Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Today marks the release of a new book (UK & Canada, US in early April) by Peter Cook called “Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise” with Bloomsbury books. I met Peter through my friend and colleague Nadine Hack, and was fortunate to have Peter include our FACTS Framework in his new book. Nadine, Peter and I are firm believers in the power of collaboration. I asked Peter for some insights into the book, the 11^th he has written or contributed to over 21 years in business.

What should readers expect to gain from this book?

Bloomsbury commissioned the book due to the unique synthesis of theory and practice in the art and discipline of creating great ideas and converting them into even greater innovations in business, society and the world. Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise draws upon durable concepts and research from academia, rather than the latest management fads. 

 The book includes many case studies and deals with questions such as:

• What are the roots of creativity and imagination?
• How can we create the physiological and mental states under which creativity happens naturally rather than having to rely on creative thinking tools like some kind of mental crutch?
• How can you lead Brain Based Enterprises?
• What is the role of technique in engendering creativity within teams?  What are the most effective and reliable recipes for team based creativity?
• How do culture, leadership style and values support or limit innovation and creativity?
• Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise is informed by academia but not stuffy in its writing style. An unusually good fusion, which I call ‘pracademic’.

How did you get Sir Richard Branson and Sir James Dyson’s involvement?  

The headline answer to your question is through networking. I’d won a prize for my work in leadership from Richard Branson. This led to gaining a job as an author for Virgin.com and delivering events that blend music and business for Virgin. By the time I asked for the interview I was almost a family member! Although this seems simple, I observe almost daily that people expect to gain similar results without the investment of time and care that often goes into a relationship based on trust. (Amen, Peter!)

I know trust matters in your work. How do you think about it?

Although it is very difficult to quantify, we all know someone who is trustworthy when we see it. A case in point arose recently in my dealings with Marcus Ryle, CEO of Line 6, who make guitar effects units. I had a problem with my Line 6 HD POD500X, as used by the likes of Elbow, Avril Lavigne and session musicians who work with Eric Clapton, Pink and Van Morrison. I could not be more impressed with the turnaround that Marcus performed. Moreover, because he handled the issue personally as well when I’m sure he had better things to do. If more companies were able to act in this way, their reputations would soar and their repeat business with it.

Your own work in terms of demonstrating the “net present value of trust” is a vital contribution to the debate. It seems that corporations need proof for such things to “move the dial” in terms of behaviour. Although I’m in no doubt as to the value of trust at a personal level in my own dealings with people as I m sure you are as well, we do need the data to help people place a value on doing the right things in corporate life these days.

What do you see as the future in terms of ethical leadership?

The 1970’s was a tipping point for business ethics when Milton Friedman wrote his article in The New York Times, where he stated that the primary role of a business was to make money for its shareholders. This was followed by Agency Theory in 1976 which completed the volte face from the more humanistic outlook on the purpose of businesses. Managerialism has probably informed the last 40 years of corporate development in leading business schools. Charles Handy, Tom Peters and I are united in our complete disagreement with Milton Friedman et al. If you look after the people, the profits look after themselves. Great leaders do the right things for their customers, their employees, society and their stakeholders.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What prompted you to write this book?

Creativity has been at the heart of the three passions that have fueled my life – science, business and music.  When I was four years old I wanted to be in The Beatles. By nine, I wanted to be a brain scientist. At 18, I joined a pharmaceutical company as a chemist and traveled the world, fixing factories and scaling up life-saving drugs, including the world’s first treatment for HIV / AIDS. By 29 I became fascinated with management and started working in a Business School alongside my day job. At 34, I started my own business and some 5 years later I began the synthesis of science, business and music via The Academy of Rock. Creativity has been a constant in my three “Shumpeterian” 18-year long cycles of innovation in my life. The book has therefore been maturing for nearly 20 years, having written my first book on creativity and innovation in 1996. This represents tens of thousands of hours of diverse experience, working as a business practitioner across a wide range of sectors and fueling my thinking via my work as an MBA academic and adventurer. Crossing the chasm from science to art has informed my writing as a business consultant much more than traditional MBA driven textbooks.

