Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.—

Adam Smith

Yesterday I was speaking with a friend who recently changed jobs and is now employed by a public company.  We were discussing how the new firm requires more dotting of i’s and crossing of t’s in justifying business expenses.  I immediately pictured Oz behind the curtain saying something to the effect of “Prove to me that all your expenses are justified,” and then I envisioned all the layers of bureaucracy (and payroll expenses) that feed this “control” process monster screaming, “We can’t trust you to do the right thing because our regulations don’t allow us to.”

And then today, another acquaintance wrote a piece on LinkedIn Pulse called Smart Compliance Doesn’t Require Mega-$ or Armies of People. I was excited when I first read the article’s title, but that quickly faded. Imagine having 10% of your employees dedicated to compliance? The author makes the argument that financial firms in particular need  “Smart, integrated compliance, risk and reputation management that creates organizational resilience and sustainable success.”

Taking this argument one step further, even in financial institutions, integrated compliance, risk and reputation management costs will be even lower when organizational trust is high. It may not be regulated, but that doesn’t make trust soft. In fact, quite the opposite. As we have recently shown in our new magazine TRUST!, industry is not destiny, even in financial services. What if we surveyed the financial institutions mentioned in this magazine issue to determine what percentage of their employees are dedicated to compliance, and how much their employees feel bogged down by bureaucracy? The business case for trust has already been made and I’ll bet the survey would further support it.

Good luck to those firms who are bogged down by bureaucracy and compliance. They are spending their money in all the wrong places. What do you think? If you work in compliance, risk or reputation management, please weigh in.

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.

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.

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. 

Joe Paterno

Today I am excited to be one of the first to share a brand new research study from the Chartered Management Institute titled The Moral DNA of Performance and co-authored by one of our trust alliance members in the UK, Roger Steare. This is a fascinating report that further supports our business case for trust & ethics and concludes with the following:

Trust is an essential agent of social development and organizational sustainability. Robert Easton, Accenture

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

Organizational Trust this Week is a new weekly feature that we began to write in October. We review the “trust news” of the week and report on the “Good,” the “Bad” and the “Ugly.” Each story contains a trust component and at least one lesson for organizations seeking to make trust a business imperative.

THE GOOD

Industry is NOT destiny, even in financial services. Our brand new magazine TRUST! tells the stories of the “good guys” who have built trust into the DNA of their organizations.

We often overlook the importance of testimonials, but in reality, they are a great way to build trust. Read more here.

Should business have a social purpose and what should be the role of trust? Includes an interesting graph!

And along the same theme of social purpose, short-termism and trust don’t make great bedfellows according to the CEO of Nestle.

THE BAD

What are the Best Five Ways to Break a Consumer’s Trust in a Brand?

Long-term trust cannot be built based on quarterly performance. Was Sanofi’s CEO Fired for the Right Reasons or Was He Just Having a Bad Quarter? 

Americans Report Declining Trust in Banks, but once you start reading the fine print, the headline is a bit misleading.

THE UGLY

The folks at Motley Fool put an interesting but not surprising twist on trust this week. If it doesn’t effect EPS, why should the public care?

OUR MOST POPULAR POST THIS WEEK

And finally, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s most popular post on LinkedIn Pulse this week. With trust industry is never destiny.

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 and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. 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.

Organizational Trust this Week is a new feature 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

Industry is NOT destiny, even in financial services. Our new magazine TRUST! tells the stories of the “good guys” who have built trust into the DNA of their organizations.

This article gets right to the heart of trust as a business imperative. Trust: The Must Have for the 21^st Century Leader

Five Ways Elite Teams Must be Lead (including trust & loyalty)

Five Powerful Habits of Extraordinary Leaders (a trusting workplace is key)

THE BAD

The word “expert” has always intrigued me. After all, what is an expert? Why Don’t Americans Trust Experts?

Splitting the Roles of Chairman & CEO are good for companies (and good for trust) so why the resistance?

THE UGLY

Academic fraud is a tough “trust nut” to swallow. Negligence or Worse?

OUR MOST POPULAR POST THIS WEEK

And finally, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s most popular post on LinkedIn Pulse this week. One CEOs Advice About Trust

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 and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. 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.

