Trust

I was at the KM Australia conference last week and one side-show was a list of ‘trust behaviours’ which delegates were asked to rank.  This all resulted in a blog posting by Shawn Callahan which you can read here.

Shawn came up with eight trust making behaviours and they were ranked in the order included here.  Two further ones were added by the delegates (including me!) These are the final two in the list

• Being open and honest about your intentions
• Looking after your colleagues when times are tough
• Consistently delivering good work
• Team members are involved in decision-making

  

• Being able to speak your mind in meetings
• Being generous with what you know
• Giving credit where credit is due
• Making promises and keeping them
• Being prepared to allow the group to come up with “your idea” rather than tell them how you believe it must be
• Creating an environment where positive feedback always comes first and participation is encouraged

This sent me scuttling back to Stephen MR Covey’s excellent book, the Speed of Trust where he lists his thirteen behaviours for relationship trust:

1. Talk Straight
2. Demonstrate Respect
3. Create Transparency
4. Right Wrongs
5. Show Loyalty
6. Deliver Results
7. Get Better
8. Confront Reality
9. Clarify Expectations
10. Practice Accountability
11. Listen First
12. Keep Commitments
13. Extend Trust

And then set up your Action Plan to see it all through. Covey’s fit neatly into Shawn Callaghan’s list. And both choose straight talking as the highest priority.  I can instantly think of examples from my own career where each and everyone was broken as standard corporate behaviour. I remember talking about ‘trust’ in the BBC (the first value -by the way-) and being told by someone: ‘you must be out of your mind’.

There are interviews with Stephen here. Worth listening to one or two and you can take a personal trust test.