Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

 

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!

 

 

Back by popular demand, our 2016 third annual trust poster provides…

52 Ideas That YOU (as a leader) Can Implement to Build Trust

 

Today I’ve randomly selected thirteen of the 52 ideas from our global community of trust and leadership experts to share as you plan your strategies for 2016.

1. When it comes to building trust, leaders go first. Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
2. Build cultures of commitment vs. compliance where choices are guided by values not policies. Mark Fernandes
3. Work tirelessly to dispel the illusion that trust is a “soft” skill. Doug Conant
4. Agree on a set of core values, practice and reinforce them daily. Barbara Brooks Kimmel
5. Be very good at what you do. Competence is a litmus test for believability. Nan Russell
6. The first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend trust. Stephen M.R. Covey
7. Encourage risk-taking and celebrate “good failures” as opportunities to learn and move forward. Bill George
8. In earning the trust of others, being clear on what you want for others, is more important than what you want from David Penglase
9. Be a role model. Charlie Green
10. Set intentional promises and expectations on what you will deliver to all stakeholders. David Reiling
11. Go public when expressing gratitude; go private when expressing disappointment. Holly Latty-Mann
12. Listen with the intent to be influenced. Randy Conley
13. Kindness amid conflict; Respect across diversity. Davia Temin

Our poster not only makes a great “gift of trust” for the holidays but provides many of the keys to reversing the cycle of organizational mistrust. Do your part by joining our movement today!

Read more about the 2016 poster at this link.

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 servers 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 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

A spate of corporate crises in 2015 have only served to fuel the long-term fire of low organizational trust. Under the theory that trust starts at the top and trickles down, we asked our Alliance Members and Top Thought Leaders how Boards of Directors can be the catalyst to drive organizational trust in the right direction in 2016.

Our readers will find twelve suggestions below:

 

Boards must replace fear with trust:

A trust-based culture increases morale, productivity, innovation, speed, agility, pride in the workplace, value to the customer and sustained high performance.

Edward Marshall, The Marshall Group

 

Boards must widen the scope of their membership:

Diverse boards bring different and new types of expertise and perspectives, increasing the range of topics discussed, and most important, encouraging open, candid and provocative discussions.

Nadine Hack, beCause Global Consulting

 

Boards and CEOs must be proactive:

Boards can and should lead certain functions for the firm from defining the desired culture to involvement in strategy development. They should not be passive monitors.

Bob Vanourek, Triple Crown Leadership

 

Board members must have authentic conversations:

They must be provided with sufficient information; a safe space that protects privacy and rejects behaviors to intimidate, ridicule or insult; and enough time to explore systemic issues without jumping to conclusions.

Alain Bolea, Business Advisors Network

 

Boards must avoid entrenching polarized attitudes:

Boards must have synergy. Look for warning signs in communications including “we versus they” or “if only we can get them to do this.”

Bob Whipple, Leadergrow

 

Board members must ask the tough (ethical) questions…and act on the answers:

Tie compensation and bonuses to ethical leadership metrics as well as financial performance.

Donna C. Boehme, Compliance Strategists

 

Boards must demand management accountability:

Mission, purpose, values, culture, strategy, business model and brand must be thoughtfully defined, activated and aligned to create a coherent whole.

Roger Bolton, Arthur Page Society

 

Boards must align their business agenda with societal expectations:

Board members must have an unmistakable sensitivity to the societal issues of the day. Capabilities must be aligned to build a better world AND a better company.

Doug Conant, Conant Leadership

 

Boards must speak with candor:

The canned, compliance-approved double-talk and corporate window dressing must be replaced. It is, at best, a short-term unsustainable business strategy, and hiding behind philanthropic efforts simply doesn’t work. Boards must build cultures of authentic long-term trust, practice it holistically, and regularly communicate it to all stakeholders.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, Trust Across America

 

Boards must kill the evening before dinner:

Instead take a small group of front-line or mid-level employees to dinner in an informal setting without the presence of other corporate executives.

