The Trust Business

Whatever industry you are in, you are in the trust business. When someone hands you their money, it’s an act of trust. Same thing when they buy your food to feed their families or use your platform to boost their e-commerce business.

Earning trust between people is hard enough. Earning trust for businesses is harder.

So how do we build trust? When what we say and what we do are aligned, we earn trust. Sounds simple, but many companies talk a good game and find the execution much harder. The business world is littered with the bones of many companies who have failed to actually be what they say they are.

I have worked with companies who had a bad situation that they wanted to look good. There is no magic wand you can wave that does this. Authenticity is critical for building trust or winning it back. Faking it until you make it doesn’t work in telling your story. You will likely get caught out, and any trust you have built is erased.

This is where intentional, purpose-led communications come in. It’s not spin or marketing. It’s not about developing key messages that you think will land with stakeholders. It’s about taking an unvarnished look at yourself and making sure what you say accurately characterizes your identity and values, and that these are lived out in your company’s day to day work.

Customers, clients, regulators, employees, the general public — without the trust of these critical stakeholders, you don’t have a business that is built to last, let alone thrive. Communication is the bridge upon which trust is built.