Trust is the next currency for communicators

When asked about their job, communicators often talk about building/protecting reputation or influencing perceptions about an organisation, a product or a person. In tomorrow’s (today’s already?) world, it will be about building trust. Trust with your multiple audiences – employees, customers, investors or officials – trust about what you do, why you do it and how you do it.

How do we build trust then, as an individual or as an organisation? In my view, trust is based on two main traits: character and competence. Character primarily relies on your attitude (caring, transparent etc.) and your integrity (fairness, authenticity etc.). Competence is made up of your capabilities (skills, knowledge, experience) and your performance (outcomes vs. outputs).

This requires turning the way we do business upside-down : give up short-termism, over-promising and under-delivering. Instead, under-promise, over-deliver and bring a medium to long-term vision to life. It may not sound like exciting spin but it will deliver sustainable, tangible results for you, your team and your organisation.