Building Relationships that Last

• I am all about meeting new people and establishing rapport with others in both business and in life. The most important things to me in building relationships is integrity and transparency.
• I have been really educating myself on building relationships and setting a trust foundation first. I would like to share with you something I have learned from my mentor, Donald Tapscott from his teachings about achieving trust in the digital age.
• FOUR PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRITY

HONESTY isn’t  just an ethical issue; it has become an economic one. To establish trusting relationships with employees, partners, customers, shareholders and the public, organizations must be truthful, accurate and complete in communications, no lying through omission, no obfuscation through complexity.

CONSIDERATION in business often means a fair exchange of benefits or detriments that parties will operate in genuine respect for the interests, desires or feelings of others and that parties can operate with good will toward one another.

ACCOUNTABILITY means making clear commitments to stake holders and abiding by them. Individuals and institutions alike must demonstrate that they have honored their commitments and owned their broken promises, preferably with the verification of the stakeholders themselves or independent outside experts. No passing the buck, no playing the blame game.

TRANSPARENCY means operating out in the open, in the light of day.

“What are they hiding?” Is a sign of poor transparency that leads to distrust. Of course, companies have legitimate rights to trade secrets and other kinds of proprietary information.

But when it comes to pertinent information for customers, shareholders, employees and other stake holders, active openness is central to earning trust. Rather than dressing for success, corporations can undress for success.

In conclusion, the same goes for building relationships in general. Are you completely honest with your closest friends? I am a human library living a transparent existinence holding honesty, integrity and transparency in the highest regard toward everyone I meet.