Ownership

• Confidence under pressure

• Results and progress

They do not primarily trust based on:

• Hesitation or indecision

• Excessive caution

• Emotional reassurance alone

• Process without movement

They trust when:

• Someone takes charge when needed

• Opportunities are seized wisely

• Obstacles are confronted directly

• Momentum is sustained

For Enterprising Design, trust is most sensitive in domains involving leadership, decision-making, risk-taking, and strategic responsibility. They evaluate trust based on whether someone can carry weight, protect the mission, and advance shared goals. They are often less focused on whether someone agrees with them emotionally and more focused on whether someone is capable and committed to moving forward.

For Enterprising Design, trust is most sensitive in:

Initiative & Ownership

• Do you take responsibility without being pushed?

• Do you act like a builder or a bystander?

Decision Authority & Judgment

• Can you make strong decisions under pressure?

• Do you protect the mission when stakes rise?

Strategic Loyalty

• Are you aligned with the goal and willing to defend it?

• Do you protect the vision or undermine it?

Opportunity Stewardship

• Can you handle power, influence, and access wisely?

• Do you use opportunities responsibly?

Enterprising individuals often have high trust capacity in uncertain or high-risk environments because they are naturally comfortable with challenge and growth. They tend to assume that risk is a normal part of life, and they often trust themselves strongly, which allows them to extend trust to others quickly if they see competence and initiative. They can tolerate imperfection if progress is still occurring. However, they may struggle to trust those who appear hesitant, overly cautious, or unable to carry responsibility, because such traits can feel like weakness or liability in high-stakes environments.

Enterprising Designs often have:

• High tolerance for uncertainty

• Strong confidence in decision-making

• Comfort with risk and competition

• Ability to move quickly

Trust Capacity Tends To Be:

• 3.5 – 5 in leadership contexts

Key insight:

• They can handle risk.

• They struggle with hesitation.

Trust increases when others demonstrate initiative, competence, and proactive ownership. Enterprising individuals feel secure when they see people act decisively, take responsibility for results, and respond to challenges without excuses. They also trust people who are willing to speak up, negotiate, and defend shared goals rather than shrink back. Enterprising individuals are strongly reassured by those who are strategic and resilient. The phrase that builds trust for them is:
“I’ve got it—let’s move.”

Trust increases when:

• Initiative is consistent

• Responsibility is owned without prompting

• Decisions are made with courage and clarity

• Problems are solved quickly

• People compete with excellence rather than complain

Key phrase:

• “Let’s move.”

Trust erodes rapidly when others show passivity, avoidance, or inability to take ownership. Enterprising individuals are particularly sensitive to excuses, victim mentality, or chronic hesitation because these slow momentum and increase risk exposure. They may also lose trust when people become overly emotional in ways that derail progress or when individuals resist change and growth. For Enterprising Design, a lack of initiative often registers as unreliability, even if the person is morally sincere.

Enterprising Designs are especially sensitive to:

• Indecision

• Avoidance of responsibility

• Excuses and blame-shifting

• Fear-driven stagnation

• Resistance to change

Key insight:

• They can tolerate mistakes.

• They cannot tolerate passivity.

Enterprising individuals tend to detect deceit through strategic misalignment and manipulation of influence. They are often sensitive to power plays, hidden agendas, and disloyalty to mission. However, they may underestimate subtle emotional deceit or omission if the person still appears useful or productive. Their deceit radar is strongest around loyalty, authority, and hidden motives related to advancement. If they sense someone is leveraging relationships for personal gain while pretending to be aligned, trust collapses quickly.

Enterprising Design has high radar for:

• Hidden agendas

• Opportunism without loyalty

• Manipulation of influence

• Strategic betrayal

But risk:

• They may overlook small integrity breaches if momentum stays high

Important note:

• Deceit feels most offensive to Enterprising Design when it undermines power or mission.

Enterprising individuals often have a naturally high risk appetite. They are willing to invest money, energy, time, and reputation if they believe the opportunity is worth it. They are energized by growth environments and can handle uncertainty better than most. Their risk weighting is highest in areas tied to opportunity, influence, expansion, and future potential. However, because they move quickly, they may occasionally trust too fast and discover later that someone lacked integrity or capacity.

Enterprising Designs:

• Will risk stability for opportunity

• Will invest quickly when potential is high

• Will take bold steps if the upside is meaningful

Their risk weighting is high in:

• Influence and leadership

• Opportunity advancement

• Strategic alliances

• Future expansion

When trust begins to erode, Enterprising individuals respond by taking control. They may tighten decision authority, reduce delegation, and limit the other person’s influence. If they perceive someone as a liability, they act quickly to protect momentum and outcomes. They often disengage decisively rather than gradually. Emotional confrontation may occur, but their primary response is strategic: remove obstacles, restructure roles, or replace unreliable partnerships. Once they conclude a person is not aligned or capable, restoration is difficult.

When trust erodes:

• Phase 1: Increase oversight

• Phase 2: Reclaim authority

• Phase 3: Reduce access and influence

• Phase 4: Strategic separation

Once internal narrative shifts to:

• “You’re a liability,”
  they act quickly to protect direction.

For long-term trust stability, Enterprising Design requires partners and teams that are growth-oriented, proactive, and capable of carrying responsibility. They need people who can handle fast pace, strategic change, and leadership pressure. They thrive in environments where initiative is valued and where others do not require constant motivation. They are structurally incompatible with chronic fear-based thinking, passive communication cultures, or relationships where they must constantly slow down to accommodate indecision.

For long-term trust stability, Enterprising Design requires:

• Initiative-driven partners

• Growth mindset culture

• High accountability tolerance

• Resilience under pressure

• Strategic loyalty and alignment

Without these:

• Frustration and domination dynamics develop.

The primary growth edge for Enterprising Design is learning to slow down enough to build relational stability and emotional safety. Their speed and intensity can overwhelm others and may unintentionally create fear-based compliance rather than genuine trust. They also must learn to differentiate between healthy caution and weakness. Enterprising individuals benefit from developing patience with process, listening more deeply, and valuing relational repair as much as results. Without growth, they may become overly controlling or dismissive of those who process more slowly.

To maintain healthy trust, they must:

• Balance urgency with patience

• Value emotional safety, not just outcomes

• Avoid dominance as a default

• Learn to mentor rather than pressure

• Distinguish caution from disloyalty

Otherwise:

• They may create fear-based environments that reduce honesty and increase concealment.