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Trust and Business—a Perfect Pair or Dueling Divas?
July 08, 2009
Trust and business—given the recent credit crisis and ongoing financial disturbance—is hard to couple. But "The Truth About Trust in Business," by Vanessa Hall, provides a model for businesses that recognize building trust leads to higher profits, better employee retention, improved branding, and a more enjoyable work environment.
"We are in a global crisis—we lack trust in our business dealings," says Hall. "We've forgotten how powerful trust is, how quickly it can break down, and the pain and destruction caused by a breakdown of trust. What we are seeing now are the consequences of greed and a lack of accountability. The level of selfishness of too many business leaders—all stemming from a lack of understanding of how intricate and finely balanced the trust of stakeholders really is—is extremely high. They have broken the trust of the very people they were trusted to serve and lead."
Hall covers in the book:
• How building trust in the current climate could be the "lifeboat" for floundering businesses.
• How to build trust in leadership, people management, sales, customer service, marketing, branding, and compliance and governance.
• What trust is—and what it is not—and its unique role in business.
Based on original research with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, psychologists, and other professionals, the book also is based on Hall's interviews with more than 600 Australians about trust. She attempts to present a greater awareness of the importance of trust in business, and shows how to utilize trust as a strategic tool in daily interactions and relationships.
"I challenge the concept that we actually know [anything] about trust," says Hall. "From my experience, it is one of those things we think we know but is usually only a surface knowledge. Secondly, trust is critical to building relationships—in business and personally (and that is one thing everyone seems to agree on), so I think it warrants exploring and understanding."
Other points Hall deems worthy of sharing, and covers in the book?:
• A 12-step process for organizations to promote and build trust with branding and marketing.
• 10 tips for injecting trust into your customer service.
• A six-step sales and communication process that invokes trust as a fundamental core principle.
• Five kinds of trust: blind, skeptical, situational, referred, and the middle ground, and how to deal with each situation.
• Six "key quality pairs" of a trustworthy person: open and transparent; honesty and integrity; genuine and authentic; courageous and decisive; reliable and proven; caring and empathetic.
"We're suffering from a massive breakdown in trust," says Hall. "The global economic crisis is a crisis in trust. You either build trust—or destroy it. There is no in between. And if you can't build trust in the workplace, you better build an exit strategy."
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