
Building A Company Inspired By Purpose And Commitment
As the rate of change continues to accelerate, leadership communication is becoming more important than ever. The last 15 years of the information revolution, corporate malfeasance & scandal, economic recession, and global terrorism, have elevated the importance of authentic leadership to build organizational credibility, loyalty, and reputation.
This hyper-connected and technology-enabled era have allowed employees to discover more about their leaders and their peers as well. Social media has suddenly given people the permission to enter a leader’s personal boundaries; a place they were previously forbidden from entering. We have entered a period by which people want and expect their leaders to be more human, less perfect, and at times a bit more vulnerable regardless of their hierarchical power. This need for transparency in society is at historic levels. People would rather “see” a video blog than “read” a blog. They want to see a leader’s facial expressions, eye contact, and body language. Employees want to be free to evaluate whether someone is acting or being authentic.
Authentic Leaders talk the talk and walk the talk with their stakeholders. This is especially significant in our digitally-connected and transparent world. Up to now, it has been safer for business executives not to participate in social media with their stakeholders because of the perception that it was riskier to say something or share something that would anger a customer, manager, etc.
It is now becoming riskier for business executives not to engage online with their social network and stakeholders. “No” online engagement means you are invisible which could have a negative effect on your reputation, credibility, and influence. Stephen M.R. Covey, says, “Relationship trust is all about behavior … consistent behavior.” This is important on or offline.
Social Behaviors that are practiced by a Standard of Trust Leader
- Talk authentically. Let people know where you stand. Use simple and understandable language.
- Demonstrate respect. Genuinely care and show it.
- Generate transparency. Tell the truth in a line that can be confirmed. Always practice full disclosure.
- Correct Offenses. Apologize quickly. Make amends where possible.
- Show trustworthiness. Give credit generously. Talk about people as if they were present.
- Deliver results. Under-promise and over-deliver. Be 100% accountable.
- Continuously improve toward mastery.
- Reinforce Candor. Take issues head on, even the “undiscussable’s”.
- Clarify expectations. Disclose, reveal, discuss, validate, renegotiate if needed.
- Say “Thank you”.
- Practice accountability. Take responsibility for results. Be clear on how you’ll communicate.
- Listen first. Don’t assume you know what matters most to others.
- Keep commitments. Make commitments carefully. Don’t break confidences.
- Extend trust. Extend trust abundantly to those who have earned it. Extend trust conditionally to those who are earning it.
Here are five powerful things that happen when a leader is transparent
1. Problems Are Solved Faster
Employees learn more about one another and can develop ways to collaborate more effectively in solving problems when their leaders are transparent. For example, I can remember when my first boss at IBM would challenge us to book more revenue in our assigned large accounts. When we submitted the revised account plans, we were told to give it another pass — multiple times over. After confronting my boss, he told me — “Rob, I am being told that I must achieve a specific revenue target that year and if I cannot achieve it, I am going to have to reduce staff. I would rather not inject additional anxiety in the team.” I responded by recommending that if he openly shared his fears with our team and that if someone was not able to handle the truth — then we would uncover another problem. In other words, my boss’ leadership group would be more successful at crafting a strategy to exceed performance requirements; rather than reducing an operating budget. We did and my manager learned an important principle about how to solve difficulties by being transparent with his entire team.
2. Credibility Teams Are Built Faster with less Friction
Transparency is a powerful bonding agent. Trusted Team building through transparency takes shape when the leader can openly and proactively discuss what he believes are the strengths and weaknesses of the team. The leader creates a safe environment by which allows everyone to share their perceptions — creating a culture where the leaders (with the support from the team itself) can begin to purposefully match individuals to handle certain projects based on specific performance requests.
When leaders can be thoughtful about the makeup of the team profile and issues — as it pertains to both individuals and the group — this allows the team to build trust together and find innovative ways to discover the best mix of talent to deliver on performance expectations. It nurtures a risk-taking attitude that allows for cross-functional responsibilities and improvements.
3. Relationships Develop Authentically
Transparency builds bridges of trust that bring individuals together that have not yet discovered one another. For example, the Standard of Trust Group working with Bruce Lewin, Founder of Four Groups (4G), assessed our team’s social profiles. Based the online assessment each member of the team took, we were able to optimize the teamby understanding the skills and experience of the individual. These outputs were shared amongst the team. First of all, this level of transparency was used to allow the members of the team to rapidly discover each other, build stronger bonds of engagement and to form bonds of respect and support.
Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust. -Lance Secretan
But we discovered during our pre-work that the character traits and tendencies of these individuals while different — complemented one another. The result: an energetic team of uniquely different leaders forged a relationship of trust and influence as a result of each of them being authentic and true to each other. It is also important to note that transparency allows relationships to mature faster, as openness can potentially avoid misinterpretations that can fuel unnecessary anxiety.
4. People Begin to Promote Trust in Their Leader
When leaders are transparent, people can be much more unbiased in evaluating the pros and cons about their leader. If you are transparent, especially during the worst of times, you actually bolster your leadership as people begin to trust you as a person and thus will respect you more as a leader. Employees may have trusted their leaders in the past, but after their leader becomes transparent their employees are now more willing to encourage trust in their leader with others. This eliminates any biased judgments that others may have had of the leader whose transparency they had yet to experience.
5. Higher-Levels of Performance Arise
Each of the previous points builds on the next. The formula is simple: Teams of high-trust have higher levels of performance. It’s really that straightforward. Unhappily, the lack of transparency that still exists among leaders in the workplace can potentially put one of these powerful factors at risk — which leads to lower performance levels. It’s better to be open and honest early in your leadership tenure because if not — you most likely will not be around long enough to create a sustainable legacy. The success of a relationship capital leader is one who inspires hope and opportunity through honesty and authenticity.
You are the standard of trust leader that sets the expectation and level of performance in your organization. Everything you want more of and less of improves with higher levels of relationship capital trust.
- Greater Risk-Taking
- More Innovation
- Higher Financial Performance
- Less Malfeasance
- Better Reputation
- More Engaged Employees
Introducing PE-ER SaaS “Performing Excellence-Engaging Recognition
Conclusion
The time is now for business leaders, professionals, and solopreneurs to assess and implement new operating models that leverage their innate purpose, values, and creativity of the individual and the team with the flexibility and efficiency of technology. Relationship Capital is a key lever for high performing and innovative self-governing and your highest performing teams do the right things to earn this self-governance. Learn our meaning and the business benefits for assessing, capturing, measuring, and utilizing your Relationship capital (RC). RC may be the greatest asset of a thriving company inspired by purpose and commitment.

How you build credibility and trust is difficult for your competition to copy or emulate in their firms and in the marketplace. Success goes to those businesses and professionals that build and nurture a high relationship capital across your ecosystem of stakeholders; customers, employees, partners, and suppliers. Today, firms that have garnered reputations of high trust are relatively unique, but in the near future, it will be a necessity in order to stay in the game and effectively compete. If not, the hyper-connected client, customer, star-performing employee, and partner will bypass you and your company. Are you ready to compete and win in the reputation economy by declaring and keeping your commitments?