Robert Galford, Center for Leading Organizations

 

Board must understand their organization’s relationship with their stakeholders:

Take surveys, monitor social and legacy media, and share information across the organization; track the emotions of issues, events and topics, follow changes in the environment; engage and address concerns.

Linda Locke, Standing Partnership

 

Boards must develop their own crisis plan:

Enumerate what kinds of actions will be taken for different issues, their crisis strategy and who will be designated to play “first string.”

Davia Temin, Temin and Company

 

What would you add to these recommendations? Drop me a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Dozens more suggestions like this can be found in Trust, Inc: A Guide for Boards and C-Suites and in our brand new 2016 annual poster Weekly Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

 

 

 

Imagine visiting a shoe store and failing to provide the salesperson with information on your shoe size, color or the style you are seeking yet expecting to leave with the shoes that meet your needs.

Rarely a day passes without a note or a call asking some variation of the following question:

Do you have a questionnaire or a tool, to detect the level of trust in an organization?

And every time, I respond with “What are you trying to measure or detect?”

Trust is not a “one size fits all” proposition. These are just a few of the variations, and each has it’s own tool and/or assessment mechanism:

• Self-trust
• Internal trust including trust among team members, between teams, and trust between leaders and employees.
• External trust between the organization and its stakeholders including suppliers, vendors and customers.
• Organizational trust or its trust “worthiness” both internally and externally.

In most organizations trust is taken for granted perhaps because of the simple belief that “one size DOES fit all.” I hope you enjoy your shoes and that they meet your needs!

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 servers 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 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

What can we learn about trust from the great leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

This week we turn our attention to the words of Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, coauthors of The Leadership Challenge, educators and management consultants. I have gotten to know Jim over the past several years, and he has recently been named one of our Lifetime Honorees as a Top Thought Leader in Trust. While many “talk trust,” Jim is one of just a small handful of people who “walks their talk.” 

This article pulls together twenty of Jim and Barry’s most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business, religious or military leader, the following contain many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients in building trust.

1. “Exemplary leaders know that if they want to gain commitment and achieve the highest standards, they must be models of the behavior they expect of others.”
2. “The leader’s unique legacy is the creation of valued institutions that survive over time. The most significant contribution leaders make is not simply to today’s bottom line; it is to the long-term development of people and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper, and grow.”
3. “There’s nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can’t clearly articulate why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
4. “Titles are granted, but it’s your behavior that earns you respect.”
5. “Find your voice by clarifying you personal values.”
6. “Leaders enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.”
7. “The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present.”
8. “You can’t fast track your way to excellence.”
9. “Leaders don’t have to change history, but they do have to change “business as usual.”
10. “Leading by example is more effective than leading by command.” Unite your constituents around a common cause and connect with them as human beings.”
11. “Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.”
12. “The leader merely coordinates and puts into action the wants and desires of the group.”
13. “People commit to causes, not to plans.”
14. “Living in a cave does not make you a geologist and simply being in a management position does not make you a great leader.”
15. “Leadership can’t grow in a culture that isn’t supportive of continuing development.”
16. “Say thank you. Let the other person know that you appreciate his or her feedback and that you can’t get any better without knowing more about yourself and how your actions affect others.”
17. “Leaders say YES.”
18. “The worst thing someone can do is to see a problem and think it is someone else’s responsibility.”
19. “The next time you see a problem and say “Why doesn’t someone do something about this?” take a look in the mirror and say instead, “I’ll be someone to do something about it.”
20. “Model the Way – Inspire a Shared Vision – Challenge the Process – Enable Others to Act – Encourage the Heart”

 

My favorites are #1, #11, #13 and #20. How about yours? Want to read more from this series? We recently highlighted some of the best quotes on building trust from:

•  John Wooden
•  John C. Maxwell
•  Zig Ziglar
•  Mahtma Gandhi
•  Dr. Seuss  (for Mother’s Day)
•  George Bernard Shaw
•  Military Leaders (for Memorial Day)
•  Napoleon Hill
•  Deepak Chopra 
• Quotes for fathers, from fathers and about fathers (for Father’s Day)
• Peter Drucker

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director 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 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 annual 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.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Welcome!

