From trust to trustworthiness: Shifting beyond a compliance mindset
BY: Matt Finnis
Amid a flurry of recent incidents involving poor business practices of large corporations, trust in organizations is at a low ebb. Here’s how to implement authentic and lasting change to rebuild and keep your clients’ trust.
It may be just the heightened awareness that comes from engaging with a wide variety of leaders and changemakers, but lately it seems like conversations about trust are more frequent than ever, no matter where we go.
Specifically, these conversations are about how central trust has become in our relationships with the organizations we depend on for essential services, including retail, travel and banking. People are asking not only whether these organizations are reliable, but also whether they act in good faith, prioritizing people over profit when it matters most.
Perhaps it’s a response to a world that feels increasingly uncertain – where institutions once seen as reliable are now being scrutinized more closely than ever before. In boardrooms, team meetings and industry events alike, trust is no longer a side note; it’s becoming the central theme.
A global issue
It has shown up in the controversy surrounding Australia’s largest supermarkets, accused of manipulating prices just before offering so-called discounts. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decision to bring charges against Coles and Woolworths for breach of consumer laws necessarily frames the issue through a legal lens; however, for the public (and therefore for the supermarkets), it’s actually all about trust.
Of course, Australian supermarkets aren’t alone here, and commentators have been quick to draw comparisons between the current discount furore and the issue of airline fares being sold for flights that would never take off or retirement fund members being charged duplicate fees and insurance premiums across multiple accounts.
Consumers expect large corporations like aircraft carriers, supermarkets and financial institutions to compete fairly.
It’s not just in Australia where corporate trust is being eroded. American airline carriers have been involved in an ongoing class action alleging they colluded to limit seat capacity in order to inflate ticket prices, despite the cost of fuel coming down. Such systemic overpricing deeply corrodes public confidence. Consumers expect large corporations like aircraft carriers, supermarkets and financial institutions to compete fairly and not purposefully act unethically.
Rebuilding relationships
Regardless of the legal outcomes, the negative publicity associated with these high-profile cases has undoubtedly resulted in a diminished sense of trust, which is crucial to any organization’s reputation and success.
But here’s the thing: when leaders talk about ‘winning back’ trust in response to integrity challenges, they risk missing an opportunity to lead deeper, company-wide transformation.
Trust isn’t something you can simply earn back with a marketing campaign or a few good deeds. What we should be talking about is how our organizations can become truly trustworthy.
At Cranlana, we believe there’s a big difference between being trusted and being trustworthy. Being trusted can be a temporary state, influenced by good PR, past experiences or even perks like consumer loyalty programs. But trustworthiness is about embodying consistent, ethical behaviour, even when we think no-one is looking.
As philosopher Onora O’Neill posits, trustworthiness is built through ‘intelligent openness,’ where organizations are transparent not just in their successes, but also in their processes, reasoning and challenges.
It’s about being open and honest in a way that enables others, rather than yourself, to assess whether you are worthy of their trust.
Of course, we’d all prefer not to be let down, but the reality is that even organizations that are seen to care deeply about their relationships with customers will occasionally fall short. The key for leaders is to use these opportunities to engage in some deep reflection – in addition to apologies and promises to do better. We can only avoid falling into the same trap by asking ourselves the tough questions:
- How did we get here?
- How did we let these ethical blind spots cloud our judgment?
- To whom are we accountable in making these types of decisions?
This work isn’t just about avoiding the next scandal; it’s about fostering a genuine culture of trustworthiness. It’s about embedding ethical principles into every level of the organization, from the checkout lanes to the executive suites. And it’s about doing this not because regulators are watching, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Taking the lead
So how do we as leaders shape our organizations to be deserving of trust for the long-term?
It starts with resisting the pull toward short-term results and the tendency to follow rules to the letter, instead of doing what is truly right. These same pressures can result in trust being treated as a commodity to be traded and managed, as opposed to an enduring reflection of our organization’s commitment to ethical principles.
In an era where public scrutiny is sharper and expectations higher, leaders can no longer afford to treat trust as a transactional asset.
This resistance involves shifting our organizational mindsets – from reactive compliance to proactive integrity – and recognizing that true ethical leadership requires moral courage, not just procedural correctness.
In an era where public scrutiny is sharper and expectations higher, leaders can no longer afford to treat trust as a transactional asset. The real opportunity – and responsibility – lies in cultivating organizations that are structurally and culturally trustworthy.
This means going beyond performative responses to crises and instead fostering environments where ethical reflection, transparency and accountability are embedded in everyday decision-making.
A shift toward trustworthiness
At its core, trustworthiness demands a long-term commitment: to values, to people and to doing what is right even when it is not easy, or immediately rewarding. As leaders, our legacy will not be measured by how well we managed reputational risks, but by how bravely and consistently we upheld principles that earn and sustain genuine trust.
By aiming for trustworthy, rather than trust-winning, we can demonstrate that commitment to ethical practices actually goes hand in hand with business success.
