What can you begin doing today to build a culture of worthy intent within your organization?

Over the weekend, I got a phone call from the admin of one of our clients. Nancy called on a Saturday morning at 11:15a because she had gone into the office specifically to make sure that some packages containing training materials I had mailed earlier in the week had arrived. She went out of her way to provide discretionary service. Nancy’s above and beyond service is an example of relational capital beginning within.

The Power of Worthy Intention

When your company has worthy intentions towards you (the employee) and has worked to establish a great relationship through it’s leadership and culture, then you will (generally) go out of your way to provide discretionary performance back to your company’s clients and vendors – just like Nancy did for me. This above and beyond service is relational capital.

Peace of Mind

Nancy knew that if those packages didn’t arrive, I would have to spend my weekend running around getting the materials collated and printed for Monday morning. In part, due to the culture of worthy intent created by the leaders of the company Nancy works for, she extended to me the service of going into the office on her day off and checking for those packages, and then calling me to let me know they had arrived. She extended the relational capital of “peace of mind” that allowed me to have a stress-free weekend.

Would your employee have done the same for one of your vendors?

What can you begin doing today to build a culture of worthy intent within your organization?

Business guru Ivan Misner features Business Relationships That Last in his weekly blog on BNI News.

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I recently watched a video on BusinessWeek.com that shocked me. BusinessWeek’s David Kiley explored the importance of trust when it comes to the reputation of brands as part of BusinessWeek’s Best Global Brands 2009. In his report, David Wiley states that these brands are having to “get back to trust” in with their marketing strategies: “Trust is now at the center of every marketer’s strategy.”

Get back to trust?

Why do they have to get back to trust?

How did they lose trust in the first place?

In his report, Wiley states, “Consumers want to know the truth.” The report uses McDonald’s as an example. Having survived the backlash against it’s fatty fast foods and beef farming practices, McDonald’s now engages PETA on a variety of issues, has not fought against posting calorie counts on its menu boards, and is called partner by Greenpeace for it’s efforts to save South American rainforests.

Whether your corporate brand lost trust or not, you don’t have to fall prey to that same mistake because it’s all about distinguishing yourself through your relationships. In your business relationships with others, you create your own level of trust.

The Great Places to Work Institute, a research firm that studies the dynamics that make a workplace great for employees, recently shared that there are no trust-neutral interactions. Every occasion in which you have the opportunity to interact—that is, to listen, to provide information, to do a favor, to follow up on fulfilling a promise—represents an opportunity to build trust or to damage trust, either by not following through or not proving to be true to your word.

So the question remains – why do we need to get back to trust?

How did we lose trust in the first place?

I think perhaps it’s because we got wrapped up in the fast way of doing things and fell away from cultivating relationships. And if we get back to relationships, being credible, displaying integrity, and being ourselves in the process, we can take control of those parameters on ourown. So that no matter what the brand does from an advertising aspect, trust is something we can take control of – and build – in each of our business’ partnerships and relationships .

In this short video clip Ed Wallace, of the Relational Group, gives listeners three tips to think about before going into your first client meeting.

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