Trust Trends 2014: An Executive Brief on How to Gain the Ultimate Competitive Advantage from Key Opportunities Embedded in the Year's Trends

"From the Cyprus bank fiasco and Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks to the European horsemeat scandals and chemical weapons attack in Syria, stories of distrust are overflowing from the news. These trust breaches are combining with trends of increasingly rapid change to leave the world in a volatile state. Worse yet, leaders are leaving our world vulnerable. According to the Interaction Associates, one of the biggest questions of the year is whether leadership is consistent, predictable, and transparent in decision and action. Leaders who once exhibited these trustworthy characteristics, such as Silvio Berlusconi, Lance Armstrong, Bo Xilai, Anthony Weiner, and Joe Paterno, have fallen in the last year. Edelman Public Relations is aptly calling 2013 the year of the "Crisis of Leadership," and we are feeling the consequences in 2014, just like we did after the AIG, Enron, and Lehman Brothers disasters. The trust crisis appears to be an inescapable cycle, but we at Horsager Leadership, Inc. believe there is hope."