1933 Business Credo
By Noreen Kelly | June 17, 2008
The following is the text of a Business Credo, published by Christian Businessman in 1933. This business creed is as relevant today as it was 75 years ago:
I believe in business as a means whereby each member of society may render helpful service to others.
I believe that if any conflict arises between human interests and business, human interest should be placed first.
I believe that the profits of a business should be shared and that this is fundamental to sound business success.
I believe that business, to be of greatest value, must take God into active partnership.
I believe that meditation and prayer are essential to business and personal success.
I believe that business life should be a rich, expanding, abundant life, ever opening new channels of service.
I believe that partnership with God will give a joy, a satisfaction, a faith, and a courage in business that cannot otherwise be obtained.
Charlotte Shelton, CEO, Unity, shared this creed on Unity FM, Unity’s Online Radio Network, and remarked on the timelessness of this message and the need for the text to be recognized by business everywhere so as to fully engage hearts and minds.
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Quotes on Trust and Trustworthiness
By Noreen Kelly | May 31, 2008
More trust quotes for inspiration …
“The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led — is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” - Brian Tracy
“When people honor each other, there is a trust established that leads to synergy, interdependence, and deep respect. Both parties make decisions and choices based on what is right, what is best, what is valued most highly.” - Blaine Lee
“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversation with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.” - Thomas Moore
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” - Heb. 11:1
“Trust is like te air we breathe. When it’s present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices.” - Warren Buffet
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Edelman Trust Barometer
By Noreen Kelly | April 27, 2008
I recently attended a BMA (Business Marketing Association) Chicago luncheon meeting, presented by Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman PR, the world’s largest independent public relations agency.
Edelman spoke about findings from the ninth annual Edelman Trust Barometer:
- Business and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are trusted more than government
- Young opinion elites show higher levels of trust in business than older elites and rely on multiple sources of information to form opinions about companies.
- Communications today requires top-down and peer-to-peer spokespeople. All ages trust word of mouth.
- Social media is growing, though mainstream media is still the most widely used and believed for information about companies.
- The new reputation makers can be either advocates for companies they trust or naysayers against those they distrust. Companies must evolve “reputation management” into “reputation leadership,” working proactively to build stakeholder trust.
- The gap between trust in U.S. business and government is at its widest in Trust Barometer history. Wikipedia is the second most credible source for young Americans.
- NGOs have a trust advantage in most European countries, with differences seen in Eastern Europe.
- China’ s economic influence on the world and the region is enormous, but trust in Chinese companies is at an all-time low.
- Canada’s and Latin American’s levels of trust in business are among the highest in the world.
For the first time, the 2008 Trust Barometer included young people (ages 25 to 34). Historically cynical toward business, the young “info-entials” who participated in the survey indicated they trusted business more than their older counterparts. Edelman said that finding revealed a great opportunity for business to communicate its story to this demographic, for whom sharing information is an everyday activity.
Richard Edelman also discussed how communicators are being challenged to think and act differently in a new age of communications where the audience “is on the field and ready to play in the game.” No longer can brands just focus on talking to their stakeholders; now they must engage in a participatory dialogue with them.
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Spirit at Work
By Noreen Kelly | April 10, 2008
I came across a review of a book, Spiritual Enterprise: Building Your Business In the Spirit of Service, by Lawrence Miller, which talks about the spiritual principles that lie behind all successful business organizations.
Specifically, Miller links the following principles with successful corporate practices:
• honesty and trustworthiness
• the spirit of service
• justice
• consultation
• unity
• moderation
• world citizenship
• universal education
“Honesty and trustworthiness are not only the foundation of virtue but of economic activity as well,” Miller writes, outlining how honesty and trust are essential for wealth creation, innovation and leadership.
The book also serves to educate readers on Baha’i spiritual, social and economic principles, and how the teachings of the Baha’i faith are being rediscovered in the corporate world.
Topics: Spirituality, Business, Trust | No Comments »
You can’t know - you have to trust
By Noreen Kelly | March 10, 2008
In terms of trust in business, the “soft” stuff is the hard stuff. Trusting relationships increase profitability, boost market value, add competitive advantage, lower costs, and provide efficiencies. Creating bonds of trust leads to higher morale, lower turnover, and improved productivity. Partnerships based on trust provide the greatest value at the lowest cost.
