Communication is about sharing information. Some of that information is related to the task.What are we doing, why and how? It’s information our partners need to feel included in the process and to accomplish their tasks. But we must also share information about the relationship: how we are resolving our conflicts, building trust, making decisions, and so forth.Without this type of communication, our relationship may not evolve and develop as we move through the Stages of Relationship Development.
Listening is another important communication skill needed to build trust.When we actively listen to our partners,we share complete and accurate information between us. This ensures that no partner feels left out of the communication loop—one of the biggest obstacles to building trust.When we listen to our partners,we gain insights into their needs and what is motivating them to work collaboratively with us. This information enables us to help our partners get their needs met. This is important if we want our partners to feel we are working for them.
One final note on communication is that technology has created many platforms for us to communicate with each other. Some of us prefer e-mail while others would rather pick up the phone or have a face-to-face conversation. Be sure to check with your partners and determine their preferred method of communication and try to meet that need as often as you can reasonably do so.
Rating outlooks and watchlists tend to have a built-in lag, too. Moody’s has an 18-month horizon for its outlooks and 90 days for its watchlist, whereas S&P targets 90 days for its credit watch listings, and a longer but unspecified time-horizon for outlooks. Hence, credit ratings appear to be serially correlated. This in turn creates the impression that rating actions tend to lag changes in credit quality and their perception by market participants, reflected in spreads, substantially. Current research focuses on the rating outlook and its impact on corporate bond prices. Since the mid-1990s, European corporate bond investors on average have become much more professional. Consequently, changes in an issuer’s credit quality are anticipated earlier than they were some years ago. In conjunction with the increased liquidity of the European corporate bond market this has led to the observation that bond prices adjust rapidly to the fundamental assessment of market participants and their expectations regarding a possible rating change. Therefore, changes of the rating outlook that lead actual rating changes are monitored closely by corporate bond investors.