MIT Sloan Management Review

Corporate Strategy

Profiles of Trust: Who to Turn To, and for What

By Cathleen McGrath and Deone Zell

January 7, 2009

When seeking help from their network, top managers don”t leave it to chance. They think strategically about what type of advice to seek from what type of person.

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Beleaguered executives well know that “it’s lonely at the top.” Despite craving, as all humans do, a select group of other people with whom they can let down their guards, top managers must also project an image of professionalism and strength. Yet as responsibilities and pressures rise, their need for a support network — typically, to provide candid feedback — only increases. It becomes vital that they be able turn to those they trust, receiving what they need from individuals who, they believe, will not later betray them.

Trust, which we define as the willingness to take risk or be vulnerable to another person when there is something of importance to be lost,1 plays a key role in the effective functioning of both society and individual organizations. In society, trust leads, for example, to civic engagement2 and the development of social capital.3 At the organizational level, trust reduces transaction costs, increases sociability and serves as the basis for cooperation.4

The leading question
When a top manager needs personal support, who does he or she turn to?
Findings
  • Four different kinds of support may be requested, each having high or low informational complexity and high or low emotional demand.
  • Executives require a support network of eight types of individuals (“profiles”) with whom to match the... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.

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