You cant buy it. You cant sell it. You cant even see it. But if you had more of it, your employees would work harder, and your customers would stay with you longer. Trust is one of the most valuable intangible assets that a company can have and this book will show you how to get more of it. Packed with wonderful stories and practical examples, this book is a great read. TRUST me!
Erin Meyer, INSEAD, author of The Culture Map and coauthor of No Rules Rules
The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer found business is the most trusted institution. Business has a new mandate to lead as the world combats ongoing crises and widespread mistrust. Against this backdrop, The Power of Trust is a must-read. Both scholarly and practical, it draws on fields from ancient philosophy to modern management theory to analyze and deeply examine the core elements of business trust while taking a lively journey through real-world cases of trust won and lost (and won again). Professor Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta make a vital contribution to the trust conversation and provide a compelling call to action for CEOs to build trust by embracing a broader societal role.
Richard Edelman, CEO, Edelman
Full of fresh insights brought to life by compelling examples, The Power of Trust is a rich and rewarding read. Its also extremely timely. With more and more companies today pledging to balance the interests of all of their stakeholders, and not always put their shareholders first, Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta make clear that the driving question executives should be asking themselves every time they make a major decision is, Will this enhance trust among those we claim to serveor betray it?
Rick Wartzman, author of The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America
Unveils a new understanding of the business, economic, and societal importance of trust.
Jeffery Weirens, global financial advisory leader, Deloitte
With vibrant and compelling insights, Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta break important new ground about trust as a key foundation for both human relationships and business. Their illuminating and exciting exploration of what it takes to build trust, combined with vivid storytelling, make this page-turner a critical companion for any business leader.
Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO, Best Buy, and author of The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism
Trust is at the foundation of sustainably successful enterprises in business, government, and any organization, for that matter. The Power of Trust does a great job explaining the how and why of building trust, including fairness, one of my favorite issues.
David M. Cote, former CEO, Honeywell, and author of Winning Now, Winning Later
Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta offer a comprehensive blueprint for companies and leaders who want to build or regain the trust of their stakeholders. Their work provides an insightful trust model that underpins moral leadershiplooking at competence, motives, means, and impact. A brilliant resource for anyone who wants to truly understand what trust is, how it works, and what they can do to incorporate it into their leadership practice.
Celia Moore, codirector, Centre for Responsible Leadership Imperial College Business School
Copyright 2021 by Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta
Cover design by Pete Garceau
Cover image by Pete Garceau
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sucher, Sandra J., author. | Gupta, Shalene, author.
Title: The power of trust : how companies build it, lose it, regain it / Sandra J. Sucher & Shalene Gupta.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : PublicAffairs, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020049224 | ISBN 9781541756670 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781541756663 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational behavior. | Trust. | Corporate cultureMoral and ethical aspects. | LeadershipMoral and ethical aspects.
Classification: LCC HD58.7 .S87 2021 | DDC 302.3/5dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049224
ISBNs: 978-1-5417-5667-0 (hardcover), 978-1-5417-5666-3 (ebook)
E3-20210604-JV-NF-ORI
For my family, where trust began. SJS
To my parents and Usheer, both trusted and beloved. SG
F ITTINGLY, A BOOK ON TRUST BEGAN WITH A MOMENT OF trust when my new research associate suggested that perhaps I was missing the big picture. Shalene Gupta asked me whether I wanted to shift the focus of my work from how companies can retain trust after a layoff, to a bigger question. Rather than a limited look at an important but still short-term problem, isnt the question more of a strategic issue of how companies build and maintain trust in the long term?
It was January 2017 in Tokyo, cold but not Boston cold. Shalene and I were in the lobby of our hotel: picture purple velvet-clad banquettes, dim lighting, a space designed for waiting, meeting, and greeting. We had come to Japan to research Recruit Holdings, an astonishingly capable technology and services company that hosts platforms on everything from planning your wedding to buying a house, changing your job, ordering takeout, and getting your nails done. Youll learn more about Recruit later, a spectacular story of trust regained, a fallen angel that redeemed itself.
I was sitting in that lobby, leaning against pillows that kept sliding away from my back, with Shalene, a bespectacled, curly-haired writer (she of Fulbright fame, former reporter for Fortune) who had started to work with me as a research associate at Harvard Business School. We had finished making our to-do list of next steps for the case on Recruit, when Shalene turned to me with her question about the thread I was following in my research. This was a moment of trust in the small as it were, trust between two people. Shalene and I had only been working together for five months. We were just finding out things about each other like whether we liked our eggs scrambled or hard-boiled, tea versus coffee, and yet here she was, asking me whether I wanted to reconsider the focus of my work.
What Shalene was demonstrating at that moment was trust. One crucial aspect of trust, as well see later, is a willingness to make yourself vulnerable to the intentions and actions of others. First question: How vulnerable was Shalene in asking that question? Answer: Very. We hadnt been working together very long, and the question she asked is one I might hesitate to ask a colleague Ive known for years. Second question: How might I have responded? I could have decided that someone who would presume to know me better than I knew myself on the strength of only five months of interaction was a little too sure of what she believed, and a lot less interested in trying to understand me before coming to judgment. I might have concluded this is not someone I wanted to work with on a long-term basis, because I no longer trusted her.