While our monthly roundup is normally a collaborative undertaking of our Trust Alliance, this month we gave our members a well-deserved holiday and instead assembled a handful of Barbara Brooks Kimmel’s most popular articles and interviews of 2015.

Our goal is to provide our readers with  a better appreciation for the importance of embracing trust as an organizational imperative.

Let’s get started!

In this Forbes article some tough organizational trust questions are answered, including:

• “How can individuals and organizations capitalize on trust?”
• “Jack Welch recently said that the only thing an executive today should be focused on is trust. Why do you think Mr. Welch have arrived at that conclusion in 2015?”

Our July Trust Quest asked: Which is the greater problem facing today’s society? Is it an unwillingness to trust others or alternatively, that people just aren’t trustworthy enough? Here’s the results of the poll. Our August poll launches on August 1. We hope you will participate.

The terms compliance, ethics and trust are often used synonymously when they shouldn’t be. What’s the difference and how can leaders ensure that trust stands alone? This Culture University article answers those questions.

Our most popular post year-to-date simply asks “Is it Too Lonely at the Top for Trust?

And finally, the most downloaded article from our website, and perhaps the key that unlocks the trust door is called “Return on Trust.” It’s a reprint from our quarterly magazine called TRUST!

Enjoy!

 

How do low-trust leaders communicate when faced with a trust breach? Here’s a quick sampling of 10 “one- liners” pulled from the headlines over the past several weeks.

1. “It was our legal right to do so.”
2. “I had no hard evidence.”
3. “Errors are inadvertent and happen.”
4. “We will increase our compliance monitoring.”
5. “There was no calculation to mislead people.”
6. “We’re all a bit stunned by the news.“
7. “I mean it when I say we screwed up.”
8. “No comment at this time.”
9. “We continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities on pursuing those responsible for this criminal act.”
10. “I was totally unaware that this was in the works.”

Huh, what and are you kidding?

Why do we continue to read these rehashed headlines after a trust violation and why do leaders use these excuses? Very simply because organizational trust is not regulated; it’s voluntary. And because of this one simple fact, trust is largely ignored in most organizations. It’s not practiced proactively unless leadership places trust high on it’s business agenda. That’s called intentional trust, and it’s very rare. Instead, most leaders wait for the next crisis (which is a “given” in low trust organizations) and then pull an excuse from the list above, usually with the assistance of the legal department.

If ANY leader of ANY organization actually believes that these “one-liners” build long-term trust with stakeholders, please drop a note to barbara@trustacrossamerica.com . I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

 

Barbara Brooks Kimmel has been the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World  since 2008. The program’s mission is simply to provide tools and assistance to organizations interested in building trust. Barbara runs the world’s largest organizational trust membership program. 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.

Barbara is an award-winning communications executive and former consultant to McKinsey who has run her own firm, Next Decade, Inc., that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over twenty years. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch (City University of NY).

 

What happens when a group of openminded trust, ethics and compliance experts meet for lunch to discuss the intersection of the three disciplines?

One of the tasks at hand was to create a visual representation of the functional interaction between compliance, ethics and trust in an organization.

 

Copyright (c) 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

What does this mean?

Compliance: While organizations require compliance as a minimum “rule setting/obeying standard,” compliance does not necessarily have an ethics OR a trust mandate. Compliance is merely the starting point, not the end. In fact, it can be trust’s worst enemy when it is assumed that compliance encompasses trust and ethics. Compliance is regulated while ethics and trust are voluntary. In most companies, this distinction is not made and the C&E Officer is usually an attorney who simply enforces the “laws.” He or she may have no understanding of ethics, let alone trust.

Ethics: The “character” component of trust is ethics, and unlike compliance, it is a personal choice. It’s the individual and organizational value system that must be debated, decided and set in place by the Board of Directors, not the CEO.  A Chief Ethics Officer, not a C&E Officer, is the distiller of these values. He or she need not be an attorney. So what role does trust play? Unfortunately, both individuals and organizations can be “ethical” without being trustworthy because there are two more attributes that must be present for trust to flourish.

