Servant Leadership and Transparency

I have been interested in the ideas of building trust and organizational transparency before and since I wrote my third book, Bloom Where You Are Planted: Reflections on Servant Leadership and as it were, I came across an infographic that speaks the language of Servant Leadership. The folks over at Track Your Truck GPS Fleet Tracking (https://www.trackyourtruck.com/ ) understand organizational culture, transparency, and building trust from a Servant Leadership mindset.

Track Your Truck’s infographic is in alignment with Chapter 11 of my book in where I write about high trust organization. You can view it here. Here is a recap:

Organizations that experience high trust possesses the following behaviors:

High-Trust Organizations

• Information is shared openly
• Mistakes are tolerated and encouraged as a way of learning
• The culture is innovative and creative
• People are loyal to those who are absent
• People talk straight and confront real issues
• There are real communication and authentic collaboration
• People share credit abundantly
• There are few “meetings after meetings”
• Transparency is a practical value
• People are candid and authentic
• There is a high degree of accountability

I suspect that Track Your Truck is also experiencing the dividends that organizations experience when they hold a degree of high transparency that I wrote about. Here they are;

The Seven High-Trust Organizational Dividends

• Value
• Accelerated growth
• Enhanced innovation
• Improved collaboration
• Stronger partnering
• Better execution
• Heightened loyalty

Moreover, as I browsed their website, I was quite impressed with their level of attention to customer service and the fact that you can speak to a “live” person! We can hardly call a company today (and surely not the bigger ones) and get to speak to a human being! The five keys to transparency with customers are on point and truly matter in today’s business world.

We both agree that transparency is key to the trust of the organization. Building one’s brand requires that servant-leaders apply these three behaviors to external stakeholders, that is, customers, suppliers, distributors, investors, and communities. There are three concepts to consider;

• Talk straight

Treat customers as if they are educated adults.

• Create transparency

Create a dynamic self-regulating economy where customers feel the transparency of your organization.

• Listen first

Genuine listening is one of the truest forms of competitive advantage. Create customer panels. Conduct formal market research, make personal calls to customers, and create loyalty programs. Your customers feel good when they are heard.

Track Your Truck understands that the same concepts that apply at the level of Market Trust also applies to Self-Trust, Relationship Trust, and Organizational Trust.

At the end of the day, whatever trust we can create in our organization and the marketplace, is ONLY the result of the credibility and trust we create in and for ourselves.

If I ever need the types of services Track Your Truck offers, I would reach out to them first! You can see their infographic again here. Please visit their website to learn more at https://www.trackyourtruck.com/