Turn on the TV or click to your favorite news website and it won’t take long to find a story about the decline of trust in organizations. Damaged trust is at the heart of economic turmoil, and millions of workers have felt the effects in painful and personal ways.
The 2009 annual Edelman Trust Barometer reports that “the world has more reasons than ever before to suspend its trust.”
The report goes on to say: “In no country is trust in a more dismal state than the United States, where government, business, and media are all distrusted by respondents to do what is right.”
Many of us don’t need a news headline to tell us this because we feel the effects of damaged trust every day.
So what do we do about it?
Stephen M. R. Covey, in his best selling book, The Speed of Trust, says “you can’t talk yourself out of a situation you behaved yourself into. You can behave yourself out of a situation you behaved your way into.”
Stephen identifies 13 behaviors that build trust:
- Talk Straight
- Demonstrate Respect
- Create Transparency
- Right Wrongs
- Show Loyalty
- Delivery Results
- Get Better
- Confront Reality
- Clarify Expectations
- Practice Accountability
- Listen First
- Keep Commitments
- Extend Trust
People and companies can learn these behaviors. It’s not a simple process that happens overnight, but is a systemic, cultural process that can happen one leader at a time.
When you find yourself in a situation where trust needs to be restored, practice restoring it using these thirteen behaviors common to high trust individuals.
