Building a more trustworthy company starts from within

Trust.

It’s the bedrock of our lives, both personal and professional. It helps us work together to build a better today as well as dream about a more innovative tomorrow.

Trust is also something that is in short supply these days, especially among tech companies.

Some global tech giants are facing a huge crisis of confidence from Internet users, with more than 40% saying they "do not trust many of them to lawfully manage their data" according to a recent survey conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Tresorit, encrypted file-sharing startup.

That’s not a huge surprise in light of recent scandals when years of goodwill can be eroded in just a few months. It should serve as an important moment of self-reflection for all leaders.

Now is the time both to build trust, not just with our customers and the business community at large, but internally with our teams as well. This means increasing our confidence in the people we work shoulder to shoulder with every day, as well as the leaders who guide us with their long-term vision. Moreover, it means believing in the mission and culture of the company you’re working with and the direction it’s taking.

Being part of a company we value

 Increasingly, we employees want the company we work for to not just do good work but to reflect our personal values as well. One of the common grumblings among tech employees is that they’re concerned that the future their company is building is not the one the future world they want to inhabit. 

They want to be part of, and trust in, an organization whose purpose goes beyond a myopic focus on bottom-line financials. This is particularly true with younger workers, who increasingly believe strongly that businesses should focus on impact, not just profit. Sites like the GameChangers 500 — which lists the world’s top purpose-driven companies, like TOMS shoes, Miya Water, and Patagonia — now make finding a job that aligns with your beliefs easier to do.

In a larger sense, we in the tech industry must develop a similar form of worthy purpose. It can’t be an empty phrases and must include an honest assessment of the business ecosystem of which we’re a part and how we can improve it. IBM’s work with like-minded corporation’s reiterating the need for stakeholder capitalism and responsible innovation exemplifies our company’s broader purpose. Other means include becoming part of worthy organizations like the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit coalition committed to the responsible use of artificial intelligence, or the Alliance for Cybersecurity, which is designed to work on best practices for keeping data secure.  

Think global, act local 

On a team level, building trust is essential. If you have too little trust and too much fear within your organization, you have a terrible and toxic environment filled with tension, turnover, burnout and political infighting.

But remember that there is nothing more important to your organization than the people who make it go. A company is not a logo or a marketing campaign, but a living and breathing collective of intelligence, passion, and understanding. The right people are key, to grow your business and build trust, both internally and in the marketplace in general.

I have found that transparency, communications and honesty in establishing goals are also key to improving trust:

Be transparent: IBM follows core principles, grounded in commitments to trust and transparency. These guide our handing of client data and insights and the responsible deployment of new technologies. I recommend the same approach with our teams. Dare to be obvious. Make it clear to everyone how and why decisions are made and they part they play in extending the mission of the organization. Demonstrate how the part every team plays fits into the big picture.

Communicate well: Be open to real-time assessments of whether certain goals and projects are on the right path. Empower team members with a sense of ownership by practicing servant leadership, selflessness and overall team accountability. Regular employee surveys should be a key part of this. Get in front of employees as often as possible. Nothing is better than a face-to-face discussion.

Set clear goals: When we introduce new technology, we believe it must be transparent and explainable. Being clear about how goals are set and what they intend to achieve helps bind teams. Once set, leaders create a feedback environment for checkups and tweaks to deal with the unexpected.

While we generally agree on the foundational basics of what constitutes a good job—a living wage, job security, health care, vacation time, a voice in decision making— I’m going to suggest we add a new ingredient to this workplace recipe for success: trust. It’s essential to the health and vitality of people and organizations. Increasingly, it’s up to all of us, individually and as organizations, to make it happen.