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.
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