Social Sector begins talking about building trust

The 3rd of May was the International Day of Trust. It’s something that I decided to start. The organisation which I run – entente and the entente foundation – now have as their goals building and restoring trust. This year, in London, Las Vegas, Jamaica, Johannesburg and Sydney, we started a global conversation. Here’s what we heard:

• We need more trust in our world. 
• It is going to take a long time.
• It’s a grassroots movement 
• It requires our leaders to change and set an example.
• A world built on trust would be a world of prosperity, productivity, without violence or war, without abuse, where people cared about each other and there was peace.
  

As I have begun focusing on building and restoring trust I have been surprised by a number of things among hundreds of people I have spoken to:

• that everyone agreed that trust was critical to their business, family, marriage, community, society;
• that less than 5% said they did anything to build and maintain that trust;
  

International Day of Trust - 3rd May

Wow. What an amazing journey this has been, preparing for the International Day of Trust, the 3rd of May. A huge thank you to all the people who have participated in preparing the world's first t12 dialogue on trust groups, who have been out filming on the streets around the world, who have shared their thoughts with all of us, and to all of you who now choose to be a part of this special day.

A big, big thank you to my son, Lachlan, whose timely Mothers Day message to me 6 years ago planted a seed that continues to grow and is now reaching people in 6 continents. We share the celebration of the International Day of Trust with Lachlan's birthday, in honour of the awareness he raised in me. Happy 16th Birthday, Lachy!

The theme for this year - Imagine a world built on trust, sadly pre-supposes that we don't currently have that, but that it is a possibility. It is on that possibility, and on the vision for a world in which we learn to trust our purpose here, to trust ourselves, to be trustworthy and to build trust with those around us, that we have worked around the clock to share these gifts with you.

Enjoy!

Vanessa and the entente team

Australia

 

 

 

t12 - dialogue on trust groups

We have 2 groups of 12 leaders meeting in Sydney:

t12 education - hosted by Dr. Ted Boyce and Pacific Hills Christian School

t12 social sector - hosted by Prof. Peter Shergold and the Centre for Social Impact

Information about attendees and the outcome will be available on our t12 - dialogue on trust webpage a few days after the event.

Out on the streets

April Hasselmann from entente headed out with filmmaker Chris Hobart and asked people out on the streets of Sydney's inner west what they thought about trust. Click here to view the responses they received.

Expert's videos, interviews and blogs

David Penglase, creator of Sales Coach Central and Ari Galper, creator of Unlock the Game on the role of Trust in Sales.

Mandy Holloway, author of 'Inspiring Courageous Leaders' and Keith Ayers author of 'Engagement is not enough' on Trust in Leadership.

Fiona Pearman, co-author of 'The Truth about Trust in Business' on Trust in Branding.

Promises being made and then broken

I found the below article interesting and thought I would share it with you. It's global - It really doesn't matter where you are in the world, no-one likes it when promises are made and then broken. It's a tough one to stay on top of, though!

Promises are made and fools are happy

“Sliby chyby” – is a popular Czech saying made up of two words promises –mistakes. In other words, it is unwise to make rash promises or as Czechs say “slibovat hory doly” – to promise mountains and valleys. You can also promise to deliver the skies with the phrase “snést někomu modré z nebe” meaning that you will bring the blue colour of the sky down to earth for someone. A mistake to make the promise, and an even bigger one to take it seriously. 

Someone who makes a habit of making rash promises – and never keeping them – is often labeled a “slibotechna” – which is something like a workshop for promises. Many a politician has been called a “slibotechna” by the press with remarks such as “nikdo vám nedá tolik, kolik my vám slíbíme” - nobody will give you half as much as we will promise you. Another phrase you will come across quite often is “slíbil mnoho, ale skutek utek” meaning - he talked the talk, but didn’t not walk the walk – or as some say –he was all mouth but no trousers.

If you have been fooled by someone’s promise – you can say “naletěl jsem” meaning I fell for it although the literal translation would be I flew for it. Do it too often and Czechs will tell you “sliby se slibují, blázni se radují” meaning promises are made and fools are happy. 

Finally, the expression “sliby-chyby” is the closest you can get to the English “promises, promises” so if you doubt someone’s promise of mountains and valleys or the blue sky –the proper response is “sliby-chyby”. 

This is Daniela Lazarová saying thanks for learning Czech with me and na shledanou! 

For all the women in leadership - Why women are trusted more than men, and how to use trust to our advantage!

In a recent survey by Management Today and the Institute of Leadership and Management, female CEOs were found to be more trusted than their male counterparts. In a number of sales training sessions I’ve attended over the years, women have been lauded as more trustworthy sales people than their male colleagues.

At the same time, women are more sensitive to trust and mistrust. In a survey I conducted through an independent researcher we found that only 1 in 20 women will deal with someone they like but do not trust, as opposed to 1 out of 5 men.

