Trust

I have written previously about the moral contract between employer and employee: employers are morally obliged to provide an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. We sometimes forget the relationship between “morality” and “business.”

Yet, an expectation of morality undergirds almost all business dealings. It’s called “trust.”

When we purchase goods in a store, we trust the manufacturer has made them well. If not, we trust the retailer to refund our money.

Each day, people buy, sell, lend, borrow, hire and work because they trust the other party to do what’s right.

Good managers guard that trust fiercely.

– Kip Caffey, Cary Street Partners