Who can we trust?

A recent survey, carried out for leading Organisational and Personal Development Consultants, Sheppard Moscow, investigated the British publicís view of trust and leadership and, in this media savvy era, what attributes we now value in our public figures.

Across the board a key finding was that similar qualities are now valued in business, community and political leaders.

The Sheppard Moscow survey demonstrated that the British public have more faith and trust in community based organisations and recognised high-profile individuals than in government officials and politicians including Prime Minister, Tony Blair. It suggests that while we demand honesty and trustworthiness from key public figures, we are happy to accept the perceived integrity of media representatives such as Trevor MacDonald who topped the list as the most trusted individual ahead of Sir Richard Branson, Sir Bob Geldof and Sir Alan Sugar. In fact Trevor MacDonaldís research rating was comparable to the medical profession in terms of public trust.

The organisations we trust showed that we are happy to place our trust in Doctors and the NHS and also in Teachers closely followed by the Police.

The Sheppard Moscow survey found that both Chancellor Gordon Brown and, indeed, Car Mechanics were now more trusted than the Prime Minister whose trust rating was on a par with Estate Agents. The Survey also showed that US President George W Bush and large global corporations were the least trusted by the British public.

However, the good news for British Industry and Commerce is that two-thirds of employees felt that their boss was ëa good leaderí. This raises the question of how more organisations can develop their people skills in order to get the other third of bosses to become better and more authentic leaders.

More good news for business was that three-quarters of the respondents surveyed felt ëproud to work for their organisationsí. This correlated very strongly with the trust employees expressed in their employers ñ three-quarters stating that they ëtrusted their bossí. An interesting additional finding was that women were more likely to be proud of their employer than men.

Asked about the most important leadership attribute, ëHaving a clear vision of where they are goingí came top. While the least important was ëPutting people before profití.

Female respondents placed more emphasis on ëtelling the truthí, ëputting people before profití and ëdoing what they said they would doí than male respondents.

The NHS was rated the organisation that people trusted the most to ëwork in the best interests of its customersí, with the supermarket chain, Tesco, a close second. Older respondents tended to be more trusting of all organisations.

Sheppard Moscow Consultant, Nicola Lincoln said:

ìAlthough this survey is clearly only a brief snapshot of public opinion, certain conclusions are clear. Once upon a time, leaders were identified by their impressive job titles and large offices. Thankfully, those days are gone, and we’ve moved away from restrictive hierarchies. Leadership is now about engaging people and marshalling their energy behind values, vision and direction.î