Trust – the key to success?

What is your Trust level in business and life?

Many people say a primary trait they want in political and business leaders is Integrity. But if you ask what they mean by that, the number of different answers is likely to equal the number of people asked. Integrity is one of those words that tends to contain a lot of personal meaning and interpretation.

My own ambivalence, and that of the large parts of the population (according to my appraisal of the regularly swinging opinion polls) in the face of the forthcoming UK general election, set me thinking that what I'm really interested in, in both political and business leaders, is Trust. For me Trust is a much simpler concept than integrity. My definition is very straightforward: Can I rely on someone to do what they say they're going to do?

If I look at politics and large areas of business practice over the last ten years or so, what has been substantially eroded is Trust. Whatever your views about the beliefs and actions of Margaret Thatcher, at nearly twenty years distance, my memory of her time in office is that she could be trusted – in the sense that she said she would do X and then set about doing it. I suspect that even Arthur Scargill might agree with that view of her.

Trust is missing  for me now across the entire political spectrum. I simply don't trust any politicians any more. It has been a downhill run ever since the lies that were told to justify the invasion of Iraq, and the MPs expenses scandal was just the final bit of icing on the shit pie that had been being baking for several years.

The endless flow of evidence of a total disregard for any spirit of Trust across wide swathes of 
business (Enron, Banking in general, BAE, Rio Tinto, Daimler etc. etc.) has led to a deeper and more widespread mistrust of business than ever before.

And yet I believe that the building (and restoration) of Trust is the key to success in almost every area of life.

How do you rate yourself on the scale of Trust?

Check out Stephen M R Covey's http://whotrustsyou.com/ site and do the Trust Survey there. I also thoroughly recommend his book, The Speed of Trust.

Once you've got your results, please come back and post/comment on them here.

For me in my business and, I believe, you in yours Trust is one of the most important keys to success.

Building trusted relationships with clients, suppliers, colleagues, in fact anyone and everyone, lies at the heart of maximising the value in all those relationships – both for you and the other people involved.

Trust is what (I believe) we all want in our business and personal lives – so let's go cause it.