Thank you for granting this interview and for including us in your book.  Best of luck Peter and “Rock on.”

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust and integrity. 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 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #8 of 2016. This is our latest article in a series of  ideas to elevate trust in your organization, drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Stephen M.R. Covey a Trust Alliance Member and one of our 2016 Top Thought Leaders in Trust, and a Lifetime Achievement Award winner offers this:

“The first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend trust.”

As leaders, we inspire trust through our credibility—our character and our competence—and through our behavior—how we do what we do. While I believe that most leaders today recognize the need to inspire trust by modeling it through who they are and what they can do, I’m not sure that most recognize the equally vital need to extend trust to others. And that’s where I think we’re got to put special focus in our leadership work—leading out in extending trust to others.

Indeed, I believe that the defining skill that transforms a manager into a leader is the extending of trust. And the extension of trust generates reciprocity: when we give it, people receive it, and they return it. When we withhold it, they withhold it. As Abraham Lincoln put it in the affirmative: “The people, when rightly and fully trusted, will return the trust.” And Lao Tzu expressed the other side: “He who does not trust enough will not be trusted. No trust given, none received. Mistrust begets mistrust.”

In my work in over 40 countries over the past few years, I have found this common pattern in lower-trust organizations: the primary reason why employees don’t trust their management in lower-trust companies is first and foremost because the management doesn’t trust the employees—and the employees reciprocate that distrust right back at them. The same thing can happen with partners, and even with customers. If you don’t trust them, they’ll tend to not trust you.

But, thankfully, it works the other direction as well. When we extend trust to others, people receive it, and they return it. They’re inspired by it. They rise to the occasion. They perform better. They want to prove the trust justified. There is a genuine reciprocity of trust. Yes, a few may abuse the trust but the vast majority will be inspired by it. Don’t penalize the many because of the few. Don’t let the 5% of the people you can’t trust define for you the 95% who you can. Far better to build your culture around the 95% who you can trust and let that culture crowd out, weed out, starve out the 5% who you can’t. Some are afraid of extending trust out of fear that they might lose control. But think about it: at the end of the day, there is actually more control in a high-trust culture than there is in a rules-based culture because you can’t come up with enough rules for people who you can’t trust. The French sociologist Emile Dirkheim put it this way: “When mores [cultural values] are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.”

In my judgment, the very act of extending trust is the defining act of leadership. And it’s the leaders job to go first. Someone needs to go first; that’s what leaders do—leaders go first. Yes, there’s a risk in trusting people. But there’s also a risk in not trusting people. And I’m going to submit that in today’s collaborative, interdependent, knowledge-worker world, not trusting people is more often the greater risk. Now I’m not suggesting that we extend trust blindly or naively, without clear expectations or accountability—that’s not smart. But I am suggesting that we lead out with a decided propensity to trust—to extend trust wisely (what I refer to as “smart trust”).

The reality is that we need more willingness to extend trust in our world today, not less. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to have two trustworthy people working together—and no trust—when neither person is willing to extend it to the other.

That’s why I reiterate: the first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend it.

Extending trust not only transforms a manager into a leader, it is a game-changer—both for the leader extending the trust and for the person being trusted. Indeed, to be trusted is the most inspiring and compelling form of human motivation.

People today don’t want to be managed; they want to be led. Millenials don’t want to be managed; they want to be led. They want to be inspired. The reality is that we manage things (which have no agency or choice) but we lead people (who do have agency and choice).   We should strive to be efficient with things and effective with people. But too often, too many of us treat people like things and attempt to manage them, be efficient with them, and withhold trust from them. That doesn’t inspire. What does inspire is to lead out in extending trust to others.

In the beautiful words of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, “In everybody’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful to those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

When we extend trust to another person, we rekindle the inner spirit—both theirs, and ours, and in so doing, we can also produce an extraordinary dividend: what I call “the speed of trust.”

Thank you Stephen. We hope our readers heed your advice.

It’s not too late to catch up on our weekly series…..

Week #1 Kouzes & Posner 

Week #2 Bob Vanourek

Week #3 Barbara Kimmel

Week #4 Mark Fernandes

Week #5 Doug Conant

Week #6 Roger Steare

Week #7 Nan Russell

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust and integrity. 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 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Is the notion of organizational trust as an intentional business strategy moving beyond the “talk” stage?

