Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

 

“Many in leadership roles feel the need to have all the answers, while true leaders ask the right questions.” Barbara Brooks Kimmel

“LRN (the business ethics and corporate compliance firm) recently surveyed more than 900 C-suite executives and found that they were three to eight times more likely to believe that their organizations were highly values-based than the more than 35,000 less-senior employees taking part in the same study.” bit.ly/1JJ0Up8

That’s a pretty compelling argument for the disconnect between the beliefs of senior leadership and their employees, and Trust Across America sees the same pattern in its own research. The solution to closing this perception gap is very simple. Leaders must take ownership of the issue and be open to honest feedback. Until they admit, (perhaps as the New Year strikes 12) that their organizations are not, in fact values based, 2016 will bring more of the same.

Here are ten questions every authentic leader should be asking before work resumes in 2016:

1. Do I consider profitability the most important measurement of trust?
2. Who is more important, my customers or employees?
3. What are our organizational values? Are all stakeholders aligned? How am I advancing these values?
4. Are we effectively communicating our values?
5. Do I walk my talk?
6. Have I asked our stakeholders if they trust us?
7. Is there a way out of our crisis mentality mindset?
8. Do I understand the difference between compliance, ethics and trust?
9. Am I leading or managing?
10. Am I trustworthy?

For leaders who find this worthy of their attention, additional questions are available in this free resource on our website called The Leaders Project.

Another great resource for authentic leaders…. for the third year, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World has assembled, with the help of dozens of global experts, an annual TRUST POSTER. The 2016 theme is 52 Ideas That YOU Can Implement to Build Trust. 

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help responsible organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also serves as 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.

How many of the following are ongoing issues in your office?

1. High employee turnover and absenteeism
2. Negative water cooler conversations
3. Slow decision making and low innovation
4. A seemingly never ending series of crises
5. Stagnant or diminishing profitability

If you answered “yes” to one or more of the five issues listed above, your office is suffering from low “T” and the prescription for a return to health rests squarely on the shoulders of leadership. So what is low “T?” It’s low trust and the single most common and debilitating impediment to successful organizations.

The good news is low “T” is easily cured. Leaders just need to acknowledge the disease and implement a trust building prescriptive culture. Why not set a goal of starting that process on January 1, 2016? Here are a few ways to head down the path to recovery:

In every interaction with every person, ask yourself: “What can I do in this moment to strengthen the trust between us? Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner

You don’t build trust by getting louder; you build trust by getting closer. Richard Fagerlin

Take a younger employee to lunch and ask them a lot of questions and listen-to-learn. Jon Mertz

Terminate toxic people, even the star performers. Bob Vanourek

Build a foundation of organizational trust to soften the blow from the next breach. Barbara Brooks Kimmel

We have a great tool to help you. For the third year, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World has assembled, with the help of dozens of global experts, an annual TRUST POSTER. The 2016 theme is 52 Ideas That YOU Can Implement to Build Trust.  It not only makes a great inexpensive “gift of trust” for the holidays but provides many of the keys to reversing the cycle of organizational mistrust. These are just a few suggestions on ways to use these posters that are already in place in many organizations for 2016:

• Hang one in your office as a conversation starter with visitors, employees or colleagues.
• Give them as gifts to key influencers in organizations suffering from low “T.”
• Send them to clients along with the suggestion to place on their bulletin boards in the employee lounge as well as share an “idea a week” in their management team meetings.
• Mail them to remote employees.
• Give them to your kid’s teachers, send one to the mayor and police chief, and share them with local business owners.

Everyone can benefit from high “T” in 2016!

Read more about the 2016 poster at this link.

Do your part by joining our movement today!

 

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help responsible organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also serves as 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 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

Back by popular demand, our 2016 third annual trust poster provides…

52 Ideas That YOU (as a leader) Can Implement to Build Trust

 

Today I’ve randomly selected thirteen of the 52 ideas from our global community of trust and leadership experts to share as you plan your strategies for 2016.

