Build Culture Of Trust, Accountability To Get Results

By Steve Watkins, For Investor's Business Daily

• Keep your word. Build trust by living up to your commitments, says Stephen M.R. Covey, global leader of Salt Lake City-based leadership development firm FranklinCovey trust practice. If you're not accountable for what you say, people won't follow. "With low accountability, nothing gets done because no one trusts what you talked about," he told IBD.

• Look inward. Accountability starts at home, says Covey, author of "Smart Trust" and son of Stephen R. Covey, author and co-founder of FranklinCovey. If you want others to be responsible, you have to be, too. If you aren't, you're just shifting blame. "My father said, 'If you think the problem is out there, then that kind of thinking is the problem,'" he said. "Look in the mirror first. If you blame others, you can't sustain trust."

• Be all-encompassing. Integrity isn't just something you do. It has to be part of your being, says Jana Matthews, who heads her Boulder, Colo.-based namesake leadership and growth consulting firm. Your principles rule everything you do.

"Integrity needs to be integral to who you are," she said. "You want people to say, 'You have to understand we're all held accountable here. It's what the organization's personality is.'"

• Operate reliably. Be consistent in what you tell people and how you act. Explain why you want them to do something. They'll learn they can trust what you say.

"If you consistently tell people the truth and why you are asking them to do something, they will do it and eventually will walk over hot coals for you," Matthews said.

• Be clear. Goals for how to live by values should be no different than sales or profit goals, Covey says. They should be stated to everyone. Procter & Gamble (PG) does that well, he says. The personal care firm sets out its values and rewards people only if they achieve results while in harmony with those principles. "The key is making it explicit and real," he added.

• Gain speed. When you have a culture of trust, everything moves faster, Covey says. People don't have to spend time checking on each other and wondering if they'll deliver.

Warren Buffett completed one acquisition in 29 days because both sides trusted each other. "When you don't have trust, speed goes down and costs go up," Covey said. "There is a low-trust tax."

• Share negatives, too. Communicate bad news when it happens instead of hiding it, Matthews says. Own up to it, take responsibility and tell others how you plan to proceed to solve the problem in the future. "People will follow a leader who has vision and who they trust," she said.

• Offer support. Once you've told people what you expect from them, give them the resources to do it. Then you should hold them accountable, Matthews says.

If they need two years for a project and you give them only one, you can't expect them to do the job as well as first planned.

"You always want to be helping employees perform at a high level," Matthews said. "It's unfair if you haven't told them what to expect, what the goal is and given them the resources to make it happen."

• Follow your words. Build trust by doing what you say you will do, Covey says. Too often there's a wide gap between words and action. "When there's very little gap, that's real integrity," he said.