This year's Edelman Trust monitor once again looks at key areas in building trust. The 5 areas relate to organisational integrity, enagagement, products and services, purpose and operations. The Trust monitor summary however emphasises the first two as the major trust-building opportunities for business and it is useful to summarise their key attributes:
Integrity
- has ethical business practices
- takes responsible actions to address an issues or crisis
- has transparent and open business practices
Engagement
- listens to customers' needs and feedback
- treats employees well
- places customers ahead of profits
- communicates frequently and honestly about the state of business
The difficulty with maximising these trust-building opportunities is that they probably mean changing organisational culture which is long-term and it's clearly tempting to take the easy option and just tinker with products, services and operations. However, if leaders are in it for the long -game (see yesterday's blog on stewardship) then there are more chances of these trust building opportunities being realised, but possibly without them getting the direct, attributable credit -quite a personal leadership conundrum.
Everyday business ethics: building trust, boosting value
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