1. When it comes to building trust, leaders go first. Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
2. Build cultures of commitment vs. compliance where choices are guided by values not policies. Mark Fernandes
3. Work tirelessly to dispel the illusion that trust is a “soft” skill. Doug Conant
4. Agree on a set of core values, practice and reinforce them daily. Barbara Brooks Kimmel
5. Be very good at what you do. Competence is a litmus test for believability. Nan Russell
6. The first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend trust. Stephen M.R. Covey
7. Encourage risk-taking and celebrate “good failures” as opportunities to learn and move forward. Bill George
8. In earning the trust of others, being clear on what you want for others, is more important than what you want from David Penglase
9. Be a role model. Charlie Green
10. Set intentional promises and expectations on what you will deliver to all stakeholders. David Reiling
11. Go public when expressing gratitude; go private when expressing disappointment. Holly Latty-Mann
12. Listen with the intent to be influenced. Randy Conley
13. Kindness amid conflict; Respect across diversity. Davia Temin

Our poster not only makes a great “gift of trust” for the holidays but provides many of the keys to reversing the cycle of organizational mistrust. Do your part by joining our movement today!

Read more about the 2016 poster at this link.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help responsible organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also servers as 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 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

A spate of corporate crises in 2015 have only served to fuel the long-term fire of low organizational trust. Under the theory that trust starts at the top and trickles down, we asked our Alliance Members and Top Thought Leaders how Boards of Directors can be the catalyst to drive organizational trust in the right direction in 2016.

Our readers will find twelve suggestions below:

 

Boards must replace fear with trust:

A trust-based culture increases morale, productivity, innovation, speed, agility, pride in the workplace, value to the customer and sustained high performance.

Edward Marshall, The Marshall Group

 

Boards must widen the scope of their membership:

Diverse boards bring different and new types of expertise and perspectives, increasing the range of topics discussed, and most important, encouraging open, candid and provocative discussions.

Nadine Hack, beCause Global Consulting

 

Boards and CEOs must be proactive:

Boards can and should lead certain functions for the firm from defining the desired culture to involvement in strategy development. They should not be passive monitors.

Bob Vanourek, Triple Crown Leadership

 

Board members must have authentic conversations:

They must be provided with sufficient information; a safe space that protects privacy and rejects behaviors to intimidate, ridicule or insult; and enough time to explore systemic issues without jumping to conclusions.

Alain Bolea, Business Advisors Network

 

Boards must avoid entrenching polarized attitudes:

Boards must have synergy. Look for warning signs in communications including “we versus they” or “if only we can get them to do this.”

Bob Whipple, Leadergrow

 

Board members must ask the tough (ethical) questions…and act on the answers:

Tie compensation and bonuses to ethical leadership metrics as well as financial performance.

Donna C. Boehme, Compliance Strategists

 

Boards must demand management accountability:

Mission, purpose, values, culture, strategy, business model and brand must be thoughtfully defined, activated and aligned to create a coherent whole.

Roger Bolton, Arthur Page Society

 

Boards must align their business agenda with societal expectations:

Board members must have an unmistakable sensitivity to the societal issues of the day. Capabilities must be aligned to build a better world AND a better company.

Doug Conant, Conant Leadership

 

Boards must speak with candor:

The canned, compliance-approved double-talk and corporate window dressing must be replaced. It is, at best, a short-term unsustainable business strategy, and hiding behind philanthropic efforts simply doesn’t work. Boards must build cultures of authentic long-term trust, practice it holistically, and regularly communicate it to all stakeholders.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, Trust Across America

 

Boards must kill the evening before dinner:

Instead take a small group of front-line or mid-level employees to dinner in an informal setting without the presence of other corporate executives.

Robert Galford, Center for Leading Organizations

 

Board must understand their organization’s relationship with their stakeholders:

Take surveys, monitor social and legacy media, and share information across the organization; track the emotions of issues, events and topics, follow changes in the environment; engage and address concerns.

Linda Locke, Standing Partnership

 

Boards must develop their own crisis plan:

Enumerate what kinds of actions will be taken for different issues, their crisis strategy and who will be designated to play “first string.”

Davia Temin, Temin and Company

 

What would you add to these recommendations? Drop me a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Dozens more suggestions like this can be found in Trust, Inc: A Guide for Boards and C-Suites and in our brand new 2016 annual poster Weekly Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

 

 

 

Imagine visiting a shoe store and failing to provide the salesperson with information on your shoe size, color or the style you are seeking yet expecting to leave with the shoes that meet your needs.

Rarely a day passes without a note or a call asking some variation of the following question:

Do you have a questionnaire or a tool, to detect the level of trust in an organization?

And every time, I respond with “What are you trying to measure or detect?”

Trust is not a “one size fits all” proposition. These are just a few of the variations, and each has it’s own tool and/or assessment mechanism:

• Self-trust
• Internal trust including trust among team members, between teams, and trust between leaders and employees.
• External trust between the organization and its stakeholders including suppliers, vendors and customers.
• Organizational trust or its trust “worthiness” both internally and externally.

