Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Business leaders are constrained by the number of hours in the day, competing demands, and how they choose to prioritize their time. Sadly many spend a large percentage of their day reacting to crises and extinguishing fires. This is lost time that could be better allocated to proactively building their brand.

From our research over 15+ years we know that trustworthy organizations make for good business and are less risky, yet the majority of leaders do not embrace the long-term benefits of trust. If they did, some of their time would be freed up for more worthwhile pursuits.  If you are a leader and this sounds remotely interesting to you, start by asking yourself these ten questions.

Ten Questions For Leaders Seeking to Build Trustworthy Organizations

1. Have I acknowledged or ignored the business case for trust?
2. Am I personally trustworthy? Does trust matter to me as an individual or in my professional life?
3. Is trust mentioned in our mission/vision statement or corporate credo? If not, why not?
4. Do all stakeholders view me as trustworthy? Have I asked?
5. Do I speak about the importance of trust on a regular basis?
6. Do I engage my employees in discussions about trust?
7. Do I own and model trust building behaviors? Am I transparent, accountable, respectful?
8. Do I celebrate achievements? Do I allow mistakes?
9. Do I have a trust tracking mechanism in place?
10. Have I budgeted for trust building programs?

What other questions should leaders be asking themselves in pursuit of building trustworthy organizations?  Leave a comment.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an author, speaker, product developer and global subject matter expert on trust and trustworthiness. Founder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World she is author of the award-winning Trust Inc., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset, Trust Inc., 52 Weeks of Activities and Inspirations for Building Workplace Trust and Trust Inc., a Guide for Boards & C-Suites. She majored in International Affairs (Lafayette College), and has an MBA (Baruch- City University of NY). Her expertise on trust has been cited in Harvard Business Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Thomson Reuters, BBC Radio, The Conference Board, Global Finance Magazine, Bank Director and Forbes, among others.

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So what’s your trust excuse?

Fifteen years is a long time to be “talking trust” with leaders and managers, and yet something keeps me doing it. I have spoken with hundreds if not thousands of business leaders during this time from small startups to Fortune 500 and, given the opportunity, ask this question.

What role if any does trust play in your work?

And these are the most common responses in no particular order.

1. None, trust is a soft skill
2. None, there is no business case
3. None, we have no budget 
4. None, we do not consider it a measurable risk
5. I never thought about it
6. My employees trust me
7. Huge, every year we bring in a “big name” motivational speaker
8. None, I have too many daily fires to extinguish
9. None, it’s not my job
10. None, are you kidding?

What’s the message here? Whether you are a leader, manager or work as a member of a team, if you do not intentionally choose  trust building as part of your daily activities, do not expect it to flourish. It does not happen on its own.

If you are interested in learning more, take a look below.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an author, speaker, product developer and global subject matter expert on trust and trustworthiness. Founder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World she is author of the award-winning Trust Inc., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset, Trust Inc., 52 Weeks of Activities and Inspirations for Building Workplace Trust and Trust Inc., a Guide for Boards & C-Suites. She majored in International Affairs (Lafayette College), and has an MBA (Baruch- City University of NY). Her expertise on trust has been cited in Harvard Business Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Thomson Reuters, BBC Radio, The Conference Board, Global Finance Magazine, Bank Director and Forbes, among others.