Back in 2013 the World Economic Forum published their Leadership, Trust & Performance Equation paper with several partners including Edelman and PwC. Fast forward to 2016 and the subject of building trust again appeared on the agenda at Davos, this time with four recommendations on how to accomplish this: Action, Values, Employee Advocacy and Engagement. Sounds like the beginning of a plan.

PwC published its own 2013 report Measuring and Managing Total Impact. These are just a few of its “trust sound bytes (note that this report also originated from Europe):

Consumers are becoming ever more environmentally and socially conscious, especially younger ones: they want to know more than ever about the products and services they use and who they buy them from. 

It is becoming impossible for companies to operate behind closed doors, so transparency is the new paradigm for conducting business successfully.

Reputation management: more open dialogue with stakeholders can improve business reputation (for example, by building trust and reinforcing the licence to operate) whereas “closed” businesses that fail to embrace new ways to communicate could be adversely affected (for example, if they are implicated in environmental damage or species extinction, tax avoidance or poor labour standards).

Clearly, businesses have to satisfy their shareholders’ demands. But, as we have seen, achieving this increasingly depends on their ability to meet the ever more exacting expectations of a broader set of stakeholders, stretching from customers, employees and suppliers to politicians, environmental groups and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

This is prompting some business leaders to consider how best to tell their own story, not just that required by legislation.

Looking forward, with trust at an all-time low, business must recognise that it is already operating in new conditions where society’s expectations are quite different and the need to rebuild trust is irrefutable. In particular, it needs to explain its purpose and manage its impact, not only through its direct operations, but also across its entire value chain, including all its stakeholders. This heightens the value of impact measurement as a means to better understand, demonstrate and manage its role and contribution to society.

And more recently PwCs own trust research and insights blog began writing a series of topical articles.

I think it’s good news that these large global organizations are, at a minimum engaging in a discussion about elevating trust in business. But four ongoing challenges remain:

• Whether they are able to take the discussion to the implementation phase.
• Whether all the organizations (PwC & WEF are just two of many) are willing to set their own personal agendas aside and combine all their resources to solve one of the most critical business issues of our time.
• Whether leadership in public companies recognizes the need to adopt organizational trust (which extends way beyond sustainability, corporate responsibility and “giving back”) as an intentional holistic business strategy and are willing to make the long-term changes required to do so.
• Whether PwC, the WEF and other organizations see the value in opening their closed door discussions by bringing the “right” people to the table, those with expertise and first hand experience in organizational trust, culture, engagement, ethics, compliance, leadership, Board composition, etc.

What do you think? Is progress being made or are we permanently stuck in “talk.”

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust and integrity. 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 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Have you ever seen Trusted Advisor Associates Trust Equation? I’ve pulled it directly from their website with permission from Charles H. Green, a Trust Alliance member and one of our Lifetime Achievement Award Winners.

The Trust Equation uses four objective variables to measure trustworthiness. These four variables are best described as: Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy and Self-Orientation.

We combine these variables into the following equation:

TQ stands for Trust Quotient. The Trust Quotient is a number — like your IQ or EQ — that benchmarks your trustworthiness against the four variables.

In my opinion, and maybe Charlie’s too, nothing busts trust faster than a high denominator. All the credibility, reliability and intimacy in the world can’t fix that all too frequent “out of control” self-orientation.

Whether your work is in consulting, sales or any other profession requiring people skills, consider the possibility that the other individuals sitting at the table are familiar with Charlie’s Trust Equation. They are seeking signs of high self-orientation and it may just be the personality trait that kills the deal. Here’s ten signs to look for:

1. Focus on the “I” instead of the “We”
2. Failure to ask (or ask for) questions
3. Interrupting
4. Talking more than listening
5. Lack of transparency
6. Need for recognition
7. Taking all the credit
8. Having a win/lose perspective as opposed to a win/win
9. Bending the truth
10. Making excuses

It’s never too late to lower your self-orientation if it’s impeding your ability to succeed. What do you think?

