You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body –

by judicious, daily exercise.

-Grenville Kleiser-

Bob Vanourek of Triple Crown Leadership and a member of our Trust Alliance, was kind enough to contribute today’s guest blog post. Since trust is the cornerstone of all relationships, learning to trust our own judgement becomes essential.

Many folks are reluctant to trust their own judgment. They may feel they should not speak up when some alarm bell is going off in their head for a variety of reasons:

• “It’s not my job to speak up.”
• “I’m not in a position of leadership or authority.”
• “I’m not smart enough on this topic.”
• “I don’t have the experience needed to speak up.”

All these blocks are normal, but we need to learn to trust our own judgment and speak up when it is essential to do so.

Some issues are business related, like pricing or strategy. Indeed, one may need more experience on these subjects before venturing to speak up.

Other issues are values or ethics related, like being honest with a customer, or fudging the numbers in a report at the request of your boss. Here we each must have the courage to speak up, and it helps to have a strong ethical foundation.

Here are four ways to build your ethical foundation so that trusting your judgement becomes second nature.

1. Write down your personal values. They are your moral compass. Here is a link to a free exercise to develop your own personal values: www.triplecrownleadership.com/resources/personalvaluesexercise/
2. Have a small group of trusted advisors with whom you can share ethical dilemmas in confidence and gain their counsel. Under emotional stress, we can easily rationalize our behavior and begin to make ethical mistakes.
3. Have some sanctuary place where you can reflect in solitude. Your inner voice gets shut down in our frenzied world, so find a place to meditate, hike, bike, or just relax where you can use your inner observer.
4. Recognize it takes courage to speak up, even as a voice of one. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the willingness to proceed in the face of fear.

Trust your own judgment on ethical issues. You’ll sleep with a clear conscience.

Bob Vanourek is a former CEO of five companies and the co-author of Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations. Bob has been one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business in 2013 and 2014. Contact him through his website: www.triplecrownleadership.com.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

Many a witty inspiration is like the surprising reunion of befriended thoughts after a long separation. Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel  

Last night I attended my high school reunion. It was a ton of fun seeing old friends, telling stories, and most important, sharing lots of laughs.

The surprise came from the impromptu and unsolicited conversations about trust. Unbeknownst to me, many old friends are following my blog, and they wanted to talk about it. Here’s just a few of the questions that were posed.

My company was acquired and after 16 years on the job my vacation was cut from 3 weeks to 1 week. What do you think about that?

My boss decided we no longer need to travel to see clients to build relationships.  What do you think about that?

The new generation of hires has different corporate culture expectations than we did. What do you think about that?

I work in financial services. My old clients trust me but getting new clients is a real challenge? Any thoughts?

The questions were as varied as the subject of trust itself. Nevertheless, people want to talk about it.

If you are reading this, it’s probably because you recognize the importance of trust in all relationships. So why not talk to your boss, your clients, the new hire, or your customers about the role of trust in business success? Keep the trust dialogue going. That’s the way to effect positive change.

Thank you Sally, Danny, Rand, Ken, Marion, Cindy Paul, Steve and all my friends who spent some time “talking trust” last night. Keep your questions coming and open the dialogue with others.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

Without trust people give up on relationships and leave organizations. Ken Blanchard

(from Trust Across America’s Weekly Reflections on Trust 2014)

Last week we added a new blog feature called Organizational Trust this Week, beginning with the “Good” and ending with the “Ugly.” Each story contains a trust component and at least one lesson for organizations seeking to make trust a business imperative.

THE GOOD

Under new leadership, SAC Capital (now Point 72 Asset Management) will “Reward What Matters”

What happens when the word “integrity” is omitted from the mission statement?

This boss lists “being direct” as a key to good leadership.

THE BAD

Are the actions of the new Walmart CEO trust-builders or trust-busters?

The food retailer who took one step forward and two steps back in building trust.

Are Boards moving in a “trustworthy leadership” direction in their selection of CEOs?

THE UGLY

Dear CDC, You can’t win back something that never existed.

OUR MOST POPULAR POST THIS WEEK

And finally, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s most popular post on LinkedIn Pulse this week. The Trust Crisis is a Preventable Disease.

Send us your stories for consideration in future editions of Organizational Trust this Week. Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

I don’t care what you think unless it is about me. Kurt Cobain  

The baggage we carry over from childhood impacts the odds of being trustworthy team members or leaders as adults.

Who can recall the elementary school classmates who insisted on being:

• First in line
• First to raise their hand (that was me)
• First at bat
• First piece of cake
• First to be picked for the team
• Last to share

Baby Boomers, those of us born between 1946 and 1964 are known as the “Me” generation, narcissism being our most prominent feature.

Many of us have carried our “Me first” perspective into adulthood, but unfortunately, this narcissistic, ego-driven attitude does not go very far in building trust. In fact, according to this study, narcissistic CEO’s do not make good leaders.

