What Trust “Language” are YOU Speaking and Why?

Two recent articles containing the word “Trust” in their title caught my attention:

People Trust Business but Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge)

Building Trust And Ethics In Business Requires An ESG-Focus: Thoughts On This Global Ethics Day (Forbes)

What’s missing in both articles (and most articles on trust) is a common language from which to build upon or even begin a conversation. In fact, the second article only contains three references to the word trust itself (including once in the title and once in the name Edelman Trust Barometer.) The astute reader may conclude that neither of the articles is about trust. They are correct. The first is about perception of trust based on public opinion surveys and the second is about ethics.

Why does trust continue to be such an amorphous concept and does it need to be?

Having a common trust language allows organizations, boards, leaders, managers, team members and outside stakeholders to get on the same page to start a conversation abut how they can build trust in their relationships. After all, isn’t all trust interpersonal? It seems it still depends on who you ask and the language they are choosing to speak.

Trust Across America-Trust Around the World (TAA-TAW) describes trust as the OUTCOME of principled behavior.

Trust is:

• Always built from the inside out by…