Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

There’s a new game in corporate America, it’s called the “word” game, and it’s simply a smoke screen masking a larger and holistic issue of low trust as illustrated in the following quote:   Words sometimes serve as a smoke screen to obscure the truth, rather than as a searchlight to reveal it. (author unknown) One need only spend a few minutes scrolling through LinkedIn to witness this “new era” word game being played. These are among my favorites:

1. Mindfulness
2. Engagement
3. Culture
4. Autonomy
5. Centricity
6. Disruption
7. Talent
8. Empowerment
9. Wellness
10. Emotional Intelligence

According to those who play this game best, these words represent the path to organizational salvation and success. There’s only one problem. They are wrong and they don’t. Trustworthy organizations cannot exist without a trustworthy leader, and they can’t be built “around” the leader. Instead, he or she must willingly accept the hammer, hit the nails and make sure they are straight. The hammer can’t be delegated to HR or middle management.

Trustworthy leadership “lingo” hasn’t changed. It’s always been and will always be about character, competence and consistency with some generosity thrown in for good measure. Or as we like to say, trustworthy leaders are VIPs: Values, Integrity & Promises kept.

If implemented, some of the “word game” strategies above may provide a temporary bandage for a festering wound, but sooner or later the infection will return.  Organizations run by trustworthy leaders don’t need new age lingo, they just need integrity. Sometimes “old” and proven works best.

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.

Our 2015 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.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Has CEO compensation destroyed trust in corporate America?

Will the real root cause of the destruction of trust please stand up. While many blame Wall Street and the financial meltdown in 2008, trust began to gasp for air many years earlier. The financial meltdown just added a nail to the coffin.

Trust had a quick descent  in the 1990’s with the explosion of stock option grants and an increased focus on shareholder value. In fact, By 2000, stock options accounted for more than half of total compensation for a typical S&P 500 CEO.

Over the 14-year 1992-2005 time period, the average US S&P 500 company awarded over €1 billion worth of
options to its executives and employees (or €500 billion across all 500 companies). Moreover, the average S&P 500 company transferred through options approximately 25.6% of its total outstanding equity to its executives and employees (Murphy, Jensen and Wruck (2011).

And lest we forget the accounting scandals like Enron, Sarbanes Oxley, pay for performance, options backdating and Dodd Frank, perhaps sealing the fate of trust for good. Unfortunately, regulation is punitive and does little if anything to create value or trust. For those interested in read more about the global history of CEO compensation and it’s impact on trust, this is an excellent paper.

A more recent July NY Times article written by Eduardo Porter called Motivating Corporations to Do Good contains the following:

In 1993, some 20 percent of executive compensation was based on stock, according to Lynn Stout of Cornell Law School. Today, equity accounts for about 60 percent of the remuneration of executives at companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. With so much money tied up in stock options and the like, it is not surprising that executives will do almost anything to give their share price a boost regardless of what costs this might incur after their options have vested. (and regardless of how much trust must be compromised along the way)

And finally, as described in this September article in The Week, written by James Pethokoukis, most US companies and their CEO’s are stuck in the short-term and quarterly earnings mentality, again both killers of trust.

The Silver Lining

In a recent blog post called The Good News About Leadership  Bob Vanourek describes more enlightened versions of capitalism that are emerging and go beyond the “maximize shareholder value” mantra that is becoming increasingly obsolete and discredited. He references this article in McKinsey Insights called Redefining Capitalism.

Have We Yet to See Any Examples Of CEOS Embracing a New Way of Thinking about Trust?

Yes indeed! I wrote about the Top Ten CEO Trust Stories of 2014 in this recent post. It includes examples from enlightened CEOs like Howard Schultz at Starbucks and Capital One’s Richard Fairbank.

Perhaps there is still a ray of hope for trust to make a comeback in corporate America, but it won’t be through increased regulation and mandatory rules. After all, trust is voluntary.  Let’s see what happens in 2015.

Our library of our own award-winning books and many others on building organizational trust can be accessed here and provide a good starting place for learning more about the subject, especially if you are an enlightened CEO, or want to be one.

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.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

There is no doubt that trust is broken in most organizations. If you doubt the validity of this statement, here’s a quick test.

1. Do you look forward to getting up and going to work in the morning? Now ask the person sitting next to you the same question.
2. What was the level of employee turnover in your organization in 2014?
3. Do you like your boss, or does he like himself more? When was the last time he/she spoke TO you instead of AT you?
4. Has trust as a “business imperative” ever been discussed at a staff meeting?
5. Can you list the three most important values in your organization?