So what does this all mean for women in leadership?

We know that people follow trusted leaders. People buy from people they trust. We stay in relationships with partners we trust. Destroy that trust or abuse it in any way, and we no longer follow, we no longer buy, we no longer stay in that relationship. And women often bail more quickly than men.

What female leaders seem to have to their advantage is a much more intuitive response to trust and an openness to change. There are certainly exceptions but in my experience, women understand how important trust is, are prepared to do what it takes to build that trust, and are far more careful to ensure it isn’t broken.

We know that when trust is actively built across an organization, there is a direct return on what I call the 3 Rs of Trust – Results, Retention and Relationships. In fact, global consulting firm Towers Watson proved that companies that developed high levels of trust were able to generate shareholder returns 3 times that of companies with low levels of trust, a statistic we’ve also proven. Those improvements in returns are largely due to the improvement in relationships within the company, between managers and staff, between teams, as well as with customers and other stakeholders.

The Greatest Risk to Your Business

As a leader in business, you are familiar with the fact that you have risks that need to be managed or avoided completely. But let me ask you this – have you ever considered a breakdown of trust as the greatest risk to your business?

If you’re shaking your head, you’re in the majority – but if you truly want to outshine and outstrip your competitors, if you want to significantly increase what I call the 3 R’s of trust – Results, Retention and Relationships, then listen up! 

Your greatest challenge and opportunity in 2011 is to join the growing number of leaders who are focusing on a breakdown of trust as the greatest risk, and creating a “Building Trust Plan” to address it. 

Watson Wyatt concluded in a 2003 study that organizations with high levels of trust delivered shareholder returns 3 TIMES that of organizations with low levels of trust. We’ve seen similar results from organizations that apply a concerted effort on understanding where trust is breaking down inside and outside their organization and leading with trust as the foundation of doing business. 

One of the issues “trust” has in playing a significant role in the business world has been its complexity and a reputation as being a “soft skill” that “we don’t have time to really focus on – we’re trying to make money.”  Trust has taken a back seat to a host of culture development programs and, over the past few years, cost cutting measures to survive the global financial crisis have eroded trust even further.

In a study my organization, entente, conducted in 2006, we asked over 600 people “What is trust?”  And guess what?  We got over 600 different responses!  I realized that we had a problem right there – how can we build something if we don’t even know what we are building?

But when I asked business leaders around the world “How important is trust to your organization?” what did they say? “It’s critical” was the most common response. Great, so then I asked, “So, what do you do, then, to build trust? How do you know when you have it and when you don’t? How do you measure it?” The response – lots of blank stares, red faces, drained faces, and less than 5% could actually tell me what they did to build trust.

So, we have a lack of understanding of what trust is, a recognition of how important it is, with no clue as to what to do! Is it any wonder trust has taken a back seat all these years?

As a leader, this is your chance to lead with trust, and reap the rewards.

First, what is trust?

I define it as this:   

Our ability to rely on: 

1. A person (or group of people)
2. An organization
3. Products and Services 

. . . to deliver an outcome to us. 

So, when your staff trusts you, they’re relying on you and your organization to deliver an outcome to them. When your customers trust you they are relying on you, your organization, and your products and services to deliver an outcome to them. 

The problem is unless you’ve been asking, you don’t know what outcome they are relying on you for.  And, I can tell you this for certain, if you think you know, you don’t. Assume nothing!  There will be things that they are relying on that will blow your mind. 

There are 3 core components to the Trust Wall, a revealing model for trust that explains quite a bit about human behavior.

Expectations are the first things that come into play.  All your stakeholders will have expectations of you that come from: 

• Their previous experience with you
• Things they’ve seen about you
• Things others have told them about you
• Things they’ve experienced with people/organizations/products and services that are like yours, but are not you

That means your customers, your staff, your shareholders, all have a range of expectations that they are relying on you to deliver. 

Needs also play out in the trust dynamic – by Needs, I mean the basic human needs that drive us (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is what I draw on). Some people are relying on you to make them feel safe, others just want a job, some want respect, others growth and development. When you meet their Needs, they stay with you. Fail to meet them, and they are gone! 

Then there are the Promises you make – both explicitly and implicitly. When you make Promises that meet the Expectations and Needs of others, they are drawn to you. When you make those Promises and then don’t deliver them, you break down that trust sometimes quicker than you can blink. 

These 3 things, what I call ENPs®, are what we all rely on others for, and our trust sits on a balance of those. Keep them all in check, and trust flourishes and Results, Retention and Relationships all improve. Fail to meet them and trust breaks down, and all those things that you see in your business that cause you sleepless nights – the lack of performance, slow sales, high turnover, customer complaints, infighting, shareholder selling out, all take hold and destroy everything you are trying to achieve. 

A breakdown of trust is the greatest risk to your business – building trust is your greatest challenge. That is the truth about trust. 

Can you handle the truth?

Published on Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog.