On Trust

In a comment to a post on the VeraSage blog about micromanaging behaviors, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan pretty much sums up firm trust issues:

So, the basic premise is that the firm must build trust with clients. And I believe it's very hard to trust a group of people who fail to trust each other.

I don't trust my people because they're not trustworthy, but I ask my clients to trust us and give us money. This is a pretty pervert perspective.

What do you think?

Oh, and the post he commented on, Why Don't CPA Firm Leaders Trust Their People? is worth the read!

Comments

[Thom Singer]

Michelle-

This is an ongoing problem with professional services firms. Not only do they not trust their people, they often treat them poorly...especially the staff. I have seen lawyers go crazy on secretaries and other professional staff. They act so unprofessionally that if a client ever saw this behavior they would run away. Yet the firm tollerates these tyrants, promotes them, and pays them lots of money because they bill a lot of hours. The hope is that clients will not ever look behind the curtain at the nutty and disrespectful behavior.