Trust Across America™

TRUST ACROSS AMERICA™ MONTHLY UPDATE JULY 2010

A close family member likes to remind me that “Slow and steady wins the race”…as long as you are heading in the right direction. Our VISION is slowly and steadily reaching its lofty goal as our trust ecosystem continues to expand, and collaboratively we elevate the discussion and develop solutions for building a more trustworthy world.

Over the past month we have spent much of our time finalizing our study on trustworthy business practices in public companies. Look for a major announcement in August and a special newsletter explaining our methodology and some of our observations.

Our core programs continue to grow:

• Our LinkedIn Group called Trust Across America launched in mid-April. It’s a place for discussion, dialogue and debate on trustworthy behavior in business. Most of our members are thought leaders from academia, consulting and corporate America in the fields of ethics, trust, reputation, leadership, integrity, CSR, ESG, sustainability and impact investing. If you have not already done so, please join the group and take a minute to introduce yourself. Please invite a professional colleague to join the group as well.

• The Trust Across America Blog for July includes interviews with Brian Moriarty from the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics; Jeffrey Seglin, the NY Times Ethics Columnist; Karen Mishra, a Michigan State Professor who, along with her husband Aneil, has spent the past twenty years studying trust; and Tony Simons a leadership and management professor at Cornell, and an expert in business trust and integrity. I also wrote a few pieces on how companies can damage their reputation through poor marketing and customer service, and you can follow my fender bender saga navigating the auto insurance industry. Our blog index has grown to almost forty covering trustworthy behavior in business from various viewpoints including ethics, trust, reputation, integrity, sustainability, ESG, CSR and leadership. Click on link

• Trust Across America Radio Show: We had a surprise visit from Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation on July 21. We continue to be honored by the outstanding thought leaders who have appeared, and will be appearing on the show. All past shows are archived, so you can listen at your convenience: Click on Show Link
Our guests for the month of August, all leading experts in various aspects of organizational trustworthiness, include: (August 4) Steve Farber, the President of Extreme Leadership and author of Greater than Yourself; Paula Marshall the CEO of Bama Companies, a Malcolm Baldrige Award Winner and author of Finding the Soul of Big Business; (August 11) Fran Maier, the founder of Match.com and the President of TRUSTe that currently certifies the privacy practices of over 3,000 websites; Traci Fenton, the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., whose mission is championing the growth of democratic companies worldwide. WorldBlu publishes the annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™; (August 18) Bob Schoultz, Director of the Master of Science Program in Global Leadership at the University of San Diego; Art Stewart, a consultant, educator, and purveyor of a strategic framework – the ‘New Responsibility Paradigm’; (August 25) Nick Andrews, Managing Director North America for the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence; and Karen Mishra, a clinical professor in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Karen’s research focuses on how organizations build trust with employees through internal communication.

• Consultant’s Collaborative Our Consultant’s Collaborative is growing. It is another opportunity for experts to highlight and share their knowledge with visitors to our site, as well as serving as a centralized internal and external resource for consulting, media and program referrals. We hope to expand the Collaborative to include professionals with expertise in Organizational Trust, Leadership, Ethics, Integrity, Reputation, Accountability, Sustainability, CSR, ESG, Governance/GRC and Impact Investing. Special programs are being developed for those who participate through enhanced listings. Click for Consultants Page

• Reading Room Looking for a book on organizational trust? Our Reading Room should be your first stop. Books are written by experts from corporate America, academia and consulting. We added several new titles for August. Click Here to Go to the Reading Room

We hope you will choose to get involved and stay involved in some of the following ways. Trust Across America is a collaborative effort. We cannot do this alone.

• Join our Linkedin group called Trust Across America. We have also started a group on Facebook by the same name but have not quite figured out what we will do with it!

• Be a guest on our radio show.Refer a colleague to appear on the show. Please have them send an email to
Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com with their expertise and contact information.

• Link your blog to our site – Follow the format on the existing blogs at the link below and send it back in an email-we will add your blog within a few days.

