One of the key issues of the decade that impacts results has to
be trust. Take BP and the oil spillage in Florida, the UK's Liberal
Democratic Party and tuition fees, the banks and sub prime lending.
Loss of trust has had a huge impact on perception. Also financial
performance.
Many Arab countries at present are attempting to overthrow their
leaders where poor intentions are followed through in many
instances with poor behaviour leading to suspicion and mistrust.
Sometimes the same happens in companies who gain low employee
satisfaction ratings and employees jump ship.
It is true to say that many organisations or groups who
suffer from low trust have good intentions. It is just that they
have failed to follow through on them through their behaviour.
Whether this be in the pursuit of profit and cost reduction or even
survival. The reality though is that they are judged on their
behaviour rather than those intentions!
So think carefully before making frequent redundancies as this
will breed mistrust and uncertainty amongst the people left.
Ultimately this will impact performance.
According to Stephen MR Covey in his book 'The Speed of Trust'
22% of people trust the media, 8% political parties, 27% the
government, 12% big companies. Not good reading.
Here is the opportunity. High trust organisations stand out from
the crowd. They gain a premium ie they are much more likely to be
listened too. Low trust organisations haemorage opportunity.
There is a kitchen company who I allowed to come to my home.
They tried every sales trick in the book until I turfed them out
after completely out staying their welcome.A quick search on the
web then identified lots of unhappy customers. Of course all calls
from them since have fallen on deaf ears. I would never trust them
on advising me about kitchens. I would also never recommend
them. Their intention was clearly to sell me anything and get the
most out of me. They didn't care about me and now I don't care
about them!
So if you have a bad experience you will tell others and take
anything they say with a pinch of salt.
So how are you and your organisation
perceived?
Do people trust you? Do they trust your organisation. Are you
riding high on a wave of high trust performance? Do you have
authentic intentions that come from really caring or are you in it
for yourself? If you do have good intentions do you consistently
walk the talk?
What is the financial benefit?
It has been identified that high trust organisations outperform
low trust organisations by 3:1. From an individual perspective does
it not also mean that if you are high trust then you will
outperform others by 3:1. Well that may not always seem true if you
look at it in the short term. It is sometimes the ruthless who seem
to get on quicker. However, they almost always get caught out at
some point whether at work, in relationships etc. The truth is that
strong personal integrity and intentions will invariably leave you
with an advantage in the long term.
In my view I would rather have stuck by some good principles and
be able to look back on my life in old age and say it was well
lived. Rather than look back on regrets where I walked over other
people.
How can we improve trust?
It is possible to turn trust around. However, it requires a
strategy. As a leader this starts with you and requires lots of
personal follow through. Will you always get it right? Not always.
Someone is always likely at some point to be suspicious of your
motives. However it starts with you. It starts with a commitment to
clarify your own intentions and then notice how you are translating
that into your behaviour.
In the 'Speed of Trust' Stephen MR Covey says there are 4 core
areas for self trust:
1. Your Personal Integrity
2. Your Intent
3. Your capabilities
4. Your Results
Change the Circumstances
To really follow through on transforming yourself and your
organisation to gain a high trust premium requires changing the
circumstances. It means doing things differently to the way you
have done them before.
Having a trusted accountability partner who can help you is
valuable. For me personally I utilise coaches/mentors, a business
development partner, an internet marketer, an accountant who all
help keep me accountable for following through with positive
change.
The aim at CC1 is to operate with high integrity. The intentions
are to add great value and enable people and organisation to be
more successful in business and personally. We also have some great
results to share and high client satisfaction. If you are a senior
leader and are interested in some personal support to raise your or
your organisations performance in an authentic way I'd like to chat
without obligation about your needs and how we can help.
Contact us on: 01455 824233 or Chris@cc1consulting.com