In most organizations trust is taken for granted perhaps because of the simple belief that “one size DOES fit all.” I hope you enjoy your shoes and that they meet your needs!

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also servers as 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 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

I love receiving unsolicited emails from folks thinking deeply about trust. Yesterday David Heath shared the following and I am excited to pass David’s thoughts along to you.

The Ten Laws of Trust: In much the same way that the Boy Scouts movement maintains ten laws that guide the behaviour of every member, so too might we describe ten laws of Trust. These laws should guide everyone in the pursuit and enjoyment of Trust.

• Trust is congruent. It starts from within. It starts with the simple statement, “I will be trustworthy.” And from there, the desire, nay the imperative, to achieve trustworthiness.
• Trust is reciprocal. If I am Trustworthy, it is reasonable to expect people to trust me in return. Maybe I will get burned, but without the spark of trust, there is nothing.
• Trust is consistent. In any relationship, there is an expectation that people will behave in the same manner as they have done previously. The con-man continues to con, the trusted remains trustworthy.
• Trust is inflationary. In any positive relationship, simply our continued presence will increase the level of trust.
• I will be constructive in my Trust. In any positive relationship, I will actively do things to increase the level of trust; in a negative relationship, I will seek to identify and remove the barriers to trust.
• Trust is expansive. As Trust grows, I will expect more and more positive outcomes from the relationship.
• Trust is individual and unique. A Trust relationship does not require me to agree with everything you say or do. It does however permit me to set our differences aside in the pursuit of common goals.
• Trust is remedial. Whenever mutual Trust is damaged, and it will happen, I will actively seek to repair the relationship.
• Trust is respectful. I understand that others may choose to not Trust me – that is their choice. I will respect their decision and continue to be as trustworthy as I can possibly be towards that person.
• Trust is discriminating. Trust and respect are two quite different things and I will not confuse the two. I will however work hard to align them as closely as I possibly can.

Thank you David for this creative and original perspective on trust. What do you think about David’s “Ten Laws?” Do you have other thoughts about organizational trust? Send them along to barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

David Heath is a New Zealand-born Australian resident who initially pursued Geology and ended up with a Computer Science degree.  These days, David writes for a living – predominantly as an Instructional Designer for a major industrial control vendor where as well as writing multi-hundred page technical training manuals, he also delivers a variety of  in-company courses including a “Train the Trainer” course.  In addition David is Security Editor for an on-line IT news site.

Being an INTJ, David cannot possibly be restricted to a single area of interest and as part of his exploration into improved communication came across the works of Charles Green and Barbara Kimmel in the field of ‘Trust..’  He continues to pose the question, “what makes us trust the trainer?”

 

 

It’s been a bad week for Volkswagen and the “trust” and leadership bloggers are having a field day. But two questions remain unanswered.

• Did Volkswagen betray trust?
• Did the “right” heads roll as a result?

“No” to both. In order for a betrayal to occur, trust must have first been present, and in this case the CEO is simply the fall guy in a large intentional coverup.

Volkswagen could not betray something that never existed: Let’s not forget that the auto industry is one of historical low trust dominated by regulators, the enemy of trust. Have we forgotten about Takata, General Motors and Fiat/Chrysler? Volkswagen is not even the first company to rig emissions.

The new CEO is merely another pawn: Who is naive enough to believe that Volkswagen’s new CEO can “rebuild” trust? Who suggested that rebuilding trust be his message? Was it his legal team or the PR department?  This should simply not be the corporate message, nor is it the responsibility of the CEO. Rather, the construction of trust sits squarely on the shoulders of the company’s Board of Directors, one that has historically thumbed its nose at trust. Like many companies, Volkswagen’s board composition is far from ideal, and its claimed core values, have been nothing more than empty words. The company simply failed to walk its talk, and instead of the Board, the CEO took the fall.

Core values that incorporate trust as a business imperative and are practiced daily give companies a competitive advantage, but in today’s society they are rarely more than a sign on the wall at corporate headquarters.  And that’s why we continue to drift from one corporate scandal to the next, with no end in sight. Will Volkswagen’s board of directors address its lack of practiced core values? Will they take the blame for this latest scandal? These are the questions bloggers and the public should be asking. Based on the Board’s actions over the past several days, I highly doubt they will do either.

