Building a High-Trust Culture #1: It Starts with Integrity



Over forty years in business, I've been involved with more than 100 companies, done thousands of deals, and worked alongside countless leaders and team members in multiple industries. In that time, I've come to believe that the most important ingredient in a business’s success is, simply, trust.

Because it’s become fundamental to my view of leadership and running companies, I’m going to publish a series of posts here on LinkedIn about the value of trust: what it is, how to cultivate it, and how to protect it.

In firms where people trust their leaders and colleagues trust one another, there’s more innovation and better business outcomes. Mistrust and politics are expensive, time-consuming and dispiriting. When a company has a reputation for fair dealing, its costs drop: trust cuts the time spent second-guessing, worrying, and lawyering. Trust strengthens every part of any deal: its durability, its potential profitability, and its flexibility. Like most things, business works better when the energy spent on doubt, fear and suspicion are reduced.

Early on in my career I made a deal with a savvy and experienced investor several years my senior. As papers were being drawn up, I received a call from him. “I don't think you meant to set things up the way you did,” he said, referring to a part of the deal that was in his favor. He proceeded to explain to me how the provision could have left my firm in a bind. He was right, and saved me from a bad mistake. From this, we went on to do over a hundred financings together over several decades. Our level of mutual trust became so great that he’d wire money before the papers were complete. Later, I had a chance to sort through some troubled assets for him to ensure that he recovered his investment capital. I didn't need to, but I never forgot how he'd saved me as a young entrepreneur. Building genuine trust is a long-run investment.

Trust is as important for an established enterprise as for a two-person startup. When teams feel encouragement and support, rather than fear of retribution or embarrassment, they tend to take the kinds of risks that can lead to breakthroughs. In an organization where team members have earned the trust of their supervisors, they can have confidence that if they don’t nail something the first time, there will be a second. Empowered workers can sense they are trusted. For most people, the feeling of being trusted leads to an increased desire to be trustworthy. This virtuous cycle can take your team to great interdependent heights.

But in order for leaders to build and develop trust, it’s important for them to reflect on what it is, and how it works. In my view, there are ten key drivers of trust – from the way leaders display it, to the way team members develop it, and how it requires sacrifice, humility, communication, and accountability. Over this next series of posts, I'll explore why the sum of these key elements is fundamental to building a great organization.

Trust Principle #1: It Starts with Integrity

The foundation of any high-trust organization is the integrity of its leaders. Having integrity means, among other things, that the gap between what you say you're going to do, and what you actually do, is small. I call this a “say-do gap.” Leaders in high-trust organizations must serve as living examples of integrity and trustworthiness – and not just at the office and during business hours. Here are a few ways to think about personal integrity as a core building block of trust:

1) A business is only as trustworthy as its leaders. The people who run things must show – by their actions – the way they want business to be done, and the way they want people to be treated. Talking doesn't cut it. Leaders must embody the spirit they want the team to adopt. People pick up on phoniness. They trust authenticity. Just as kids look to parents for an example, team members watch their leaders. So, miss an opportunity to be that example, and you miss a chance to raise the level of trust.

2) Personal integrity matters. No matter a leader’s competence, charisma, or authority, she’s either trustworthy or she’s not – in all parts of her life. Trustworthy people are trustworthy when it comes to family, friends or colleagues. Obligations to show respect, to consider the welfare of others, and to keep your word don’t end when you leave the office. Leaders who fall short with commitments to friends, family, or close associates are unlikely to establish enduring trust with colleagues, suppliers, or customers. You just can't fake character.

3) Integrity is a habit. Leaders who strive to do the right thing under all circumstances know that being trustworthy takes effort, awareness and work. Trustworthy leaders have generally worked long and hard on their own character building. They’re often quite intentional about fixing things about themselves, about receiving feedback and about learning from it and making changes. In the same way a mechanic keeps a car in top running condition, high-trust individuals monitor and tune their behavior, always striving to do better by team members and customers alike.

Anyone wanting to build a high-trust organization must start by looking in the mirror. Personal character is foundational for interpersonal trust. And organizations in which leaders have integrity stand a much better chance of building trust from the top down, and bottom up.

Up next: Greater respect, higher trust.

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Scott Soden

Coordinator, Brethren Church Global Partners // International Ministries // Leadership and Management Specialist

6y

Joel, integrity is the very essence of character and leadership. I am often amazed at how undervalued these principles tend to be not only in the business world but in every area of a leaders life. It's not just integrity in business though as you have rightly stated, it all comes down to integrating personal integrity in everything we do in our personal, professional, and social lives. That is where trust is built and where it is maintained. When a person develops a good character based on these traits they develop respect in all areas, this results in a reputation that lasts. Without this businesses usually, end up in chaos or disappear altogether. This can happen in a quite folding of the cards or in massive explosions like Enron. I was thinking of Patrick Lencioni's book "5 Dysfunctions of a Team," and how the base of the pyramid for his model is built on trust. It's a lack of trust either in the team or with the business overall that leads to the other dysfunctions and to a collapse from within. However, when the base is built on trust, all of the others fall into place because the foundation is solid. Lencioni's assertion then is that all functions of a team revolve around the principle of trust and integrity. Unfortunately far too many leaders and organizations skirt this critical issue in order to secure short-term gains. Those gains may look nice on the front end, but it's the long game that really makes a difference. Financially speaking the long-term process built on a solid reputation for honesty and integrity solidify the bottom line in significant ways and produce a future of staying power and strength. Those organizations and leader weather the storms and come out ahead almost everytime. Those who do not, if they make it out watch the ships they built sink below the waves of adversity never to be seen again except in small pieces picked up by others along the way. Some great thoughts here Joel. I look forward to your next post.

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Vanessa Sylvester

Owner of The Journey To Leadership Blog I am searching for Guest Writers. If you are interested, please direct message me!

6y

I have been in many workplaces and what makes it toxic is a lack of integrity, most sought after leadership attribute! https://journeytoleadershipblog.com/2017/12/17/the-importance-of-integrity-in-leadership/

Mas Agung Dewantoro

Manager Initiative at PT Trakindo Utama

7y

Integrity = self-portrait, when no one is watching.. Could start with small example, travel report expenses, to high level strategic transaction.. It's been since 2013 yet still relevant.. Spot on..thank you..

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Joseph Sullivan

Regional Provider Manager at The Home Depot

8y

So completely true, which is why I wrote about the same subject of integrity here. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/integrity-most-important-quality-never-compromise-joseph-j-sullivan?trk=pulse_spock-articles

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No. 1... Value. So true Shawn! Must have! Mr. Integrity ! How can I work with thankless, no trust ......colleagues and students alike ???

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