Building Trust and Being Trustworthy Aren’t the Same

by Kerry Larkan on April 13, 2010

All of us make mistakes. In fact it is one of the ways we learn and hopefully grow and develop as people and as a community. Sometimes, though, people don’t learn, and it’s not until the weight of the law comes a-calling that they even become conscious of other possibilities.

In my piece about James Hardie, the Australian firm recently found guilty of some major misdemeanors, I remarked:

Society provides the opportunity to operate provided we do the right thing. Often referred to as; “social license to trade.” Losing the right comes about when the community deems an organization has acted in an inappropriate way. In short they withdraw their trust.

The same is true at an individual level. If you are not up to the mark as a manager, a leader, a colleague, a board member or a business owner, people withdraw their trust. And when people don’t trust you, doing business becomes that much harder. Even the US Navy has seen fit to fire six officers this year due to their performance––or lack of it.

By far the dumbest is Captain Holly Graf––the “Bligh” of the US Navy it would seem––or should that be, the alleged Bligh?

I know a bit about Captain Bligh. One of my forebears was Commander John Larkan, who in HMS Pandora chased the Bligh crew around the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Northern Australia before running aground inside the Barrier reef off the coast of Queensland.

So here are some lessons to be learned from Captain Graf’s case:

• Trying to be one of the boys is not the way to go.
• Having sailors (or staff) doing personal favours is not bright, nor right, in a public organization.
• Being loud and or abusive doesn’t make you right.

All of this simply diminishes TRUST––and any semblance of power you may have had. You may well be trustworthy, in fact. But the question is, do you and your people build trust…or destroy it?