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. Rollo May

Nan Russell, a member of our Trust Alliance and author of Trust, Inc.: How to Create a Business Culture That Will Ignite Passion, Engagement, and Innovation, shares 12 Communication Practices That Elevate Communication and Build Trust in today’s blog post:

The communication practices below lift understanding, create aligned purpose, improve relationships, and enable healthy and productive differences, and while doing so, increase trust-building:

1. Know what matters to the people you lead
2. Have dialogues without personal agendas or assumed answers
3. Express heartfelt, specific gratitude
4. Be forthcoming about your objective, purpose, or goal
5. Align your actions with your words
6. Operate with thoughtful transparency
7. Paint word-pictures to make something seeable, doable, and purposeful
8. Be about the right action, not the action that’s right for you
9. Be open to all methods of communication
10. Offer feedback as opinion, not fact
11. Listen to learn
12. Be the message, not the messenger, for respect, integrity, and compassion

Communication that builds trust is elevated because it brings honesty, integrity, authenticity, and caring into the conversation.

Thank you Nan for sharing this guest blog post with us. For more information about Nan, visit her website.

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.

Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination  — Warren Bennis

Last week Jack Haren, the President and CFO of Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc. delivered a short speech at the CFO of the Year Luncheon in Troy, NY. Mohawk is North America’s largest privately owned (4th generation) manufacturer of fine papers, envelopes and specialty substrates for commercial and digital printing. Jack chose the subject of trust and was kind enough to allow me to reprint his speech.

I have selected the question: What advice would you give someone going into leadership position for the first time? 

Putting aside the obvious ingredients of diligence and hard work, the INSIGHT that I would share is that long term career success is powered by the ability to generate TRUST.

Merriam- Webster dictionary defines trust as the assured reliance on the character, ability and strength of someone or something.

——————————————————————————————–

As a mentor, I would remind them that Trust cannot be purchased. It doesn’t come with a college degree, your family name or your zip code.

It can only be earned.

It comes forth from the values you exhibit…the way you interact with peers, subordinates and superiors.    

It comes when you demonstrate that the MEANS that you employ to accomplish an end have as much to say about your success as the final result.

 ——————————————————————————————–

I would remind them that Trust is fueled by consistency, fairness and openness.

It is strengthened by adversity.

It is built up over a series of experiences, a series of projects, a period of years.

——————————————————————————————–

Finally, it is a quality that will draw others to you.  It is an essential of  leadership.

BUT a caution…it is very fragile… so handle it with great care.

Thank you Jack. Your commitment to trust is reflected in the ongoing success of your company.

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.

Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of the people working together every day – Frances Hesselbein

Bob Whipple of LeaderGrow and a member of our Trust Alliance, was kind enough to contribute today’s guest blog post. He tackles the question of how trust is impacted when organizations make major changes.

When organizations make major changes, such as reorganizations, mergers, or acquisitions, the trust that was in the  groups prior to the action is often lost quickly. This happens for a variety of reasons, as I have documented in my book Trust in Transition: Navigating Organizational Change (ASTD Press, 2014)

The success of the entire change process depends on trust—the trust level before integration and the trust maintained during the process. It matters a lot on the conditions going into the action. There are three possible situations as follows:

1. There is high trust within both groups to begin with. This is the best condition because it allows for people to weather the shock of the change, having some faith that things can work out in the end.
2. One group has high trust, but in the other one the culture has been damaged by prior leadership behaviors. The entity with higher trust will usually do better in the negotiation because there is more free flow of information and fewer problems to hide.
3. When both groups have low trust, it becomes extremely difficult to make progress because there is work to be done around all the interpersonal issues at every juncture. If a group has low trust in their own organization before a merger, then there is little hope that they will have more trust in the other group. It becomes a real mess to unscramble.

As the integration unfolds, the level of trust going in to a major change has a lot to do with how successful it will be.  Make sure that you test the level of trust and keep it strong throughout the process for the best result.

Bob Whipple, MBA, CPLP, is a consultant, trainer, speaker, and author in the areas of leadership and trust.  He is the author of: Trust in Transition: Navigating Organizational Change, The Trust Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals, Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online, and Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind.  Bob has many years as a senior executive with a Fortune 500 Company and with non-profit organizations.

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.

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.