Trustworthy? It’s All About Endorsement
Trustworthy? It’s all about endorsement
Trust in our leaders these days seems to be dropping faster than the Dow. From lies about WMDs in Iraq to fabricated balance sheets to elaborate Ponzi schemes, the trust we placed in elected and corporate executives to protect us has been shattered.
Corporate executives have lied to shareholders, and then Congress, only to receive bailout money which they choose to spend on bonuses, parties, and elaborate office remodeling.
Public officials are nominated to the highest positions in our country only to find out they lied about their taxes, domestic affairs, and lobbying.
The question everyone seems to be asking today is: who can you trust?
That very question in mostly indirect ways is cropping up everywhere I look – especially blogs and discussion boards in LinkedIn. The opinions about values, ethics, integrity and the like are as plentiful as the people writing them.
But the discussion of trust and endorsement has a relevance well beyond leadership. Social networking is growing exponentially. Reid Hoffman, the CEO of Linkedin.com in a CNN interview this past Monday said that his site hasa new signup every single second. But joining a network and earning the right to receive genuine recommendations requires that trust be created.
Bob Littell created a term for this: netweaving. According to Littell, netweaving is 180 degrees different from networking. Networking is seeking to sell to others. With netweaving, the focus is on the other person. Netweaving is seeking to help others.
Netweaving is all about gaining (of giving) endorsement. To understand endorsement I have to turn no further than my mentor and friend Judy Suiter.
From the day I met Judy over 13 years ago, she’s been talking about her “global model of endorsement.” While always important, her expertise on this subject has never been as relevant and urgent as it is today in this sxciting but explosive time of change. All you have to do is consider the precipitous fall from grace of so many of our leaders and the explosive growth of online social networking. We are front row witnesses to this simultaneous destruction and the incidental birth of endorsement occurring simultaneously in our daily lives.
To understand how endorsement is developed and lost is as critical as a breath of air for every person, especially those aspiring to lead. Without it, leadership is a position, void of authority and authenticity.
Several years ago, Judy published a book, The Ripple Effect. It’s been a mainstay of my library ever since. It’s a quick and easy read and I encourage everyone to order a copy. I won’t go into all the details here but want to focus on two areas: what is endorsement and what are the first steps in building it?
What is endorsement? Judy offers this explanation:
Endorsement is the approval, backing, or support of a person, organization, or thing by means of pledging one’s own assets. The assets we pledge in giving (or gain in receiving) endorsement may include the following
- money
- time
- talents
- contacts
- reputation
- energy
Endorsement is reciprocal, not simply transactional, which means it’s a lot more than swapping contacts or business leads. It’s about investing your personal reputation and credibility in someone’s else cause.
What is the first step you must take to build credibility and gain endorsement? It’s quite basic and most likely one you’ve heard before: “know yourself.” If you don’t understand yourself and how others see you, you can’t possibly create trust. To understand yourself and begin the path toward endorsement, I recommend two assessments:
CriteriaOne DISC
Business Values and Motivators
CriteriaOne DISC will help you understand how others see you approach problems, people, pace and procedures. If you don’t behave in a way others see as acceptable, you’ll never gain their trust.
But observation is only stage one of how people decided to trust others or disengage from them.
Once an interaction begins, people want to know you understand what they value. Before you can understand what others value, you must understand what you value the most – and the least. Business Values and Motivators reveals how an individual prioritizes six universal values.
By understanding these six values and the four behavioral styles of DISC, an individual can unlock a stranger’s “door” and be invited in to start the dynamic and rewarding road to gaining endorsement.
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