Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. CRAFTING a culture of trust and transparency for your business is not just about ethics, it is about driving competitive advantage.
Businesses that harbour any plans of succeeding and establishing their brand in the industry have to be honest and transparent in all their interactions.
For example, when a company mistakenly produces a defective product, it has to apologise to the stakeholders and withdraw or recall the product from the market and replace it with a good quality product.
In order for an organisation to achieve trust and transparency, it must embody some of the following values: feedback, consistency and honesty.
It is important to encourage feedback from all stakeholders as this plays an important role in decision-making and influencing decisions on the constant evolution of products and services.
It is important for leaders to embrace consistency when making decisions and giving direction.
Managers who are inconsistent tend to lose trust from their subordinates.
Trust thrives on transparency — be truthful for example on how the changes will affect the economic and social lives of employees.
In emerging markets like Zimbabwe, businesses that are transparent and trustworthy tend to stand out and attract loyalty from stakeholders such as customers, employees and investors.
Lead by example — Being a leader means you are a role model, and as such subordinates look up to their leaders and are bound to emulate and admire how their leader conducts business i.e. approach in solving challenges.
Moreover this approach is about being consistent in your actions, behaviours and work ethic.
Leaders earn respect and trust by being people of integrity and strong principles in decision-making.
Be fully engaged and present in meetings and demonstrate to your team that you are strongly invested in the initiatives they are driving for the business and beyond.
Foster strong teams and high performing teams by cultivating a shared culture of understanding, expectations and vision.
Be open about your business practices — Leaders should establish clear policies and ethical standards for the organisation to be able to function within the confines of the law.
Moreover, foster a culture of adherence to effective communication and clear documentation of policies.
Leadership must be open about the protection of the environment, social responsibility and practice good corporate governance.
Build a culture of accountability — This is all about creating a system which compels leadership to hold everyone accountable and responsible for their actions and aligning them to the vision of the organisation.
They must involve the workforce when setting goals as this aids in creating a sense of ownership, accountability while motivating them to put extra effort to meet set targets.
lPractice financial transparency — It is important to share pertinent financial information with the workforce and other stakeholders so that they will know how the company is performing.
Such information could be shared through financial reports or abridged financial statements in newspapers.
Management must enforce strong financial controls to prevent fraud and financial leakages.
One of the financial controls that must be carried out are financial audits.
Management must articulate the extent of financial transparency by determining what information will be shared and who can access it.
Financial transparency plays a pivotal role to the employees as they would feel more valued and engaged when they have insight into the company’s financial standing.
When employees get to know how their input contributes to the company’s financial performance, a sense of ownership and pride in their work is created.
Being financially transparent helps subordinates to understand the reasons behind certain decisions leading to better morale and motivation among team members.
lCommunicate clearly and openly — Leadership must develop a culture that embodies clear and concise language of communication to achieve effective communication.
They must provide and seek constructive feedback.
Being a leader, you must manage your emotions and maintain positive body language when handling emotional situations.
Cultivate a respectful and empathetic attitude that embraces cultural differences.
lAdmit what you don’t know — Admitting what you do not know demonstrates confidence and humility and that you are willing to learn.
This fosters trust and builds relationships.
Showing vulnerability by admitting gaps in knowledge encourages others within the organisation to do the same.
This creates a culture that values learning over ego.
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