The Speed of Trust Quotes

“A leader doesn’t need any credit…. He’s getting more credit than he deserves anyway. —ROBERT TOWNSEND, FORMER CEO, AVIS”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Above all, success in business requires two things: a winning competitive strategy, and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both.” I submit that while high trust won’t necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Some people say you can’t change behavior. But there is clear evidence to indicate that people can and do change behavior—sometimes dramatically—and that doing so often produces extraordinary results.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“[H]e who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“the focus was clearly not on activities, but on results. In addition to the benefit of differentiating between results and activities, there’s another positive dimension to taking responsibility for results.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“coat!” the manager repeated. “Then you won’t have to pay the tax.” “But I have to sign a form,” my father exclaimed. “I have to declare the things I’ve bought and am bringing into the country.” “Don’t declare it; just wear it,” the manager said once again. “Don’t worry about the tax.” My father was silent for a moment, and then he said, “Look, frankly I’m not as worried about having to pay the tax as I am about this new salesman you’re training. He’s watching you. He’s learning from you. What is he going to think when you sign his commission? What kind of trust is he going to have in you in managing his career?” Can you see why employees don’t trust their managers? Most of the time, it’s not the huge, visible withdrawals like major ethics violations that wipe out organizational trust. It’s the little things—a day at a time, a weak or dishonest act at a time—that gradually weaken and corrode credibility. Whoever”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“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.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“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, which comes from the Latin root credere, meaning “to believe.” In this first wave, we will explore the “4 Cores of Credibility,” where we will discuss ways to increase our credibility in order to firmly establish trust with ourselves and with others. The end result of high character and high competence is credibility, judgment, and influence.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“On the other hand, trust produces speed. And, as Stephen points out, the greatest trust-building key is “results.” Results build brand loyalty. Results inspire and fire up a winning culture. The consistent production of results not only causes customers to increase their reorders, it also compels them to consistently recommend you to others.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Finally, understand that when keeping your commitment becomes hard, you have two choices: You can change your behavior to match your commitment, or you can lower your values to match your behavior. One choice will strengthen your integrity; the other will diminish it and erode your confidence in your ability to make and keep commitments in the future. In addition, that shift in direction with regard to values—even if it’s slight—will create a change in trajectory that will create a far more significant difference in destination down the road.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“The success of big business and the well-being of the world have never been more closely linked. Global issues cannot be removed from the business world because business has only one world in which to operate. Businesses cannot succeed in societies that fail. —JORMA OLLILA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, NOKIA”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“It’s been my experience that the people who gain trust, loyalty, excitement, and energy fast are the ones who pass on the credit to the people who have really done the work. A leader doesn’t need any credit. . . . He’s getting more credit than he deserves anyway. —ROBERT TOWNSEND, FORMER CEO, AVIS”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“one of the hottest topics today is ethics—ethics discussions, ethics curriculum, ethics training, codes of ethics. This book shows that while ethics is fundamentally important and necessary, it is absolutely insufficient. It shows that the so-called soft stuff is hard, measurable, and impacts everything else in relationships, organizations, markets, and societies. Financial success comes from success in the marketplace, and success in the marketplace comes from success in the workplace. The heart and soul of all of this is trust. This work goes far beyond not only my work, but also beyond anything I have read on the subject of trust. It goes beyond ethical behavior in leadership, beyond mere “compliance.” It goes deep into the real “intent” and agenda of a person’s heart, and then into the kind of “competence” that merits consistent public confidence.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Unless you’re continually improving your skills, you’re quickly becoming irrelevant. And when you’re irrelevant, you’re no longer credible. And without credibility, you won’t sustain trust—which will dramatically impact both speed and cost.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust. It’s”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“The 60% Tax (Very Low Trust) In the organization . . . In personal relationships . . . • Unhealthy working environment • Unhappy employees and stakeholders • Intense political atmosphere with clear camps and parties • Excessive time wasted defending positions and decisions • Painful micromanagement and bureaucracy • Hostile behaviors (yelling, blaming, accusing, name-calling) followed by periods of brief contrition • Guarded communication • Constant worrying and suspicion • Mistakes remembered and used as weapons • Real issues not surfaced or dealt with effectively”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“The next time you plan to Deliver Results, make sure you thoroughly understand the expectation. Don’t assume that just because you deliver what you may think are good results, you’re going to hit the mark. If you really want to build trust, you have to know what “results” mean to the person to whom you’re delivering.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“BROKEN TRUST: A BEGINNING For many people, broken trust is a dead end. It’s the end of a relationship, the end of an opportunity—sometimes even the end of self-confidence and the ability to ever trust again. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, I contend that broken trust can actually become a significant beginning. If you’ve broken trust with someone else, it’s an opportunity to get your own act together, to improve your character and competence, to behave in ways that inspire trust. Hopefully this will influence the offended party to restore trust in you. But even if it doesn’t, your effort may well affect others in positive ways, and it will definitely enable you to create more high-trust relationships in the future.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“By now I hope you’re convinced that, as I’ve said, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust. Nothing is as profitable as the economics of trust. Nothing is as relevant as the pervasive impact of trust. And the dividends of trust can significantly enhance the quality of every relationship on every level of your life.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Having spent many years trying to define the essentials of trust, I arrived at the position that if two people could say two things to each other and mean them, then there was the basis for real trust. The two things were “I mean you no harm” and “I seek your greatest good.” —JIM MEEHAN, BRITISH PSYCHOLOGIST AND POET”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“while ethics is fundamentally important and necessary, it is absolutely insufficient. It shows that the so-called soft stuff is hard, measurable, and impacts everything else in relationships, organizations, markets, and societies. Financial success comes from success in the marketplace, and success in the marketplace comes from success in the workplace. The heart and soul of all of this is trust.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“While there is risk in trusting other people, there’s far greater risk in not trusting them.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“If you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“while high trust won’t necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm and I will be ruthless. —WARREN BUFFETT”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police. —ALBERT EINSTEIN”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“A nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“their founder, Frederick Smith, said, “We thought that we were selling the transportation of goods; in fact, we were selling peace of mind.” In consequence of their performance, they earned credibility . . . and trust . . . and business. Today, people anticipate that FedEx will deliver on time because they have delivered on time—time and time again.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“Self-trust is the first secret of success . . . the essence of heroism.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

“THE HIDDEN VARIABLE One time I hired a guide to take me fly fishing in Montana. As I looked out over the river, he said, “Tell me what you see.” Basically I told him I saw a beautiful river with the sun reflecting off the surface of the water. He asked, “Do you see any fish?” I replied that I did not. Then my guide handed me a pair of polarized sunglasses. “Put these on,” he said. Suddenly everything looked dramatically different. As I looked at the river, I discovered I could see through the water. And I could see fish—a lot of fish! My excitement shot up. Suddenly I could sense enormous possibility that I hadn’t seen before. In reality, those fish were there all along, but until I put on the glasses, they were hidden from my view. In the same way, for most people, trust is hidden from view. They have no idea how present and pervasive the impact of trust is in every relationship, in every organization, in every interaction, in every moment of life. But once they put on “trust glasses” and see what’s going on under the surface, it immediately impacts their ability to increase their effectiveness in every dimension of life.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything