The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

by Stephen M.R. Covey

As I’ve said, my father uses this story as an example of stewardship delegation or win-win agreements. But, as a seven-year-old, I was too young to understand what all those big words even meant. What I remember most about this experience was simply this: I felt trusted! I was too young to care about money or status. Those things didn’t motivate me. What motivated me was my father’s trust. I didn’t want to let him down. I wanted to show him that I was capable and responsible. My father had extended trust to me, and that inspired me and created a sense of responsibility and integrity that has stayed with me throughout my life.

trust is one of the most powerful forms of motivation and inspiration. People want to be trusted. They respond to trust. They thrive on trust.

Who do you trust?

Why do you trust this person?

What is it that inspires confidence in this particular relationship?

Now consider an even more provocative question:...

What is it in you that inspires the tr...

Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.

You might think a person is sincere, even honest, but you won’t trust that person fully

if he or she doesn’t get results. And the opposite is true. A person might have great skills and talents and a good track record, but if he or she is not honest, you’re not going to trust that person either.

Think about it—people trust people who make things happen. They give the new curriculum to their most competent instructors. They give the promising projects or sales leads to those who have delivered in the past. Recognizing the role of competence helps us identify and give language to underlying trust issues we otherwise can’t put a finger on.

Ethics (which is part of character) is foundational to trust, but by itself is insufficient.

Again, character and competence are both necessary. Character is a constant; it’s necessary for trust in any circumstance. Competence is situational; it depends on what the circumstance requires.

THE FIRST WAVE: SELF TRUST The first wave, Self Trust, deals with the confidence we have in ourselves—in our ability to set and achieve goals, to keep commitments, to walk our talk—and also with our ability to inspire trust in others. The whole idea is to become, both to ourselves and to others, a person who is worthy of trust. The key principle underlying this wave is credibility,

THE SECOND WAVE: RELATIONSHIP TRUST The second wave, Relationship Trust, is about how to establish and increase the “trust accounts” we have with others. The key principle underlying this wave is consistent behavior,

THE THIRD WAVE: ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST The third wave, Organizational Trust, deals with how leaders can generate trust in all kinds of organizations, including businesses,

The key principle underlying this wave, alignment, helps leaders create structures, systems, and symbols of organizational trust that decrease or eliminate seven of the most insidious and costly organizational trust taxes,

THE FOURTH WAVE: MARKET

TRUST The fourth wave, Market Trust, is the level at which almost everyone clearly understands the impact of trust. The underlying principle behind this wave is reputation.

loyalty.

THE FIFTH WAVE: SOCIETAL TRUST The fifth wave, Societal Trust, is about creating value for others and for society at large. The principle underlying this wave is contribution. By contributing or “giving back,” we counteract the suspicion, cynicism, and low-trust inheritance taxes within our society.

The purpose of this book is to enable you to see, speak, and behave in ways that establish trust, and all three dimensions are vital.

Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust. It’s maximizing both your current contribution and your ability to contribute in the future by establishing the trust that makes it possible.

The means are as important as the ends. How you go about achieving results is as important as the results themselves, because when you establish trust, you increase your ability to get results the next time.

“Life to me is the greatest of all games. The danger lies in treating it as a trivial game, a game to be taken lightly, and a game in which the rules don’t matter much. The rules matter a great deal. The game has to be played fairly or it is no game at all. And even to win the game is not the chief end. The chief end is to win it honorably and splendidly.”

THE FIRST WAVE—SELF TRUST The Principle of Credibility

to build trust with others, we must first start with ourselves.

That principle is credibility, or believability. This is where we ask ourselves, Am I credible? Am I believable? Am I someone people (including myself) can trust?

The good news is that we can increase our credibility, and we can increase it fast, particularly if we understand the four key elements, or four “cores,” that are fundamental. Two of these cores deal with character; two with competence.

it basically boils down to these four issues: your integrity, your intent, your capabilities, and your results.

Your credibility—as an expert witness, as a person, as a leader, as a family, as an organization—depends on these four factors.

And it all boils down to two simple questions: 1) Do I trust myself? and 2) Am I someone others can trust?

Research shows that many of us don’t follow through on the goals we set or don’t keep the promises and commitments we make to ourselves.

What’s the net result of repeated failure to make and keep commitments to ourselves? It hacks away

at our self-confidence.

Though we all know it intuitively, research also validates that a person’s self-confidence affects his or her performance. This is one reason why Jack Welch of GE always felt so strongly that “building self-confidence in others is a huge part of leadership.”

“A man who doesn’t trust himself can never really trust anyone else.”

The good news in all of this is that every time we do make and keep a commitment to ourselves or set and achieve a meaningful goal, we become more credible. The more we do it, the more confidence we have that we can do it, that we will do it. The more we trust ourselves.

Little things count. Like when someone calls in to talk to a manager and his assistant says he is in a meeting when he is not. It’s the little things that your employees notice.

One study by a leading consulting firm showed that building personal credibility was the second-most-identified behavior of leaders.

The first two cores deal with character; the second two with competence. And all four are necessary to self trust.

Core 1: Integrity

It’s walking your talk. It’s being congruent, inside and out. It’s having the courage to act in accordance with your values and beliefs.

Core 2: Intent

Trust grows when our motives are straightforward and based on mutual benefit—in other words, when we genuinely care not only for ourselves, but also for the people we interact with, lead, or serve.

There are no moral shortcuts in the game of business—or life. There are, basically, three kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful, and those who become and remain successful. The difference is character.

Core 3: Capabilities

The third core deals with issues of capabilities. These are the abilities we have that inspire confidence—our talents, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and style.

Core 4: Results

The fourth core deals with issues around results. This refers to our track record, our performance, our getting the right things done. If we don’t accomplish what we are expected to do, it diminishes our credibility.