The Key Is Trust

Building trust is difficult. But if you’re receiving this email, you are among the many trustworthy people I’ve encountered in my career. Naturally, I’d rather do business with people I trust.

This month, we’re publishing our report on Rebuilding Trust Through Communications Fundamentals (click to download). In it, we cite the Edelman Trust Barometer, an excellent resource for understanding how people perceive large institutions. Astonishingly, the Barometer indicates that college-educated, media-aware people now view the financial industry with something close to “active distrust.”

How do we reconcile this? One thing I’ve discovered is that being trustworthy doesn’t buy you a lot if you can’t communicate in a way that builds trust. It’s a subject I care a great deal about, so I’ve put time and research into how you can use communication to create, sustain, or enhance trust.

I want to be part of the solution, and apparently many of you do as well. Check out our paper and let me know what you think. We developed it with input from professionals like you, and I’d like to continue to work with you to make our industry better.