Chemistry, Connection or Contract?
Trust plays a huge role in our industry.
An international survey by IPSOS, Trust in the Media, shows how confidence in recognised magazine and newspaper brands is generally strong, but varies a lot around the world. We work hard to build the trust our readers have in us. But how important is it in the way we work to deliver those magazine and newspaper brands to the readers? Is trust the most important currency in business?
The IPSOS survey shows that people are actually most trusting of other people they know personally to tell them what’s actually going on. It seems that personal relationships are one of the few news sources perceived to have gained in trustworthiness over the past five years.
An overlay currently is the lack of physical, face-to-face contact, which restricts the normal reading of people and their non-verbal communication. Zoom has lots of pluses in terms of speed and efficiency, but you can’t win trust through a screen. On top of everything else, the pandemic has made it all the more difficult to build trusting relationships, which lie at the core of business.
Most will be reinforced by contracts and all kinds of legal constraints, yet these links between organisations actually come alive through the dynamic interaction of individuals. Readly has 800 publishing partners across the globe – all equally important. It’s only through the nurturing and maintaining of personal relationships with our publishing partners that makes Readly function as it does.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for all businesses. Look around, there are so many examples of executives taking advantage of the current disruption to ditch long-term relationships to gain a short-term advantage. Mass redundancies, forced changes in working conditions, walking away from property contracts, ignoring well-established terms and conditions of trade, and so on. Some of this is driven by panic and simple survival. Some results from those using a bad situation to benefit their own business needs. Whatever the cause, we are in danger of trashing a fundamental element of how a business – a good, sustainable, value-adding business - works.
Business psychologists make a distinction between rational trust in others (a reliance on experts who can demonstrate their knowledge, who do what they say they’ll do and “know their stuff”) and emotional trust which is based on empathy and social intelligence – in other words, a living relationship.
That relationship has many different dimensions and issues:
Joint aims and risk-sharing. This leads to collaboration and the willingness to compromise in order to achieve a shared goal – the archetypal “win:win”. Not battling for power and control, but at the same time able to confront and manage conflict when it arises – and it will.
Mutual understanding and respect for each other. This extends beyond the corporate aims and business models to empathising where each individual is coming from. Why do they do and say what they do?
Accountability and transparency built on the clear communication of aims and goals. That means the honesty to “fess up” when things go wrong.
Passion and enthusiasm - but balanced by consistency, reliability and authenticity. The word “authentic” is overused today, but it’s the key to a strong foundation in any working relationship.
To forgo a short-term win... if it jeopardises a long-term relationship.
Trust generates commitment; commitment fosters teamwork; and teamwork delivers results. When people trust their team members, they not only work harder, but they work harder for the good of the team.
Much of this is based simply on indefinable personal chemistry – people either click or they don’t. Yet all of us at some stage have had to learn to bite our tongues and think of the greater good.
And here is a much more controversial thought. Most psychologists say that women are much better at building business relationships – naturally and instinctively - than men, who have to work a bit harder at it. Pushing for more women in senior positions in business is not political correctness or the politics of feminism but is a practical goal for any company wanting to build and grow.
The whole point is that trust-based relationships lie at the core of any organisation that is in it for the long-term. They help to create an agile business that can quickly adapt to a rapidly changing world; better able to deliver financial growth and profitability. And with a strong sense of responsibility, both to its own staff and to society at large.
Business relationships are built up over time – often years. They need to be worked at and nurtured. Yet they can be destroyed in a moment. And are very difficult to restore. Let’s just remember that as we struggle to survive and prosper in testing times.