Episode 5: Trust & integrity

Inspiring Legal

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Full episode transcription:

[00:00 - 00:09]: Welcome to Inspiring Legal, the podcast for in-house legal.
[00:10 - 00:16]: Get insights, learn from peers, life lessons from some of the most influential GCs.
[00:16 - 00:19]: If it's related to in-house legal, we cover it.
[00:19 - 00:31]: For more inspiration, go to Openli.com slash community.
[00:33 - 00:35]: Welcome to Inspiring Legal.
[00:37 - 00:38]: I'm your host.
[00:38 - 00:44]: My name is Stine, and I'm once again, excited to have you join the podcast.
[00:44 - 00:49]: Today, we're going to be talking about trust and integrity.
[00:50 - 00:51]: Why?
[00:51 - 01:06]: Because I am so excited about an upcoming guest, Rob Chestnut, former general counsel of Airbnb,
[01:08 - 01:11]: head of trust and safety at eBay.
[01:11 - 01:20]: Also, having worked with companies like Uber, helping them build their trust and safety programs.
[01:21 - 01:29]: So I'm going to be talking with Rob about how you set up trust and safety.
[01:29 - 01:32]: How do you start working with ethics?
[01:33 - 01:35]: Get it ingrained in your company.
[01:35 - 01:40]: So in this episode, let's talk about that.
[01:42 - 01:46]: Let's talk about integrity and why it matters.
[01:46 - 01:54]: So the listeners to this podcast or general counsels, head of legal, legal counsels,
[01:54 - 02:05]: and for many of us, trust and safety, integrity is at core.
[02:06 - 02:07]: It is our DNA.
[02:07 - 02:12]: It's something we're proud of and is something we're passionate about.
[02:13 - 02:15]: So first it comes natural.
[02:16 - 02:18]: Of course you want to work with ethics.
[02:18 - 02:21]: Of course you want to do the right thing when nobody's looking,
[02:21 - 02:24]: because that is what ethics is about.
[02:25 - 02:28]: That is when you know your employees have integrity.
[02:28 - 02:31]: They're doing the right thing when nobody's looking.
[02:34 - 02:40]: But that might not be the case for all employees at a company.
[02:40 - 02:47]: Millenniums today, they care about working at a company that is making a difference,
[02:47 - 02:55]: that has a vision that is beyond just earning and making money and making shareholders happy.
[02:56 - 02:59]: They want to work for companies that are making the world a better place,
[02:59 - 03:01]: that are taking responsibilities.
[03:02 - 03:09]: So when you start working with ethics and integrity and incorporating into your company and your values,
[03:10 - 03:12]: how do you do that?
[03:12 - 03:17]: Because it's often you in the legal teams that are trying to push the agenda.
[03:18 - 03:28]: One of the ways that I always recommend starting off is by looking at how it can have a positive impact on the business.
[03:29 - 03:31]: It's back to the classic stakeholder management.
[03:31 - 03:37]: I think I've said this so many times now that you might be a little sick of me talking about stakeholder management,
[03:37 - 03:39]: but it kind of is at core.
[03:39 - 03:46]: So let's imagine that you can see you're able to attract some of the best talent out there
[03:47 - 03:55]: because you have a vision and a mission that is connected directly to integrity,
[03:56 - 04:00]: to doing the right thing, to caring.
[04:01 - 04:07]: Well, then the majority of all the leaders in your company will mostly be people
[04:07 - 04:12]: who are leaders in your company will most likely buy in because they also want those talents.
[04:13 - 04:14]: But that's not enough.
[04:16 - 04:20]: What you will often also see is that when you start working with this,
[04:20 - 04:28]: it will have a positive impact on your revenue because people are more motivated.
[04:30 - 04:35]: They are more bought into the company's vision and proud.
[04:35 - 04:40]: They will most likely also share more posts on LinkedIn.
[04:41 - 04:43]: Just a little classic example, right?
[04:43 - 04:48]: If you're proud of your company, you'll tell your friends, you'll tell your mom and dad,
[04:48 - 04:58]: you'll tell your husband or your wife, and you'll share good news with people because you're proud.
[04:58 - 05:03]: If you're not proud of the company you work for, you won't be doing that.
[05:05 - 05:09]: So that's another item of why you should be working on this.
[05:09 - 05:15]: And then there's, of course, in all honesty, it's the right thing to do.
[05:17 - 05:22]: So then comes the question, who will be driving those efforts?
[05:22 - 05:28]: How do you get it to be on management's top radar?
[05:28 - 05:34]: Well, you start by talking about how it can have a positive impact.
[05:36 - 05:38]: And you start with the CEO.
[05:40 - 05:46]: And if you're not reporting to the CEO, well, talk to your direct report,
[05:46 - 05:50]: like the one you're reporting to, and get the buy-in first.
[05:50 - 05:54]: And then from there on, work around the company.
[05:55 - 05:58]: And then you need to then create a plan.
[05:59 - 06:02]: How are you going to be rolling this out?
[06:02 - 06:07]: One of the things that I'm going to be talking to Rob about is, for example, new hires.
[06:08 - 06:15]: It's the easiest time to get those messages across.
[06:15 - 06:19]: Because they're kind of like, and don't get me wrong when I'm saying this,
[06:19 - 06:22]: but they're a blank piece of paper.
[06:22 - 06:25]: They're coming in pure.
[06:26 - 06:32]: They have not had any type of specific interactions
[06:32 - 06:35]: when it comes to your company as an employee.
[06:35 - 06:40]: Meaning you can now start fresh and tell them, this is how we're doing it.
[06:40 - 06:42]: So that's the easy one.
[06:42 - 06:45]: Then comes the rest of the organization.
[06:45 - 06:48]: And it's not necessarily because they have bad habits,
[06:48 - 06:52]: but they have been accustomed to the company running in a specific way.
[06:52 - 06:57]: So for those, it's all about change management.
[06:58 - 07:02]: And I think we've all heard, like, how many times you need to do something
[07:02 - 07:04]: before a habit has been changed?
[07:04 - 07:06]: I think it's 21?
[07:07 - 07:11]: Well, imagine that you need to say the same thing over and over again.
[07:11 - 07:14]: In many ways.
[07:14 - 07:17]: 21 times.
[07:17 - 07:21]: And I think that's a pretty good way of thinking about it.
[07:21 - 07:26]: Because you need to start working with your organization.
[07:26 - 07:29]: You need to tell them why you're doing it.
[07:29 - 07:32]: And many of them will most likely be proud.
[07:32 - 07:39]: Because they can see that their company is really making an effort.
[07:39 - 07:42]: They're doing the right thing.
[07:42 - 07:46]: And doing the right thing for you as the employee.
[07:48 - 07:54]: But I will look forward to hearing Rob's take on this.
[07:54 - 07:59]: Because he knows all about this.
[07:59 - 08:05]: He built the entire program for Airbnb.
[08:05 - 08:14]: So stay tuned for the episode with Rob, who will definitely be inspiring us.