As I’ve said in previous blog posts, what many are calling a “crisis of trust,” I see as a crisis of leadership. If organizational trust is the goal, the “We first” leader must assume the helm from his “Me first” colleague.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else. Yogi Berra

• Does your organization have a mission statement?
• How about core values and operating principles?
• How often do you as the leader read them?
• How often do you discuss them with your team?

No leader can build a trust-based organization without laying the foundation first. 

This is the mission of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World. We call it “Words We Live By.”

WORDS WE LIVE BY

Mission

Our MISSION is to help enhance trustworthy behavior in organizations. This will be accomplished with:

• URGENCY. Shining the spotlight on the critical importance of trustworthy organizational behavior.
• LEADERSHIP. Identifying thought leaders around the world who are advancing the trust and integrity movement.
• IDEAS. Serving as a clearinghouse for thoughtful ideas in the areas of trust and integrity.
• EXCHANGE. Providing forums that encourage networking, collaboration, and the sharing of best practices among thought leaders.
• METRICS. Providing the most comprehensive, objective and unbiased frameworks and metrics.
• CHANGE. Raising the bar by showcasing best practices.
• ACTION. Bridging the gap between theory and day-to-day organizational practices.
• SUCCESS. Promoting the correlation between operating within a trustworthy framework and achieving success.

And these are our Core Values and Principles:

Core Values and Principles

• Integrity
  

  To operate with the highest levels of integrity in all that we do.

• Quality
  

  To collaborate with highly respected, ethical individuals and organizations.

  To share the ideas of highly respected thought leaders who want to advance the cause of organizational trust and are not out for personal gain.

  To create the most integrated, comprehensive and holistic methodology for evaluating trustworthy behavior.

• Community
  

  To build a flexible, entrepreneurial organization with a low cost structure. This is achieved by supplementing our core group of professionals with a “community” of highly specialized individuals and firms that share our values.

• Objectivity
  

  To align our organization with respected leaders and organizations that have established solid reputations of unbiased professionalism in their fields.

  To measure company trustworthiness using external independent data and not allowing companies to “game the system” by completing in-house questionnaires.

  To ensure that there is no quid pro quo in return for association with or participation in Trust Across America – Trust Around the World.

  To fund the organization without displaying favoritism or giving the perception of an implied endorsement. As such, we will not accept any form of advertising on our website.

• Credibility
  

  To shine the spotlight on “The Most Trustworthy Companies” and help them share best practices. (We will not engage in a race to expose “offenders.”)

• Success
  

  To improve organizational trustworthiness around the world, achieve growth and profitability, offer quality services, and strengthen win-win relationships with world-class thought leaders who define excellence.

If you choose not to invest the time in building a foundation of trust for your organization, the road you take may lead you to the wrong destination.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

Trust is the essence of leadership  — Colin Powell

Let’s face it, being a trustworthy leader and leading a trustworthy organization are not rocket science. The biggest problem with trust is that it is not “regulated” and therefore, most leaders don’t think about it. Trust is taken for granted. Imagine if CEO compensation was tied to an annual trust audit!

The second biggest problem is an outcome of the first. When trust is not practiced proactively or when a leader hasn’t “banked” trust, he or she spends a good deal of time putting out fires and reacting to crises. There is no time to build trust into the organizational DNA.

Regardless of the size or type of organization you lead, choosing trust as a business imperative means the strategy starts with you. Begin today by following these simple suggestions:

• Be honest: Once you tell a lie, nobody will believe anything you say.
• Be selfless: Put others before yourself- ask how you can help and mean it.
• Be humble: Park your ego at the door.
• Be inclusive: Celebrate and share the successes of others.
• Be accountable: Always keep your word.
• Be appreciative:  Never forget the “Thank you.”
• Be apologetic: Admit your mistakes.
• Be competent:  It’s okay to say “I don’t know.”
• Be consistent: Always lead the same way.
• Be patient: Take time to teach.
• Be persistent: Build trust into the daily agenda.
• Be open-minded: Sometimes change is good.
• Be positive: People like being around others who are.
• Be curious: Learn from others.
• Be risk tolerant: Innovation will flourish when people are allowed to make mistakes.
• Be transparent: Let others know what you are thinking.
• Be authentic: Don’t be a phony.
• Be an enabler: Allow people to make independent decisions.
• Be human: Share personal stories with your team.
• Be fun: And finally, don’t forget to laugh at your own mistakes and enjoy the journey with your team.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don’t talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.  Jean Vanier, Community And Growth

The Pittsburgh police chief and mayor are vowing to regain community trust. You can read more about the low level of trust in Pittsburgh at this link. It’s a messy story with a long history, but hardly a unique scenario. In addition to police brutality, the former police chief was sentenced to prison on corruption charges. So it seems, there is quite a bit of work to be done to build trust in this community.