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 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #5 of 2016. This is our latest article in a series of weekly ideas to elevate trust in your organization, drawn from our third annual 2016 Trust Poster, 52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust.

Doug Conant of Conant Leadership and one of our 2016 Top Thought Leaders in Trust offers this:

Work tirelessly to dispel the illusion that trust is a “soft” skill.

Here are eight research-based reasons for taking Doug’s advice:

Trust Across America’s FACTS® Framework (an ongoing 3-year analysis) shows America’s Most Trustworthy Public Companies more than doubling the outperformance of the S&P 500 over that same period: FACTS 62.4% vs. S&P 29.5% in a live institutional portfolio.

A study by KRW International surveyed employees and CEOs in 84 companies about the character of their leadership teams and compared the results to their financial performance. The average ROA for the S&P 500 ranges from 2 – 3.25%. Character counts and pays off.

From Global Alliance for Banking on Values, (see more on the GABV in the first issue of TRUST! Magazine,) which compared values- based and sustainable banks to their big-bank rivals and found: 7% higher Return on Equity for values-based banks (7.1% ROE compared to 6.6% for big banks).

A 2013 study by Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales called “The Value of Corporate Culture” finds that proclaimed values appear irrelevant. Yet, when employees perceive top managers as trustworthy and ethical, firm’s performance is stronger.

And when trust is ignored or perceived as a soft skill, organizations suffer from the following and much more:

Less than one-third of US workers were engaged in their jobs in 2014, with millenials the least engaged. (Gallup) and this is costing the US economy $450-550 billion a year, which is over 15% of payroll costs. (Gallup, 2013)

The six biggest U.S. banks, led by JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. have piled up $103 billion in legal costs since the financial crisis. (Bloomberg, August 2013)

The PR firm Edelman finds in their 2015 “Trust Barometer” that Among the informed public segment of the 33,000-person survey — a group of 700 wealthy, well-educated, well-informed individuals — 57 per cent said they trusted business, down from 59 per cent last year. (Financial Times, January 20, 2015)

The Washington Post reported that “the federal government imposed an estimated $216 billion in regulatory costs on the economy (in 2012), nearly double its previous record.”

Do you still believe trust is a soft skill? Need more proof of the argument that trust is a hard asset?

How many readers took took the advice offered in January in our Weekly series?

Week #1 Kouzes & Posner 

Week #2 Bob Vanourek

Week #3 Barbara Kimmel

Week #4 Mark Fernandes

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 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Rahm Emanuel, besieged by angry crowds clamoring for his resignation or recall, now admits, “We have a trust problem.” Well, Duh. We think both Chicago and its Mayor have some strong and graphic lessons in trust to share with CEOs, Boards, C-Suites, CCOs, government officials, and even some of the political candidates for our nation’s highest office.

The authors have a particular interest in trust and culture development, and have carefully followed Chicago’s protests for this reason. In any organization (corporation, government agency, city or nation), trust is a precious and highly valued commodity. Trust, like all other elements comprising an organization’s culture, can’t be bought or “delegated” by its leaders, but evolves organically in direct proportion to individuals’ perception of transparency, honesty, fair play and organizational justice. Trust Across America-Trust Around the World (TAA-TAW) has offered some guidance for community leaders seeking to build a culture of trust and transparency that provides a good starting point.

Leaders of any organization always find their words and actions carefully scrutinized by their constituents including employees, voters, and others affected by their leadership. Senior leadership of companies would be well advised to think of their organization’s level of trust as the fluctuating result of the “ripple effect” of leadership’s words and actions at any given point in time. When leadership’s actions match its words, positive ripples of trust occur. Similarly, when leadership’s actions do not match its words, or do not reflect consistent values or transparency, negative ripples result. It’s human nature for employees, voters, and other constituencies to have a natural, basic hunger for organizational justice – the sense that the rules of the organization are fully transparent and apply equally to everyone. Every police force needs its citizenry to feel that its actions are moderated by protocols and rules (consistently applied), and every community hungers for leaders who act with transparency, trustworthiness and a sense of organizational justice.