Get the picture? The good news…. if leadership hasn’t woken up to the value of trust, appoint yourself as the Chief Trust Officer today, start instilling some trust in your organization, and chances are, you will like your job more by the end of 2015. Your colleagues will thank you and maybe your boss will wake up too! It’s a win/win for all.

Late last year we published the 3rd book in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. It’s called TRUST Inc. 52 Weeks of Activities and Inspirations to Build Workplace Trust . We also published a year-end companion poster with 52 ways to increase organizational trust, as recommended by some of the world’s leading experts, and members of our Trust Alliance.

The first activity can be completed in less than one hour. It’s called “Listening for Leaders” and was written by Charles H. Green, one of the world’s foremost authorities on trust-based relationships.

This is a brief introduction to the activity:

Objective: Concretely demonstrate to leaders a way of interacting with others that increases influence through empathetic listening.

Requirements: 3 persons, each with a particular “difficult client/colleague” situation.

30 – 40 minutes elapsed time.

Can be done in multiples of three persons, with a strong facilitator

Process overview: The exercise is done in three iterations. Each of the three gets a chance to role-play:

Person A. a difficult client of their own

Person B. an advisor or follower of the difficult client/colleague

Person C. an observer

Each iteration proceeds as:

a. 60 seconds for the “client/colleague” person to describe the situation – out of role character

b. 4 minutes for the role-play – in character

c. 3 minutes debrief, led by the observer

This activity also includes Notes to Facilitators, Debrief Instructions & a Wrap Up.

Interesting idea?  It’s the first of 52. Get the book, print the poster and hang it on your wall. Start your new career as the Chief Trust Officer in your organization today. There’s no reason to wait for the boss to do it. I dare you!

If you need help along the way, visit our website for free resources on building organizational trust. We can even recommend a local expert to visit and share their expertise.

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.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

We all know that startup businesses have high failure rates. Just how high is open to debate but this graphic, showing them by industry, is worth a look. Trust holds the key to long-term business success and profitability, yet it remains the most frequently ignored business strategy. Without trust as a foundational element, the chances for long-term business survival are little to none.

Yesterday someone asked me to enumerate, from a “trust” perspective, ten sure-fire business failure warning signs. I’ll bet several are present in your organization.

1. Trust is taken for granted or viewed as a soft skill. There is no Chief Trust Officer (not to be confused with ethics or compliance. Trust is voluntary while compliance is regulated.)
2. Your corporate credo or core values are nonexistent, or the ones in place are simply “words” tossed up on a website.
3. Goals have yet to be defined, shared or agreed upon. Nor has a course been plotted with a one, three and five-year plan.
4. Leadership is focused on survival and short-term profitability only, instead of a unique corporate value proposition and the customer.
5. The “leader” lacks leadership skills. Worse yet, he is a total jerk and everyone knows it but him.
6. There is not a single woman in sight on the executive leadership team.
7. Everyone is a boss and no one is held accountable, resulting in a lack of consistency and a great deal of finger-pointing.
8. Board members are “Yes men” for the CEO, and “yes” they are all men.
9. There is lots of talk and little action, and everyone is always “very tired” from all the “hard” work.
10. A well-defined hiring strategy has not been implemented resulting in misalignment and inefficient staffing.

How many of these are present in your startup? Each one is an indicator that your business will fail.

We have published a brand-new 2015 poster listing 52 weekly actions you can take to build trust and secure and ensure long-term business success, drawing on expert advice from around the world. A donation of $10.00 (minimum $5.00) might hold the key to your long-term business success. Make the investment for the good of your organization and all your stakeholders. See you in 18 months!

Want to learn more about building organizational trust? Our award-winning 3-book TRUST Inc. series that can be ordered here,

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.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Last week an acquaintance reported on the ten biggest reputation disasters of 2014-  City of Ferguson, Flight MH370, Ray Rice, Bill Cosby and so on…. The focus remains on the negative under the premise that “bad news sells.” I’m tired of these stories. They serve no purpose other than to attract “eyeballs” and perpetuate negativity. How about you?

Not all is gloom and doom. When I launched Trust Across America-Trust Around the World more than five years ago, one of our objectives was to redirect attention to the “good guys.” There are plenty of them, but their stories continue to get hidden amongst the bad news. The list below is not about philanthropy or CSR. It’s about trustworthy leadership values and their impact on all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

These are….

