Cultivate Your Employees’ “Extreme Trust”

In a 2001 feature story about him in Fortune magazine, Southwest Airline’s founder and former CEO Herb Kelleher said, “You have to treat your employees like customers. When you treat them right, then they will treat your outside customers right. That has been a powerful competitive weapon for us.”

      I’ve never forgotten that quote and have used it on many occasions because it cuts to the heart of the purpose of effective employee communications. Yet it amazes me how many organizations don’t follow that guidance, some even going the opposite direction by taking their employees for granted.

      A recent article about customer relations in Fast Company caught my eye because it provides an apt parallel with respect to the internal environment. “If Your Customers Are Poised For Revolt, It’s Time For Extreme Trust” makes the case that today’s more open environment created by social media has opened businesses up for closer scrutiny by their customers.

      No longer can businesses operate in secret, expecting that their customers will follow along in blind loyalty. The author, Don Peppers, explains that, “It used to be that a business could generate substantial profits by keeping its customers in the dark. Entire business models are based on charging customers fees they shouldn’t have to pay, or selling them products they don’t really need.”

Proactively Trustworthy

Peppers makes the case for “extreme trust,” which he explains as being “proactively trustworthy, not just by providing a reliable product and competent service, but also by understanding and proactively watching out for your customer’s own interest.”

      The case he makes is valid and worthy of consideration by people focusing on their customers. But I contend that the same case can be made for focusing on one’s own employees in a parallel fashion, actively seeking to gain their extreme trust.

      To help the reader – presumably a businessperson with customers – adjust and respond appropriately by checking her/his own company, Peppers provides a few self-assessment questions. I’ve taken most of Peppers’ questions and substituted the word “employees” wherever he uses the word “customers” – as well as a couple other tweaks so it makes sense.

      See for yourself. How would you answer these questions about your own internal environment and your relationship with your employees?

• Is your company's financial success generally aligned with what's good for your employees? 
• Have you identified conflicts between how your firm succeeds, financially, and how it does what’s good for your employees, individually?
• Overall, would your company make more money with uninformed, unknowledgeable employees, or from well-informed, knowledgeable ones?
• If an employee is well-informed, knowledgeable, and paying attention, would he choose to remain with your company or would he be more likely to leave?
• Do your employees proactively prompt one another to avoid errors or oversights? Whether your answer is yes or no: Is this part of their training? Is it part of your company's culture?
• If your business were a government, would your employees be trying to overthrow you?

Last question (my own): Are you keeping your employees in the dark, whether deliberately or through your own neglect?

      Remember what Herb Kelleher said and take it to heart. If you focus on keeping employees engaged in the business and happy, your customers are the ultimate beneficiaries. And when your customers are happy, they’re loyal, which will show up on your bottom line.