Experts in the field of organizational trust and ethics often point to the value of organizational justice in successful “layoff” programs by companies faced with a business need to reduce the number of certain groups of employees, whether due to a simple “downsizing” or a corporate merger, consolidation or relocation of company offices. Despite the effects on both those employees that are laid off and the remaining “survivors,” fairness and consistency in the procedure to carry out the layoff program has a notable and positive effect on both parties and the organization. Former RAND expert on organizational justice, Jerald Greenberg, says that such recalls go well where:

• Management is clear and truthful on the reasons for, and process to be used to implement, the layoff program;
• The terms of the program are explained accurately in employee communications in advance of the event; and
• Employees have confidence that the rules have been fairly applied to all.

The layoff case studies confirm one enduring principle of organizational justice: Companies can’t guarantee fair results, but they CAN guarantee that the process will be fairly applied to everyone. This principle of procedural fairness is Exhibit A for the value of truth and candor in employee communications – a key element of any successful culture of trust and ethical leadership.

And here are the lessons we think companies and their leadership can take from Chicago and its embattled Mayor:

• Leaders who match words to action (“walk the talk”) build trust as ethical leaders and role models.
• Transparency drives trust and an ethical culture.
• The cover-up is always worse than the original problem.
• If there’s a problem, tell it early, tell it all, and tell it yourself.

But let’s be real here. The time it takes to build trust is directly proportional to the frequency and number of positive trust – building interactions combined with attributes like character, competence and consistency. TAA-TAW calls this the “VIP Leadership Model (Values, Integrity and Promises kept).” There is no doubt that Chicago has a trust problem, and from all accounts the roots are deeply embedded in the culture, in both the Mayor’s administration and the police department. In a perfect world all Mayors and their respective administrations would choose to act, visibly and transparently, in a way that encourages trust, but the world is far from perfect. Chicago is simply the latest example of misdirected leadership and politically driven decision-making. There is a better way forward for all organizations, but first, leaders must acknowledge when a problem exists.

If Chicago and its embattled Mayor want to move forward and heal the wounds of the recent controversies, he and his administration must actively work to rebuild trust and credibility as a foundation of an ethical culture and organizational justice.

We would like to hear what you think about Chicago and Rahm Emanuel. You can take our confidential  Trust Quest poll at this link.

Donna Boehme is the Principal of Compliance Strategists LLC, Donna has advised a wide spectrum of private, public, governmental, academic and non-profit entities on organizational compliance and ethics. @DonnaCBoehme

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO of Trust Across America – Trust Around the World whose mission is simply to help organizations build trust. @BarbaraKimmel

This article first appeared in:

The winter issue of TRUST! Magazine

The FCPA Blog

Compliance Strategists Blog

Copyright 2016 Next Decade, Inc.

Certainly, everyone who has studied marketing learned the rule of “Giving the customer what they want.” But too often what the customer wants and what the customer actually needs are not the same.

For example, ask most leaders whether they believe a need exists to elevate the level of trust in their organization and without the blink of an eye, the answer will be a resounding “No!” Their understanding of organizational trust extends no further than increasing quarterly earnings, keeping Wall Street happy and following the advice of the general counsel. But if the level of organizational trust was what leaders believe it to be, innovation would be at an all time high, as would employee engagement and retention, those Glassdoor reviews would read a whole lot better, and decisions would be made, as Stephen M.R. Covey likes to say, “at the speed of trust.”

So why the glaring disconnect? It begins with the leader who simply does not know the right questions to ask and ends with the paid “experts”,”gurus” and “consultants” who deliver what many call “the happy talk song and dance” in the form of NSA trained and scripted speeches and seemingly quick and painless fixes forgotten before the ink dries on the check. It’s simply a revolving door of wasted time and money delivering what the customer wants.

The truth is that strategic trust not only takes time but also expertise to develop and implement. It requires leadership commitment, an understanding of organizational culture and core values, Board support, stakeholder buy-in and daily practice. It’s not built through happy talk and pre approved PowerPoint presentations, and rarely is it a quick fix. It requires a leader with a willingness to explore, with the right professionals (and there are only a handful), not what they believe they want but what they actually need. It requires vulnerability and a long-term perspective.