Trust: In order for an individual or organization to be trustworthy it must, at a minimum exhibit not only character (ethics) but competence and consistency in all internal and external relationships. “High trust” companies understand the distinction between compliance, ethics and trust. Going beyond compliance and ethics by adding the trust component results in:

• Less need/emphasis on compliance and it’s oppressive laws and regulations
• Greater employee satisfaction and lower turnover
• Faster decision-making and innovation
• Less risk and fewer crises
• Better relationships not only with customers but all stakeholders
• A happier workplace
• Higher profitability

Companies that understand the distinctions described above and embrace trust as a business imperative are beginning to hire Chief Trust Officers (CTrO), and for good reason(s). They are the “keepers of the golden ticket,” and perhaps the organization’s most valuable employee.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara 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 annual 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.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

 

Welcome!

Our monthly roundup is another collaborative undertaking of our Trust Alliance, selected blog posts on a variety of organizational trust topics. The subjects are as diverse as the expertise of our members!

By reviewing these posts, our readers will have a better appreciation for the importance of embracing trust as an organizational imperative.

Let’s get started!

What is the outcome when terms like “brutally honest” are used? Holly Latty-Mann discusses this in Trust and Honest Feedback: Up Close and Personal

Do you trust your employees to tweet about the company? Nan Russell shares some excellent advice in Psychology Today.

Taina Savolainen an academic partner from Finland discusses the role of story-telling in building organizational trust.

Linda Fisher Thornton wonders what our workplaces would be like if every leader cared about others.

My most popular post this month introduces Trust Across America’s VIP Model. Take a look!

And finally, what does your “place” smell like? This is an excellent 8 minute speech by Professor Sumantra Ghoshal at the World Economic Forum. It’s about corporate environments and the faults of management in creating a positive work place. The goal is “trust” and Professor Ghoshal explains why in “The Smell of the Place.” The speech has been accessed almost 85,000 times.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust, and runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. 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 annual 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.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

 

What can we learn about trust from the great leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

This week we turn our attention to the words of Peter Drucker, an author, educator and management consultant who was hailed by Business Week as the “man who invented management.”  This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business, religious or military leader, the following contain many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

1. “To do the most good requires saying no to pressures to stray, and the discipline to stop doing what does not fit.”
2. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
3. “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
4. “Every enterprise requires commitment to common goals and shared values. Without such commitment there is no enterprise; there is only a mob. The enterprise must have simple, clear, and unifying objectives. The mission of the organization has to be clear enough and big enough to provide common vision. The goals that embody it have to be clear, public, and constantly reaffirmed. Management’s first job is to think through, set, and exemplify those objectives, values, and goals.
5. “Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.”
6. “Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”
7. “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
8. “Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
9. “A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.”
10. “1. What is our mission? 2. Who is our customer? 3. What does the customer value? 4. What are our results? 5. What is our plan?”
11. “The focus on contribution by itself supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations: communications; teamwork; self-development; and development of others.”
12. “Many brilliant people believe that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work.”
13. “Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”
14. “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.” Everyone around the table nodded assent. “Then,” continued Mr. Sloan, “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
15. “plan, organize, integrate, motivate, and measure.”
16. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
17. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”
18. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”
19. “Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”
20. “The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.”

My favorites are #4, #6, #16 and #20. How about yours? 

Want to read more from this series?

We recently highlighted some of the best quotes on building trust from:

•  John Wooden
•  John C. Maxwell
•  Zig Ziglar
•  Mahtma Gandhi
•  Dr. Seuss  (for Mother’s Day)
•  George Bernard Shaw
•  Military Leaders (for Memorial Day)
•  Napoleon Hill
•  Deepak Chopra 
• Quotes for fathers, from fathers and about fathers (for Father’s Day)

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director 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 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 annual 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.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.