What’s my long-term prediction for Volkswagen? Like others before them, the new CEO will be instructed to talk about rebuilding trust, the company will pay their fines, and it will be “business as usual” until the next crisis. Too bad for you, me and every other stakeholder.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also servers as 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.

Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Help us continue our work in organizational trust by purchasing our award-winning books

at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

What can we learn about trust from the great leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

Yogi Berra’s passing earlier this week struck a chord both close to home and around the world. To many he was a prolific philosopher, a practical joker and an “all American” kind of guy.  Something you might not know about Yogi Berra…he was an avid hockey fan. As a teenager, his son played for a rival team to my high school alma mater and Yogi never failed to make a game. Humble and always with a smile is how I will remember him. 

This article pulls together fifteen of Yogi Berra’s most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, coach, business, religious or military leader, the following contain many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients in building trust.

 

1. “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
2. “I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.”
3. “You can observe a lot just by watching.”
4. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
5. “90% of the game is half mental.”
6. “If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”
7. “If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be. ”
8. “Pitching always beats batting — and vice-versa.”
9. “When you come to a fork in the road take it.”
10. “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
11. “You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what’s left.”
12. “If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.”
13. “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”
14. “It’s not too far; it just seems like it is.”
15. “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”

My favorites are #1, #7, and #15. How about yours? Want to read more from this series? We recently highlighted some of the best quotes on building trust from:

•  John Wooden
•  John C. Maxwell
•  Zig Ziglar
•  Mahtma Gandhi
•  Dr. Seuss  (for Mother’s Day)
•  George Bernard Shaw
•  Military Leaders (for Memorial Day)
•  Napoleon Hill
•  Deepak Chopra 
• Quotes for fathers, from fathers and about fathers (for Father’s Day)
• Peter Drucker
• Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
• Elie Wiesel for the Jewish New Year

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also servers as 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.

Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Help us continue our work in organizational trust by purchasing our award-winning books

at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

What can we learn about trust from the great leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

This week, in celebration of  the Jewish New Year, we turn our attention to the words of Elie Wiesel, a Jewish writer, professor and Nobel Laureate. A few years ago I was fortunate to meet him at a small gathering in New York City where he spoke about leadership, integrity and peace.

This article pulls together twenty of Elie Wiesel’s most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business, religious or military leader, the following contain many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients in building trust.

1. “One person of integrity can make a difference.”
2. “For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.”
3. “There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.”
4. “Think higher, feel deeper.”
5. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”
6. “Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.”
7. “Indifference is the sign of sickness, a sickness of the soul more contagious than any other.”
8. “Peace is our gift to each other.”
9. “Some stories are true that never happened.”
10. “Not all games are innocent. Some come dangerously close to cruelty.”
11. “Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?”
12. “Questions outlive the answers.”
13. “Certain things, certain events, seem inexplicable only for a time: up to the moment when the veil is torn aside.”
14. “A word is worth a thousand pictures.”
15. “Man’s strength resides in his capacity and desire to elevate himself, so as to attain the good.”
16. “…Those who know don’t talk and those who talk don’t know.”
17. “For the good of all, I say: Be careful, the brutality of the world must not be more powerful or attractive than love and friendship.”
18. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
19. “Never again” becomes more than a slogan: It’s a prayer, a promise, a vow.”
20. “The silence of two people is deeper than the silence of one.”

My favorites are #8, #15, and #16. How about yours? Want to read more from this series? We recently highlighted some of the best quotes on building trust from:

•  John Wooden
•  John C. Maxwell
•  Zig Ziglar
•  Mahtma Gandhi
•  Dr. Seuss  (for Mother’s Day)
•  George Bernard Shaw
•  Military Leaders (for Memorial Day)
•  Napoleon Hill
•  Deepak Chopra 
• Quotes for fathers, from fathers and about fathers (for Father’s Day)
• Peter Drucker
• Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara 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.

Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Help us continue our work in organizational trust by purchasing our award-winning books

at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our September Trust Quest asked the following question:

What is the bigger issue in your organization? 

Leadership doesn’t trust its employees?

Employees don’t trust their leaders?

And here are the results of our poll…

 

71% of our respondents said that employees don’t trust their leaders.  What does this say about leadership? How long will leaders continue to ignore the impact on their organization of low employee trust including:

• Disengagement
• High turnover
• Low innovation
• Poor morale

 

Trust starts at the top. It can’t be delegated to HR or any other department. The tools to build trust are readily available to enlightened leaders who choose to make trust a business priority.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara 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.

Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.