An article published by the American Management Association (AMA) referenced a global survey on business ethics conducted by the Human Resource Institute (HRI) and commissioned by the AMA.

The survey highlighted the fact that business ethics has both bottom-line and moral implications for business professionals. Survey respondents predicted that factors such as protecting a company’s brand and reputation, establishing customer trust, and winning investor confidence will only get more critical by the year 2015.

The survey also reported on a number of findings around the importance of communication. The top-ranked process was having “leaders support and model ethical behavior,” followed by having “consistent communications from all leaders.”

The survey found that the single most important ethical leadership behavior is “keeping promises,” followed by “encouraging open communication,” and keeping employees informed.”

Delivering on promises, doing what you say you will do, bringing actions and words into alignment, saying what you mean and meaning what you say … these behaviors consistently come up in discussions on how leaders can create a culture of trust. Leaders who “walk the talk” will be trusted. Once you lose trust, you lose the ability to communicate and lead.