Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

It’s Week #7 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 offices of hundreds of organizations around the world that have placed trust on their business agenda.

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Nan Russell a Trust Alliance Member and one of our 2016 Top Thought Leaders in Trust, offers this:

Be very good at what you do. Competence is a litmus test for believability.

Look around any organization and you’ll see trust. There is some division, department, work unit, or team where people shine, ideas flourish, and exceptional work is achieved. We can all learn from these trust-pockets, and the formal and informal leaders who ignite that trust. Their trust-enhancing behaviors go beyond the basics starting with their competence. They’re very good at what they do. Content may be king on the internet, but competence is king at work. People trust people who consistently deliver.

Competence is a litmus test for believability. No believability – no credibility. No credibility – no trust. Competence builds performance trust. Performance trust is the fulfillment of a claim, promise, or request. Some call it integrity, some walk-the-talk; others openness and honesty or accountability. In many ways, performance trust is a result of all of these, but competence is its starting point. People want to follow, and give their trust, to those who do what they say they can do, do it well, and enable and engage others’ strengths along the way.

How many readers took took the earlier advice offered in 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

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.

No one ever excused his way to success. ~Dave Del Dotto

“Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” I can’t tell you how many times I heard that expression as a child. It’s one I’ve passed along to my own kids.

I remember one particular night during my senior year in high school. I waited until the last minute to type a research paper (pre-computer, no “save” feature.) Before the typewriter ever had a chance to cool off, and in my hurry to meet the deadline, I took the only original typed copy and tore it into pieces. The marked-up draft sat unscathed. Suffice it to say, it was a long night.

When we rush to get things done, because we’ve waited until the last minute, oftentimes, the output is far from ideal. We may find that:

• Haste makes waste (the end product is subpar)
• Internal stress increases
• Something gets in the way of completing the job (we tear up the wrong paper, the computer crashes, an emergency arises)
• We make excuses
• We ask for an extension
• We don’t remember to do the work at all.

In business, being last to

• finish an assignment
• to show up at a meeting
• to meet a commitment or a deadline

may be an indication of a lack of competence, credibility and consistency, considered by some to be the main attributes of trust.

It is often said to give more work to the busiest person on the team. Perhaps it’s because they rarely finish last.

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. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

                                                                                                  Coming Soon!

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

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.