• Be listed in the Consultants Collaborative- Please email me for more information on various listing options. (Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com)

• Suggest a book for our Reading Room

• Collaborate in some way we have not yet considered.

Thank you for your interest in Trust Across America. We look forward to continuing to build our trust ecosystem and in providing valuable resources to both individuals and companies. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may be interested.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, Executive Director
www.trustacrossamerica.com
Copyright © 2010 Next Decade, Inc.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Mishra who provided some insightful commentary on trust in business.

Barbara: Tell us a bit about your background, qualifications and expertise. If you have written a book, please provide the title.

Karen: I am a professor at Michigan State University where I teach marketing and entrepreneurship and I provide marketing leadership for the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. I have been doing research on trust for 20 years with my co-author, fellow professor, and husband, Aneil Mishra. We recently wrote Trust is Everything: Become the Leader Others will Follow and we are now writing our second book, “Trustworthy Leadership: Psychology and Practice” due next year to be published by Routledge Press.

Link to Trust is Everything

Barbara: Trust Across America’s mission is to rebuild trustworthy behavior in America, starting with public companies. How would you generally define trustworthy behavior?

Karen: People trust others who are reliable, open, competent, and compassionate. In our research of companies and individuals, we define this as the ROCC of Trust. This is behavior that is both ethical and transparent. Leaders who are authentic, courageous, and humble are more likely to behave in a trustworthy fashion.

Barbara: What are some of the specific components of trustworthy behavior in your opinion?

Karen: In our ROCC of trust behaviors, reliability and competence are the most visible behaviors for others to evaluate and can be the first steps towards building trust. However, you need openness and compassion to build deeper relationships and to create lasting change.

Barbara: We all know that the erosion of trust is a big problem in corporate America. What are companies doing to combat this, and is it enough?

Karen: There are some companies that are working hard to be trustworthy who wind up on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to work for. These companies dedicate themselves to being good citizens to their employees, customers, and communities. Unfortunately, most individual citizens recognize that there is a problem with trust in corporate America which often companies themselves don’t recognize. There are many reasons for this, including when companies downsize in an unfair manner, treating their customers poorly, or when they fail to conduct themselves in a safe and responsible fashion. I don’t think enough companies are actively working to ensure that they are behaving in a trustworthy manner.

Barbara: Is the “trust” climate in corporate America improving or worsening? What actions will turn things around?

Karen: The trust climate is not getting better. As just one example, I think many Americans can see how trust does not work in their favor. The banks which received generous bailouts have yet to use that money in ways that help their customers. I think this is a huge failure on their part to repair lost trust and has diminished trust in the banking system overall. The only thing that will turn this around is when banks realize that they rely on customers to stay in business and be profitable.

Barbara: Can you provide a few examples of companies that are doing the “right” thing in your opinion? What steps are being taken by these companies?

Karen: As a great example, Ted Castle, Owner of Rhino Foods has a history of opening the books of his privately held firm in order to encourage his employees to work smarter and share in the profits. Most recently, he has decided to hire refugees from Bosnia and Africa into his company where he is helping them to learn English and is providing them with job skills in order to help them assimilate. He feels like this is what he is meant to do to be a good citizen. It builds trust with these new employees and current employees to know that he cares enough about others to share his opportunities with others.

Barbara: Anything else you would like to add?

Karen: Trust is such an important concept for corporate America to understand, embrace, and promote starting with building trust with their employees. If they do not first build trusting relationships with their employees, they will not be able to build trusting relationships with customers or other stakeholders. Employees share important information with other stakeholders and can be great advocates for their business if they are treated well and if they are trusted by their managers. Trust has to be built through open communication between a manager and his/her employees and work out from there.

Barbara: Karen, thank you so much for taking the time to complete this interview with me. Please provide your contact information.

Dr. Karen Mishra
Clinical Professor
Broad College of Business
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
mishrak@msu.edu
www.totaltrust.wordpress.com
517-802-8702

Do you have any comments or questions for Karen?