Trust is essential in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous society. The pandemic has broken the patterns of trust that we have grown accustomed to in order to make decisions. The Edelman Trust Institute has published a collection of essays addressing the multitude of challenges we currently face to balance health care, economic prosperity and personal freedoms as we strive to rebuild for a post-pandemic world.
Main take-aways:
- Have a clear mission and set of values
- What you say and what you do ought to be aligned
- Consistency matters
- Transparency matters
- Incompetence is a trust destroyer
- Be honest about your limitations
- Prioritize collaborations with others
- Good companies invest in good employees
- Emotional intelligence matters
- Inclusion matters
- Climate change pledges matter
- Fighting disinformation is more important than ever
- It takes time to build trust
- Trust is built when promises are kept
- Highlighting solutions not just problems makes for a better world
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, businesses are currently the most trusted institutions in our society. Laszlo Bock, the CEO of Humu, advises though that as employees return to office, employers ought to relax performance standards and allow the employees to re-set their roles in a welcoming environment to avoid burn-out and ensure long-term retention and satisfaction. Employees are looking for confident, competent, and compassionate leaders.
Regarding the crisis in governance, Juha Leppänen from Demos believes that “leadership in the 21st century is not about having all the right answers, but about continuously learning and collaborating rigorously in inventive new ways.” Leppänen believes that by embracing humility governments can cultivate stronger relationships with stakeholders and generate more trust. His advice is to incentivize collaboration and participation.
Read the full report at edelman.com.
Simona David Consulting 