It’s no secret that most leaders continue to hold firm to the argument that the business case for trust simply does not exist, even though it does and continues to grow stronger. If you are a leader who wants to build organizational trust but cannot answer these questions, find someone who can help you. The returns will be game changing and the organization will flourish. If you are a service provider, stop giving the customer what they (think) they want and instead, take the time to find out what they need. If you are not the right person to fill that need, offer to help locate someone who can.

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 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.

Have you seen our 2016 Trust Poster? It’s changing the way organizations do business.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s almost Week #3 of 2016. How many readers took the advice of Kouzes & Posner on building organizational trust in Week #1 or of Bob Vanourek in Week #2?

This is the third article in a series of weekly ideas to elevate trust in your organization, pulled from our third annual 2016 Trust Poster, 52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust.

This idea is offered by yours truly (Barbara Brooks Kimmel), the CEO and cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World. 

Agree on a set of core values, practice and reinforce them daily

Or, as Peter Drucker said, “the enterprise must have simple, clear, and unifying objectives.”

 Moving towards a trust-based business strategy requires the following steps:

• First, the Board of Directors, then the CEO with C-Suite support must acknowledge and embrace the importance of building trust. The business case has been made but the vast majority of organizations continue to ignore it.
• Regularly communicating the values and culture.
• Mandating and ensuring that those values are meeting the long-term needs of all internal and external stakeholders and across all silos- shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, community, etc.
• Always “walking the talk.”

If you are looking for an example of a company that embraces its core values, look no further than Starbucks:

With our partners, our coffee and our customers at our core, we live these values:

• Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
• Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other.
• Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect.
• Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.

We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.

If you currently hold a leadership position or aspire to be a trustworthy leader, remember that if leaders haven’t identified the organization’s values, it’s unlikely that trust can work its magic. And by the way, trustworthy leaders also ask the right questions!

The third week of 2016 starts soon! Be sure to spend some time on building 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.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

“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.

Yesterday, at a small holiday gathering someone asked simply, “Does anyone care about Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s programs?” This year-end post is being written in response to that question.

Trust Across America? Who cares?

Our friends care: We have built a holistic multifunctional circle of friends who have individually (and at times collectively) helped steer us in our mission to build organizational trust.

Our Alliance cares: Now entering it’s 4th year our Trust Alliance has worked collaboratively to publish three award-winning books in our Trust Inc. series, five issues of TRUST! Magazine (the most recent issue being downloaded almost 30,000 times) three annual “Trust Ideas” posters and a host of organizational trust tools, of which virtually none existed before the alliance formed.

Our Top Thought Leaders care: Now in its 6th year Trust Across America’s annual honor is bestowed on the Trust Across America Top Thought Leaders whose daily work helps elevate organizational trust and ethics and who hold this award in high regard on both their websites and in their biographies.

Our Most Trustworthy Public Companies care: Now in its 5th year, this annual honor is given to the “Top 10” Most Trustworthy Public Companies in the US. Many of these companies use this award to recruit new talent and in their marketing and communications messages. Unlike other “Top” awards, companies do not know they are being judged, nor do they participate in the review process.

Researchers care: We maintain the largest living bibliography of trust research (free) thanks to the generosity of one of our friends and colleagues. It’s accessed constantly and updated as researchers contribute new material.

The Media cares: Our press coverage continues to expand.

Our Website Visitors care: Organizations very much care about the subject of organizational trust. Occasionally we audit visitors to the site according to our web stats. Here’s who stops by: repeated visits from Fortune 500 and other multinational companies; federal and state government agencies, both domestic and foreign; universities and colleges around the world; and we’ve even seen some visits from the White House!

Since January 2013, 742,000 visitors have accessed 2,276,000 pages of material. We think that’s quite a bit of caring!!

Cheers to you Bob for challenging me to write this year-end post. And thank you to ALL our friends, Alliance members, Top Thought Leaders, Trustworthy Public Companies, Researchers, Media, website Visitors and Blog Post Readers who care. Without you, there would be a whole lot less trust in the world.

Here’s to more caring in 2016!

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Cofounder Trust Across America-Trust Around the World

PS- Drop me a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com and let me know you care!