Our 2011 Building Trust in Business research survey measures critical indicators for trust, leadership, and collaboration — pointing to how high-performing companies achieve key business results by emphasizing all three.

The 2011 survey of nearly 200 business leaders represents the third year that Interaction Associates has explored the formula for success at high performing companies.

Our Building Trust survey holds a key surprise this year around trust. Even as trust in peers has turned around in the past year – with more employees saying they share and collaborate more easily with colleagues – they’ve grown more wary and distrustful of leaders.

In the 2011 survey, most respondents view their companies as strong financially and solid for continued survival — with survey results indicating that employees see both leadership and collaboration as strong in their organizations. But the implications for leaders and the path forward to establishing greater trust are important, especially as the economy strengthens and options for changing jobs in a stronger economy appeal to more employees.

The survey results indicate employees want more transparency into decisions and more involvement in the decisions that affect them. What’s more, leaders are often faulted in the survey for not linking employee goals to overall corporate performance; power sharing through delegation is weak, risk-taking not supported, and feedback to employees is lagging. There is a strong message for leaders in these findings.

Read the white paper here.