Posts Tagged With: "trust"

Plastic vs. Authentic – Insights from the Republican Debates

	Posted by Bert Decker \| October 12th, 2011 \| 5 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | October 12th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Tweet This

Lots of Republican debates this year – more than ever. Many lessons learned in considering the behavior of communications, and believability, and leadership.

Why doesn’t Romney catch on? And why has Cain so quickly climbed the popularity ladder?

These are a couple of key questions that provide important insight as to the value of the debates – perceived authenticity. Perception is in the eye of the beholder.

If the presidency was to be typecast, the perfect candidate is Mitt Romney. He looks good, has great political and business experience, is giving stellar debate performances – but people don’t seem to take to him. Plastic is a word that comes to mind.

I’ve often mentioned that Romney should muss up his hair a little to be real, but that’s just symbolic for doing SOMETHING to appear, and ‘be’, authentic. He DOES look like he’s playing a role. He’s careful and measured. We wish we could see him with more of a ‘forward lean’ – not so posed and ‘nice.’ Bluntness would be refreshing, and way out of character. Yet it would give some important authenticity points.

On the other hand, Herman Cain is almost a polar opposite – blunt, brash and bold. In this recent debate that was his favorite word for his ‘9,9,9’ plan – BOLD. We have no question he means what he says – we do not question his authenticity. And most importantly, he smiles often in his bluntness. We tend to like him. He is authentic. We trust him.

We trust and believe and follow those who are authentic. Authenticity is primarily established by behavior, not by message. But it has everything to do with whether our message will register on the listener (or voter in this case.) It has everything to do with leadership.

Everyone (well, many) wanted Chris Christie to run for President. Why? Because there is no question Chris Christie is a leader. And he is the poster child for authenticity. Many may not like what he says, but they believe what he says. He just endorsed Romney this week. Perhaps Romney hopes that some of his refreshing candor will rub off. It doesn’t work that way. What Romney needs to do is express his own brand of refreshing candor. That would be refreshing.

Categories: Leadership and Communications, Newsworthy, Political Communications
Tags: authenticity, Chris Christie, Herman Cain, leadership, leadership communications, Mitt Romney, Republican Debates, trust

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Rebuild trust

	Posted by Ben Decker \| September 30th, 2011 \| 1 Comment \| Tweet This

Posted by Ben Decker | September 30th, 2011 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

“Do you trust most people?” This was the simple question asked in a survey done in 1960 and again in 1993. In 1960, 58% of respondents said yes. In 1993… just 37%.

With recent leaders like BP CEO Tony Hayward bumbling through press conferences with “I want MY life back,” Dr. Conrad Murray and Bernie Madoff (no explanation necessary for either!), to the housing crisis where many people found themselves in trouble for heeding their “advisor’s” advice, it’s not surprising – we’re conditioned to look over our shoulder and wonder, “What’s the motive here? Can I trust this person?”

Even opening a basic checking account is a questionable experience. Sure, the account is free now, but what kind of fees am I going to see a few months down the line? Considering all of this, we can pretty confidently assume the trust percentage has continued to decrease.

This proves a challenge when connecting with customers and clients. Not only are they more risk averse, but also they’re smart consumers with access to information and motivated to look up the real differences (if any) between you and your competitors.

You have to differentiate yourself by offering them a better experience than anyone else. Knowing that, it’s vital to focus time and resources on building and maintaining trust with your clients. But how? We’re doing a series of posts that offer tips to tackle this otherwise nebulous concept.

The First Step

Listen. It’s a critically important (and very frequently forgotten) element of communication, especially when building trust.

If you only consider your angle, your promotional marketing lingo and buzzwords, what you have to offer, you’re missing out on a major component of message creation: the audience. The first thing you must do before creating any sort of message, even before thinking of a point of view or thesis, is consider them.

What does my audience care about? (budget, time, hitting quota, lessening workload?)
Why are they taking the time to talk to me?
Do they have any preconceptions?
Are they big picture driven (usually upper management), or more about the facts and figures (typically middle-management)?
What could make them resistant?