The Ten Best CEO “Trust” Stories of 2014 (not necessarily in rank order)

#1 David Reiling, CEO at Sunrise Banks Answers the Toughest Questions about What Makes a Trustworthy Leader in our new magazine TRUST!

#2 Starbucks Howard Schultz “Comes Out” on Building Trust, and Why it May Decide the Future of their Organization… and a bit more detail here

#3 Nancy Lyons of Clockwork in Minneapolis Redefines Employee Engagement

#4 Elon Musk at Tesla Shares His Patent Secrets with His Competitors. Read why.

#5 Capital One’s Richard Fairbank Has a People Centered Vision. His company also made our Top 10 Most Trustworthy Company List for 2013.

#6 Trade Joe’s Employees Dance in the Aisles for Autism

#7 Herve Humler Announces Ritz Carlton as First Founding Partner at Impact 2030

#8 Marathon Call at Zappos Shows the Value Tony Hsieh Places on Customer Service

#9 Rick Holley CEO of Plum Creek Timber Gives Back Bonus, Says He Doesn’t Deserve it

#10 When Good Guys Finish First, The Second Coming of Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas

Let’s celebrate these trustworthy leaders and the companies they run. Let’s work together to continue the “trust trend” in 2015.

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.

Sometimes my friend “Karma” plays the most interesting tricks on me, as she has done this week with this classic corporate “trust tug of war.”

On Monday I wrote a blog post called CEOs “Suck” at Trust.

Soon after, my friend Corey Dubrowa at Starbucks reminded me that not all CEOs are created equal, and shared this recent video of Howard Schultz describing the future of corporations and their trust imperative.

I remain a big supporter of Howard because of his focus on trust. His name has been included among our Top Thought Leaders for several years, and I wrote about him back in 2011 in a CNBC blog called “We Need More People Like Howard Schultz”

And then this morning, Karma came knockin’ with an article in my inbox called Corporate Governance Issues for 2015 written by another acquaintance Holly Gregory. It begins with this sentence: “Governance of public corporations continues to move in a more shareholder-centric direction.” Holly describes the push, pull and pressures companies face in meeting the short-term demands of shareholders and long-term value creation.  At the end of Holly’s article she touches on the role of the corporation in rebuilding trust, from a somewhat philosophical perspective.

So which one will it be in 2015? Do we slog through another year of misdirected Boards and CEOs focusing on the short-term needs of shareholders, or will more follow the example being set by Howard Schultz?

I’m hanging my hat with Howard. As has been proven, again and again, the best companies are those with a long-term stakeholder value perspective. They are not sacrificing profitability for trust, in fact, quite the opposite. The business case for trust has been made. Enlightened companies have Boards and CEOs who get that. The rest allow themselves to remain caught in that ever present net of short-termism.

I want to do my part to help reverse this seemingly never-ending cycle of mistrust in business. I will repeat the offer I made on Monday. For the remainder of the month of December, any public company CEO or Board Member who emails me at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com with their name, title and US company address will be sent our complete three-book award-winning TRUST Inc. series at no cost, with no strings.

PS- I am a proud long-term Starbucks shareholder! Keep up the good work Howard.

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.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Forgive me for being so brash, but the facts are the facts. One of the most enlightening moments of my 5+ year career as the Executive Director of TAA-TAW came recently when a CEO looked me straight in the eye and said “Trust, I like that word.” Quite simply, he had never considered it as a business strategy, let alone an imperative.

So why do CEOs suck at trust? Primarily because Boards of Directors do too. As I’ve said before, the crisis of trust that many describe is really a crisis of leadership. Why does it exist? In public companies, the reasons are simple. The Board and CEO are unwilling to adopt trust as a long-term strategy because it may, in the very short-term, impact:

• Quarterly earnings
• Wall Street’s support
• Shareholder value
• Their own compensation and tenure

And they are not willing to sacrifice any of these, even for one quarter. Case closed.

There are other reasons why CEOs in both public and private companies, suck at trust. These are just a few of the most important:

1. They do not possess the core values required of a trustworthy leader- character, competence, consistency and generosity.
2. They have not taken the time to find out what matters to the people they lead.
3. They have never considered the benefits of strong corporate values and culture.
4. They rely too heavily on their legal and compliance team, doing only what is “legal” as opposed to what is “right.”
5. They believe that crisis repair is less costly than building long-term trust.

As I have said many times before, industry is not destiny nor is any company perfect. But when the Board and the CEO suck at trust, the chances are that all the employees will too.

