{"id":4967,"date":"2020-11-10T09:04:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4967"},"modified":"2020-11-10T09:04:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:04:37","slug":"the-trust-test-you-cant-afford-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4967","title":{"rendered":"The Trust Test you Can’t Afford to Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.”<\/strong> —Warren Bennis<\/em><\/p>\n

Having counseled leaders across many industries on how to elevate stakeholder trust, I can almost assure you that you won’t come close to passing our 10-question test. Fortunately, the failing grade is usually not due to character or competence flaws, but a lack of understanding of the role of trust as a core value of leadership. Are you willing to take the following test AND the actions required to elevate your results?<\/p>\n

*** Warning your degree of honesty and vulnerability may affect your score***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Give yourself ten points for every “yes” answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Do I understand that trust is not a soft skill and that it has tangible value<\/a>?<\/li>\n
  2. Have I thought about what it means to be trustworthy in both my personal and professional life?<\/li>\n
  3. Is trust mentioned in my company’s core values and do I practice and reinforce those values daily?<\/li>\n
  4. Do I understand that trust is the outcome of principled behavior<\/a> and have I identified the behavioral weaknesses<\/a>?<\/li>\n
  5. Do I understand that trust cannot be delegated and that low trust is a real risk?<\/li>\n
  6. Have I asked my employees and other stakeholders if they think I am trustworthy?<\/li>\n
  7. Do I understand that trust is a learned competence, and have I budgeted for trust training<\/a> for both my leadership team and my staff?<\/li>\n
  8. Do I directly engage my employees and my customers in conversations about trust?<\/li>\n
  9. Do I catch employees doing something right and reward ethical behavior?<\/li>\n
  10. Does trust play a role in my hiring practices?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What was your final\u00a0 score?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    Business leaders are constrained by the number of hours in a day, and how they choose to prioritize their time. Many spend it reacting to crises and extinguishing fires caused by low trust. If more leaders not only understood the benefits<\/a> of high trust, but actually took the steps required to elevate it, their time would be freed up to build a more profitable business much more quickly. Low trust plays a large role in elevating enterprise risk, yet is is widely ignored. Take the questions above and tackle them one at a time. Each 10% improvement will get you closer to high trust.<\/p>\n

    PS- Don’t fall for expensive trust workarounds that may be offered to you. While they may get you a communications “talking point,” they won’t get you across the enterprise trust finish line. In fact, they won’t even get you close.<\/p>\n

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    Barbara Brooks Kimmel\u00a0is the founder of\u00a0<\/i>Trust Across America-Trust Around the World<\/i><\/span><\/a>, whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its 12th year, the program has developed two proprietary trust-evaluation tools, the latest is\u00a0AIM Towards Trust.<\/a>\u00a0She also runs the world largest global\u00a0<\/i>Trust Alliance<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and is the editor of the award-winning\u00a0<\/i>TRUST INC. book series<\/i><\/span><\/a>. Kimmel is a former consultant to McKinsey who has worked across multiple industries and with senior leadership. She holds a bachelor\u2019s in international affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch.<\/i><\/p>\n

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    For more information visit our website at\u00a0www.trustacrossamerica.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0contact us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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    Purchase our books at this link<\/a><\/p>\n

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    Copyright \u00a9 2020 Next Decade, Inc.<\/p>\n

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