Stakeholder Trust: A New Frontier In Business Leadership

Business leadership is facing a new frontier. Chief executives are under pressure to demonstrate transparency and trustworthiness to a wide range of stakeholders. Forward-thinking business leaders are moving away from the traditional, command-and-control styleof leadership toward a new, people-centered approach. Gaining stakeholders’ trust has become a central priority.

Although chief executives today recognize the importance of stakeholder trust for business success, they also report building and maintaining trust is no easy task. Competing priorities, lack of time, and lack of alignment within senior leadership threaten the effectiveness of trust-building efforts. And although chief executives are personally working hard to build and maintain employee trust, only one-third report that their businesses have defined specific plans
and processes to build and maintain that trust.

The chief executive of the future will define, measure, and scale trust, within and outside of their organization, with determination and enthusiasm.