Trust: The Currency of Healthy Relationships
By Michael J Griffin
Last week PwC sent me an article on their research on trust between organizations and their customers and employees. The research paper is called “Trust: The New Currency for Business.” PwC has much deeper pockets and global reach for research than my little company, so I have provided you with the download of the article at the end of this short blog.
The article is called the “new currency” for business and I believe this is a misnamed article because in my over 40 years as a global businessperson, gaining employee and customer trust that leads to healthy relationships has always been crucial in running a successful global business. Raised in the USA and now living in different Asian cultures, I have realized that gaining trust is even more important in both employee and customer relationships.
Dr. Fons Trompenaars, the cross cultural author, taught me about trust by explaining Lewin’s Circles of Relationships. You can read more about this in the book “Riding the Waves of Culture” the chapter called Specific - Diffuse. Basically people view how they trust in relationships based on whether others are their public or private space. Americans have a large public space where trust and sharing information is based on the situation or getting the job done. This is why talk shows are such a big hit in America. People who trust and share information based on the situation are “specific.”
Most of the world, including Asia, people are “diffuse” meaning trust must be earned before sharing information and having a relationship. This takes time and patience. Asians have a small public space as “personal information” is guarded until one is let into the Asian’s private space. But once in the private space, trust is long lived.
So what have I learned living in diffuse Asian cultures when it comes to employees and customers? Here are my quotes to stimulate your thinking on trust in the marketplace:
“Trust if the glue that keeps us together, and the oil that lubricates our communication and performance.”
Adapted from Stephen Covey
“The higher the trust in a relationship the less ethnic cultural norms and rules matter.”
In Asia, nurture trust and relationship first, then sell the product or service.”
“In USA, sell the product first and if there is time, we might have a relationship.”
“In Asia, if you remain in the customer’s or employee’s public space, there is little trust, making you are ‘fair game’ to be taken advantage of.”
“Demonstrating you can be trusted by your customers is a strong competitive advantage.”
“Prospecting is tougher in Asia as customer public space trust is very low. But if the salesperson is successful in building a trusting long term relationship, i.e. in ‘private space,’ you may have a customer for life.
“In USA, prospecting is quick and situational for the one sale in “public space,” but customer loyalty is also fleeting.”
“Regardless of the culture (specific or diffuse), demonstrating respect, care and empathy can accelerate trusting relationships.”
“Supervisors make the time and sincere effort to care about the employee as a person and not someone who just generates results and gets his/her reward.”
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
Ernest Hemmingway
‘To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”
George MacDonald
A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man no one trusts.
Harold MacMillan
OK, enough quotes on trust. You can download the PwC article on by clicking trust here.
Reflect on these quotes, the PwC research and determine how you will lead your organization in a way that both employees and customers trust.
Have a great week nurturing trusting relationships across your sphere of influence.
Michael J Griffin
CEO and Founder ELAvate
Cross Cultural Trust Builder