Trust need not be measured in standard business or financial terms. The word faith comes from the Latin fidere, meaning “to trust.” The concept of fiduciary responsibility is about more than financials. Trust in Spirit, trust in ourselves, and trust in each other create the bottom line. We can look at trust in economic terms, after we acknowledge the first priority.
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Ethical courage
By Noreen Kelly | February 22, 2008
In my last post, I talked about the results of the 2007 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), which reported that, based on interviews with almost 2,000 employees at U.S. public and private companies, disturbing numbers of workers are witnessing ethical misconduct at work, and tending not to report what they see. The NBES news release (November 28, 2007), in reporting on the survey results, commented, “Six years after high-profile corporate scandals rocked American business, there has been little if any meaningful reduction in the enterprise-wide risk of unethical behavior at U.S. companies. “Despite new regulation and significant efforts to reduce misconduct and increase reporting when it does occur, the ethics risk landscape in American business is as treacherous as it was before implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,” said Patricia Harned, Ph.D., President, Ethics Resource Center (ERC).
I concluded my post by talking about the lack of ethical leadership among many leaders and the absence of ethical courage by a great number of employees. I came across a couple of articles from A Heathen Blog - Expanding Inward that talk about the The Nine Noble Virtues and the subject of ethical courage.
The Nine Noble Virtues, existing throughout the corpus of Heathen lore and echoed by the ethical standards of cultures around the world, are: Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Self-Reliance, Industriousness, and Perseverance. Ethical courage is described as the “willingness to hold to one’s personal ethics in spite of fear of alienation or other form of personal loss. The author states that ethical courage is often overlooked and, at the same time, so vital: it’s required in everyday situations, where it would be so much easier to cave in or not stand up for something we feel is right, where no one would really notice one way or the other, except ourself.”
This lack of ethical courage is evident in the workplace when employees witness serious ethical lapses, especially conflicts of interest, abusive behavior and lying, and fail to report what they see. Dr. Harned, ERC President stated, “Employees at all levels have not increased their ‘ethical courage’ in recent years. “The rate of observed misconduct has crept back to where it was in 2000. And employees’ willingness to report misconduct has not imprved, either.” What is needed are positive, preventive measures that can help forestall disaster.
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Ethics survey - good news and bad news
By Noreen Kelly | January 30, 2008
The 2007 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), published by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) last November, based on a nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 employees of U.S. companies, both publicly and privately held and of varying sizes, indicates that ethical misconduct is back at pre-Enron levels.
The survey revealed the following key findings:
- High rates of misconduct. In the past 12 months, more than half (56 percent) of the employees surveyed observed conduct that violated company ethics standards, policy or the law. This matches the level (55 percent) reported in 2000, before Enron and other, more recent corporate scandals.
- Misconduct is more common in negative work environments. In companies where employees distrust management, ethical lapses abound.
- Management is often unaware of unethical behavior. In the latest survey, 42 percent of respondents said they do not report misconduct. Only 3 percent of all employees said they would prefer to use a company hotline rather than speak to someone they know.
- Only 1 in 4 companies has a well-implemented ethics and compliance program. Where such programs exist, only 29 percent of employees fail to report misconduct. In companies with no program, 61 percent do not speak up.
- Fear of retaliation. This is a primary reason why employees do not report unethical behavior. The survey found, however, that one out of eight employees who do report actually experienced retaliation. While any retaliation is a concern, far fewer experience it than fear it.
According to ERC President Patricia Harned, Ph.D., “Despite new regulation and significant efforts to reduce misconduct and increase reporting when it does occur, the ethics risk landscape in American business is as treacherous as it was before implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.”
“There is a strong sense of futility and fear among employees when it comes to reporting ethical misconduct, and that increases the danger to business. More than half (54 percent) of employees who witnessed but did not report misconduct believed that reporting would not lead to corrective action. More than a third (36 percent) of non-reporters feared retaliation from at least one source; but our research shows that having a strong ethical culture virtually eliminates retaliation.”