In September I wrote a popular piece called Trust, it Can’t be Restored if it Never Existed

Regardless of the nature of the organization, be it a community or a corporation, trust is built over time and in incremental steps. Just like a piece of furniture, it can be built, but it can’t be restored if it never existed, and it all begins with trustworthy leadership.

How many community leaders place trust at the top of the agenda?

Last year Trust Across America-Trust Around the World compiled a free report called Building Trust in Community Leadership. It aggregates the expertise of many thought leaders and provides a trust framework and actionable steps for all community leaders who choose to embrace trust as a business imperative. Why should community leaders want to do this?

Communities that build trust reap these benefits and many more:

• Faster and smoother-functioning governance
• Collaboration across entities, driving speed, efficiency and innovation
• Greater community awareness, involvement and support of local initiatives
• Increased employee responsibility and competence and improved morale
• Increased levels of trust in (local) government
• Sets an example for community youth
• Win/win situations

Communities exhibiting low levels of trust face the following risks and many more:

• Low levels of employee energy and commitment and high levels of stress
• High/costly employee turnover
• Low levels of innovation and change
• High levels of suspicion among community interest groups
• High barriers to communication with no open and honest sharing of information
• Poor and slow decision making
• Win/lose situations

In Pittsburgh, the Mayor and the Police Chief must commit to leading with trust both independently and as a team.

The Mayor Must Commit to Integrity First:

Public confidence in the integrity of elected officials is the cornerstone of our democratic representative system of governance.  As the highest-ranking elected official of its municipal town or city, the Office of the Mayor is charged with the trust, wellbeing, security, and prosperity of its citizens and community.  The Office of the Mayor should perform its responsibilities with the highest sense of ethical leadership, integrity and competence.  Each Mayor’s Office should develop, implement and monitor a set of Guiding Principles of Integrity that is tailored to its unique mandate and responsibilities. (Donna Boehme)

The Police Chief Must Commit to Core Leadership Values:

An exemplary policing organization engenders in all employees commitment to the core ethical values embodied in trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, caring, fairness and good citizenship. It encourages and expects all employees to demonstrate moral courage to do what is right even when it is personally costly or subjects the organization to criticism or liability. (Michael Josephson)

Let’s hope that the Pittsburgh community is on the right track in building trust. It behooves all stakeholders to keep in mind that trust-building takes time and happens in incremental steps. Perhaps most important, it must encompass more than “just talk.”

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

The ethical person should do more than he is required to do and less than he is allowed to do.  Michael Josephson

In a blog post last week I asked the question, “Where Does CSR End & Moral Responsibility Begin?” Several folks weighed in on the role of the corporation in society. The consensus was that genuine CSR is more than just a program. It is a way of doing business that embraces moral responsibility.

Today, I’d like to ask another tough question. “Where Does Compliance End & Trust and Ethics Begin?”

Doug Cornelius over at Compliance Building used the recent NFL crisis to answer the question above in this excellent article.

The answer is rather “black and white” yet in speaking about trust with corporate executives, I often hear this statement. “We are not breaking any laws, therefore we are trustworthy.”

Here’s the most simple way to differentiate compliance and trust. Compliance is mandatory while trust is voluntary. Compliance sets minimum acceptable standards while trust and ethics are what differentiate an organization from its competitors.

While it’s true that trust can’t be regulated, merely be “compliant” will not place an organization at the front of the pack. The legal team cannot assist leadership in building trust, only in staying on the “right” side of the law. An organizational trust imperative first requires an acceptance that compliance is not enough, that trust and ethics must be embraced as a business imperative. The rest is easy.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

The best treatment of any disease is its prevention.

The best response to any crisis is its aversion.

David L. Katz, MD, MPH

This morning an article written by David L. Katz, MD, MPH, and the Director of Yale University Prevention Research Center, caught my attention on LinkedIn Pulse.  The title of the article is Ebola and Unscrambling Eggs. Wondering how this relates to organizational trust? Read what Dr. Katz has to say:

That’s what we do, bodies and the body politic alike: wait for catastrophe, then scramble….

The best treatment of any disease is its prevention. The best response to any crisis is its aversion.

Alas, we- anybody and the body politic, alike- seem to harbor an aversion to just that approach. We are forewarned again and again, but never quite manage to be forearmed. We wait for the inevitable fall, then dash in madly to unscramble our eggs.

By all means, let’s do what we always do: call in the King’s horses and the King’s men, at the customary high cost in dollars and human potential. And why not, while we’re at it, go ahead and cross our fingers.

The global trust crisis continues simply because leaders do not practice prevention. They wait for the fall and then call in the crisis team to “rebuild” something called “trust” that never existed in the first place. Rather than being part of the organizational DNA and reinforced daily, trust is almost always taken for granted. And often, when the organizational crisis strikes, the empty trust bank account makes it impossible for the King’s horses and King’s men to put Humpty together again.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Nominations are now being accepted for Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s 5th annual Global Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.