Advisers and journalists can learn from each other

I believe the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer, which was released recently by CFA UK has trust in financial services lifting eight points but it's still on the bottom of the professions compared in the survey. As a some-time journo spending most of her life in financial services comms, these are sad figures.

The reality is that all journalists, like all financial services people, are lumped into one amorphous group. There's no differentiation between those that earn the public's disdain and deserve no trust whatsoever and the rest - hard-working, highly-engaged professionals going about their jobs with integrity and standards and doing the right thing.

I thoroughly agree with Ian Silk's comments on culture, which defines the way an organisation and its staff go about their business - provided those are lived and breathed by the leadership teams. Where the wheels fall off is where these values are espoused but the messages filtering down to the masses are mixed or ill-defined. Ridding ourselves (both financial services and journalism) of the aspects of the professions that bring us down in the public eye are going to take energetic and sustained leadership, with messaging that permeates every nook and cranny of individual organisations.