While employees at all levels appear not to have increased their “ethical courage” in recent years, Harned said, “the good news is that the rate of misconduct is cut by three-fourths at companies with strong ethical cultures, and reporting is doubled at companies with comprehensive ethics programs.”
In the post-Enron era, formal rules like The Sarbanes-Oxley Act will never be enough. Compliance alone does not substantially reduce risk. The challenge ahead is for corporate leaders to help employees move beyond feelings of futility and fear of retaliation towards empowerment and find the ethical courage to do what is right.
The complete NBES survey is available at www.ethics.org
Topics: Leadership, Business ethics | 1 Comment »
Trust and relationships
By Noreen Kelly | December 22, 2007
The vision of Golin Harris, named PR Agency of the Year 2007 by The Holmes Report and Large Agency of the Year 2007 by PR Week Awards, is ” … building long-term partnerships based on mutual trust.” “Building trust must begin with the CEO,” says Richard Jernstedt, CEO of Golin Harris. However, to have a trusted brand with value that can be sustained over time, building trust has to be everyone’s responsibility.” Al Golin, former CEO of Golin Harris, led the firm with this philosophy.
A culture of trust between employees and management promotes respect, loyalty, cooperation and commitment. Leaders who place trust in their team to lead themselves, and team members who trust in one another, can achieve a spirit of cooperation toward common goals and successful outcomes.
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High-trust cultures
By Noreen Kelly | November 25, 2007
I think it’s inspiring to study companies who operate out of a culture of trust and live their values. Here are a few companies who have created high-trust cultures by linking trust with value to the business:
- Nordstrom
- Listed on Fortune’s 2007 “100 Best Companies to Work For,” and other customer satisfaction lists, Nordstrom states: “We remain committed to the simple idea our company was founded on, earning the trust of our customers, one at a time.”
- Southwest Airlines
- Consistently ranked as one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies,” Southwest’s motto is “When in doubt, tell the truth.” CEO Gary Kelly says, “You have to have great employees, and you can’t do that without trust,” Kelly says. “Trust isn’t about jet engines or airports; it’s about people and building relationships with them.”
- Interface
- Ranked on the list of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2007,” Interface is the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial carpet. Ray Anderson, founder and Chairman of Interface, Inc., commented in the 2005 documentary, The Corporation, “For twenty-one years, I never gave a thought to what we were doing to the Earth, or taking from the Earth, in the making of our products.” His willingness to admit he was wrong gave him great credibility. Now called the greenest chief executive in America,” and one of the nation’s leading spokespersons and advocates for sustainability, Anderson has built the business case of how going green is not just doing good, but actually helping drive profitability.
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Communication, change and trust
By Noreen Kelly | November 12, 2007
I recently had an opportunity to give a presentation as a guest speaker to a class, Designing Sustainable Strategy Change, for Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC) program, Evanston, IL. I talked about the role of communication during a change process and explored the role of trust as an underlying theme in realizing successful change.
The case study example which I used related to an enterprise-wide content management system implementation project, though the lessons learned on communication and trust could apply to any change initiative.
I served as communication lead for this project, and was brought into the role after the program manager was doing road shows overpromising and underdelivering when there wasn’t a project plan, which led to missed deadlines, confusion, and many frustrated and disgruntled end users.
The communication and training leads provided much needed end-user awareness and education. Communication and training, two critical areas for a global content management system rollout, represented areas where trust was operating.
Indicators of where trust was not operating included these lessons learned:
- Be realistic in your goals, commitments and deadlines. Don’t overpromise.
- Take baby steps vs. a giant leap.
- Planning and preparation are key (80/20 rule).
- Manage user expectations and perceptions.
- Recognize that the tool is not the process.
- Base project implementation on business needs.
- Recognize and use your community of experts.
- Highlight your early wins.
- Engage your end-users regarding issues of importance to them.
- Be aware of existing culture.
- Look at change through a knowledge lens. No value add to users if tool isn’t part of the way people work.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate … early on.
Topics: Communication, Organizational change | No Comments »
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