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'The Speed of Trust' by Stephen M R Covey The one thing that changes everything... Synopsis From Stephen R. Covey's eldest son come a revolutionary book that will guide business leaders, public figures and their organizations towards unprecedented productivity and satisfaction. Trust, says Stephen M. R. Covey, is the very basis of the 21st century's global economy, but its power is generally overlooked and misunderstood. Covey shows you how to inspire immediate trust in everyone you encounter - colleagues, constituents, the marketplace - allowing you to forego the time-killing and energy-draining check and balance bureaucracies that are so often relied upon in lieu of actual trust. In 'The Speed of Trust' Stephen M R Covey argues persuasively that there is a direct link between the level of trust in a team or organisation and economic results. This is because when trust is high, speed goes up and costs go down, and the opposite occurs when trust is low. This is a convincing argument, and although it may seem obvious, my experience is that it is not a link that is understood by many, many leaders. For too many people trust is still seen as a soft concept which does not sit easily with the daily grind for results. It might be there on the wall as a values statement, but it is seen as the domain of HR rather than being central to effectiveness and results. Stephen makes the link brilliantly. He talks about a 'trust tax' and a 'trust dividend'. When trust is low it is a tax on your effectiveness, it slows things down. When trust is high it becomes a dividend, speeding things up. To bring this to life, when I work with groups on these principles I ask them to think of a relationship they have at work (with any stakeholder such as a customer, a colleague, a team member, another department, even their boss) where trust is high, and one where trust is low. I ask them to consider how the relationship works in practice, and specifically the effect high or low trust has on the ability to get things done. The answers are obvious and come thick and fast. When trust is high decision making is easy, people are allowed to get on with things, we do not need to keep checking up on people, we can empower confident that we will get the results. When trust is low the opposite occurs and things take so much more time to get done. The other part I like is Stephen's assertion is that trust is as much about competence as it is about character. Too often if you are asked why you trust someone we think of attributes such as integrity and intent. These are absolutely valid reasons, and are character based. We also trust peoples' competence, however. We trust them to get things done. We trust their capability and the results they produce. Again this gives trust a hard edge, something I often find leaders of teams and organisations overlook. Stephen describes in detail in the book five levels of trust: self, relationship, organisational, market and societal. He also, crucially, demonstrates that any leader can build trust. So if you have taken over a team or organisation where trust is low, where there is a large trust tax, or if you simply recognise the need to build trust in your existing team or organisation, Stephen expands on thirteen principles of behaviour for building trust. Once more they come across as little more than common sense, but I watch highly effective leaders I already work with demonstrate these behaviours constantly. A great book with a really practical opportunity to turn the theory into meaningful action with transformational results. |