Over the past 12 months, we have published three award-winning books in a series called TRUST Inc. and a new magazine called TRUST! Some of the world’s leading experts have weighed in on how organizations can not only improve trust with all stakeholders, but we have also proven that trust impacts bottom line profitability.  My guess is only a handful of the Board members and CEOs I describe above have read any of these publications. After all, why bother?

“Short termism” is a trust killer, that’s why. Yet it’s the strategy that most Boards and CEOs have adopted and choose to embrace. Too bad for them. It’s why they suck at trust.

I want to do my part to help reverse this seemingly never-ending cycle of mistrust in business. For the remainder of the month of December, any public company CEO or Board Member who emails me at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com with their name, title and US company address will be sent our complete three-book series at no cost, with no strings. Let’s see how many take advantage of this offer. What’s your guestimate?

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.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

How many times a week do you wake up dreading the workday ahead?

You are hardly alone. The vast majority of employees are disengaged from their jobs, their coworkers and their bosses. In fact, rarely a day passes without a call, a note, or a media headline regarding the fallout of low workplace trust. It destroys:

• Employee engagement & retention
• Innovation
• Productivity
• Speed of decisions
• Profitability

Most problems, even this one, are not too big to fix and collaboration is a powerful tool. In our brand new book, Trust Inc., 52 Weeks of Activities and Inspirations for Building Workplace Trust, our Alliance members and colleagues joined forces to compile 52 weeks (a full year) of activities and inspirations that are certain to not only reverse the cycle of mistrust in your workplace, but enable trust to flourish. What a great way to improve your life and that of your co-workers!

Whether it is leadership, teamwork, culture, crisis or inter-organizational trust,  the activities and inspirations in our new book are designed to help you. There are activities to enhance trust through:

• Listening
• Vulnerability
• Self-awareness
• Alignment
• Experimentation
• Shared motivation
• Identification of destructive behaviors
• Self accountability
• Role playing
• Transparency

and many others.

Why not give the gift of trust to your co-workers and friends this holiday season? Perhaps by this time next year, we can be discussing how much trust has improved in our respective workplaces.

ORDER NOW

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. Leave a comment or send her a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

There’s nothing more destructive to trust than deceit, and nothing more constructive than candor.

Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

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

Organizational Trust this Week is a new feature beginning with the “Good”, moving through the “Debatable” and occasionally 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

7 Essentials for Leaders to Develop Trust (starting with confidence)

Idaho comes down hard on trust violations. Maybe they should change their motto from the “Gem State” to the “Trust State.”

What does the Torah say about trust? A Rabbi’s message

THE DEBATABLE

Just hire the Ex-Con with the shortest rap sheet! Apparently Wells Fargo is the best of the worst!

Sorry, but integrity cannot be regulated!

THE UGLY

CEO Apologies? Really? More Uber weirdness.

OUR MOST POPULAR POST THIS WEEK

And finally, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s most popular post on LinkedIn Pulse this week. Sometimes saying “No” is better than saying “Yes.” 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.

Our brand new magazine TRUST! makes the case that in Financial Services, Industry is NOT Destiny

We will be publishing our third book at the end of November.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Trust is the core issue impacting organizational, team and leadership effectiveness. Noreen Kelly, Noreen Kelly Communication (from Trust Across America’s Weekly Reflections on Trust 2014)

Organizational Trust this Week is a new feature beginning with the “Good”, moving through the “Debatable” and occasionally 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

Do you lead with trust? This is your opportunity to be heard and seen!

Our #TRUSTGiving2014 campaign is coming to a close and our Alliance members covered the importance of trust from A-Z with guest blog posts this week.

Got good customer service? Only if trust is a component.

THE DEBATABLE

What is the role of trust in cyber security? This article makes the case.

THE UGLY

When the trust certifiers can’t be trusted, we have a real issue!

Are you an Uber user? Their CEO thumbs his nose at trust.

Trust gets messy when employees don’t feel respected. Can you blame them?

OUR MOST POPULAR POST THIS WEEK

And finally, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s most popular post on LinkedIn Pulse this week. Sometimes it’s the simple stuff that matters. In this one, we get back to basics and a simpler time. Send us your stories for consideration in future editions of Organizational Trust this Week: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL! The holidays are a great time to have a conversation about trust.

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.

Our brand new magazine TRUST! makes the case that in Financial Services, Industry is NOT Destiny

We will be publishing our third book at the end of November.

                                                                                               Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.