Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts as our members help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. We will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

The headlines speak for themselves…

• Trust in business is down
• Washington can’t be trusted
• The NFL has trust issues.

….or do they? 

Have you ever paused to consider that businesses, Washington and the NFL are all run by people?  Institutions are only as trustworthy as those who lead them. In reality, we don’t have a crisis of trust. We have too many “low trust” leaders.

Trust is built on three pillars: Character, competence & consistency. If the first of these pillars comes naturally, the second two are easy to construct. How do you measure character? Michael Josephson has built his “Character Counts” program on 6 pillars. Notice the first is trustworthiness.

If you lead an organization and the headlines are continuously working against you, take a few minutes to consider the following:

• Do you cheat or deceive others?
• Are you reliable? (consistency)
• Do you keep your word?
• Do you have courage to do the right thing?
• Do you have a good reputation? (competence)
• Are you loyal?
• Do you stand by your family, friends and country?

You may have noticed that competence and consistency are attributes of good character. If organizations were run by people who could answer “Yes” to all these questions, or even took the time to consider them, the headlines would read differently.

Being trustworthy is not rocket science. It’s simply a choice. Make it yours.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts as our members help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. We will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Andy Rosenbloom shares a human story about trust and business success.

The Business of Being Human 

Why do so many businesses struggle with the concept of trust as a business strategy?

Trust is a human emotion – not a business activity.  Too many companies are content to work towards their goals of increasing revenue, stock value, and market share without taking into consideration the people they affect and how those people’s opinions shape the company’s profitability.   

When human emotions like empathy, generosity or trust make their way into business, the outcome can be surprising.

I expect to be given good pizza when I visit my favorite corner pizzeria.  I give the restaurant $2.50 and they give me a slice.  That’s not trust, it’s merely a transaction.

Trust in a pizzeria is earned when the owner of the business steps out of the “zone” of the business transaction to demonstrate his or her own sense of humanity.  Greeting the customer by name, offering a free taste of a specialty slice, or remembering a frequent order go a long way towards building trust.  

And how does this trust make it’s way back towards the business goals described above?  In the same way that we humans get excited to introduce our trusted and beloved friends and family to others, the businesses that we trust are the one’s we love to talk about.  

I make frequent recommendations to my friends to visit the restaurant which offered to serve me a free meal when I told them that I lost a $300 gift certificate.  On the restaurant’s part, it was a terrible business decision.  But the owner of the eatery knew better than to make that call from the standpoint of business alone.  She put her trust in me that my story of the lost gift card was true and we shared a moment of humanity that I will never stop talking about.   

Andy Rosenbloom is a food marketing specialist who consults with K-12 foodservice programs across the country.  He is dedicated to honesty, trust and transparency and rewards trustworthy businesses with his loyalty and referrals. Follow him on Twitter @andyrosenbloom

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Copyright 2014, Next Decade, Inc.