This goes for talking to prospective and current clients alike. Take the time to listen to them and THEN craft a message around their concerns, objectives, and priorities. Not only will you be able to formulate your ideas around what will matter to them, but they’ll feel heard and acknowledged. You’ll come across as someone credible who understands them and cares. So simple, yet, again, so frequently forgotten.

Remember, you’re not just taking the meeting to give information, data dump on them, and promote yourself. You’re listening to their current concerns to better understand them and then influence them to take action.

Many people like Seth Godin are getting creative with trust-building initiatives, so please share anything you’ve tried, successful or not!

Stay tuned for the next steps for rebuilding trust in the coming weeks.

Categories: Communication Skills, Leadership and Communications
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Dr. Conrad Murray, Francis Fukuyama, Michael Jackson, Seth Godin, smart consumer, Tony Hayward, trust, Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity

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Trust and Walter Cronkite

	Posted by Bert Decker \| July 20th, 2009 \| 4 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | July 20th, 2009 | 4 Comments | Tweet This

Why was Walter Cronkite the epitome of trust? Trust is an essential quality to have in any communicating experience, particularly newscasting. And every article, blog or TV clip mentions how Walter Cronkite was so trusted. What can we learn?

Cronkite reporting

I think there are three primary elements (of many) that made him “the most trusted man in America”, and perhaps the most successful newscaster of all time. Two of them have oft been mentioned, so I’ll just mention some adjectives here because they are well sprinkled in other more weighty commentaries on his passing, and then concentrate on the third one, which I have not yet read nor seen…

1. Character

Walter Cronkite: Even temperament, tough, disciplined, hard working, news leader, values, accurate, thorough researcher, thought leader.

As Lyndon Johnson said when Cronkite came back from Vietnam and reported that we were NOT going to win that war, “If we’ve lost Cronkite we’ve lost mid-America.”

2. Behavior

Walked the talk, did his homework, loved his work, authentic, consistent, highly skilled.

Although he could read script and teleprompters with skill, he excelled (and preferred) to be extemporaneous and real, as when he told the nation of JFK’s assassination.

3. Physical

This is an area that is not often mentioned, but in my view is critical to the trust that Walter Cronkite engendered.

First, a question on trust. If you didn’t know their names, of these two public figures whom would you tend to trust more?

Now I don’t mean to disparage Michael Chertoff, and he may even have the character and behavior of a Walter Cronkite for all I know, but looking at his face alone he is at a disadvantage in the trust sweepstakes. There are other examples of course, but here it’s like night and day, black and white, closed and open.

Face: Walter Cronkite was called Uncle Walter because he was open and approachable – largely because he looked open and approachable. Walter Cronkite had the face and the voice to be “the most trusted man in America.” This is not talked of much – perhaps it seems superficial – but it is not. Our facial expression ‘speaks’ volumes without saying a word.

Yet many people have a trustworthy face, but most don’t have qualities #1 and #2 above. Of course there are a lot of people who have character and who walk the talk, but they don’t ‘look’ that trustworthy. For the former, work on #1 and #2. For the latter…

Although we can’t do a lot with changing our face, we can change our expression and our attitude. Particularly if we tend to appear closed, and not friendly or open. It’s critical to our communications, and worth working on. In Walter Cronkite’s case, he was unique in having one of the most welcoming faces in America to go with his skill and credentials.

Voice: And what a deep, resonant and ear pleasing voice Cronkite had. All of us who have heard him often can recall today that voice like no other. It IS the voice of trust. Always calm, never strident. Conversational but not casual.

We are fortunate if our voice naturally gives us credibility. No matter, our voice gives our feelings away – like it or not. In the age of
the cell phone we ought to take note. We can work on our vocal energy and enthusiasm. If we work hard we can affect the tone and resonance of our voice, and professionals must train at this. In the age of podcasts and
YouTube replacing newscasts – the voice becomes even more important for
credibility and influence. For professionals – and for us. For we are communicating daily to others, when it counts, on the phone – no matter what our occupation.

So with Walter Cronkite, perhaps we had the ‘perfect storm.’ In this one man came together the blessings of his physical nature that he honed, along with the character and behavior of a man that was destined to become the foremost newscaster of the ages – and a man we can trust. He will be missed. May he inspire all of us.

Cronkite military Cronkite early days Cronkite 3