Trust shattered - picking up the pieces.

Below is a letter which I wrote to Financial Review Magazine in relation to one of their articles posted on 2nd October.

I'm responding to a couple of pieces in Friday 2nd October's paper, namely 'A matter of complete trust shattered' and 'Compliance focus can stunt value', both of which are all about trust. On one hand we have a number of people who have blindly trusted and have had that trust betrayed, and on the other we have corporate boards who are blind to the fact that trust is the ultimate power source, and a loss of it their ultimate risk.

To those poor people who trusted Bradfield, my heart goes out to you. One of the things that you need to understand is the difference between liking someone and trusting them. Too many times we confuse the two and end up trusting someone we shouldn't have - they might be a nice person, but they were the wrong person to trust. You need to recognise that trusting someone is all about your ability to rely on them to deliver on your Expectations, your Needs and keep the Promises they made to you (what I call ENPs®). There are always warning signs when trust starts to break down, just as many of you reported (eg. information not to hand when they asked for it, Promised returns a little too good to be true). Sadly, you failed to listen to the warning signs until it's too late and your trust has been broken.

To directors on corporate boards, your focus right now should be on making sure your stakeholders can trust your organisation. What we have seen through the recent financial crisis is a lot of people being drawn to organisations that Promise big returns and big bonuses, but when the Expectations and Needs are not met, and when the Promises are not kept, everyone jumps. The financial crisis is, in fact, a TRUST crisis. It's not a debate about whether compliance is in or out, or a focus on business performance is in or out - the organisations that come out of this stronger and with a sustainable business model to move forward are those who focus on restoring trust with those shareholders, employees and customers who are right now feeling betrayed and broken.

Vanessa Hall - 'The Trust Lady'
Sydney NSW