Saturday, September 17, 2011

Book of the Week: The Speed of Trust by Stephen MR Covey

Written by Stephen MR Covey, the son of legendary Stephen R Covey (7 Habits), the Speed of Trust is a groundbreaking book on trust for individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. It takes trust from the realm of philosophy to the realm of practicality by providing actionable methods of establishing trust and measurable results that trust can bring.

Covey's premise is that, as trust goes up (whether it be in personal relationships, business transactions, or the market as a whole), the speed of the interaction goes up and the cost of the interaction goes down. Trust, according to Covey, is quantifiable and brings better results faster than anything else can. Covey breaks the book into five sections: self trust, relationship trust, organizational trust, market trust, and societal trust. I could not recommend this book more highly as a fundamental work for personal, business, and societal development.

Here are my top ten takeaways:

  1. The simplest definition of trust is confidence. Trust is the opposite of suspicion. When people trust you or your organization, it essentially means that they believe in you. When they don't, it means they are skeptical. Trust is confidence.
  2. When we break trust, we incur a trust tax. When we keep trust, we receive a trust dividend. Covey uses the example of taxation to explain the quantifiable effect that trust, or lack thereof, has on us. He suggests that, when we behave in a manner that decreases the trust people have in us, they are "taxing" everything that we say and do. We are not getting the complete benefit from the relationship. On the other hand, when people do trust us, the give us "the benefit of the doubt"--a trust dividend, if you will.
  3. Being a trustworthy person means being credible. Can you follow through with your commitments to yourself? Can you keep your commitments to others? That is what trust is all about.
  4. There are four components of being a trustworthy person. Integrity, intentions, capablities, and results. If you are missing any one of these, you cannot be trustworthy. 
  5. Integrity is the root of trust. Without integrity, trust is not sustainable. It involves consistency (of intent and behavior), humility, and courage. Covey uses the example of tennis player Andy Roddick, who once argued in favor of his opponent, causing him to lose a match. Thereafter, however, umpires were much more apt to trust his judgment, because they recognized him as having integrity.
  6. The agenda of a trustworthy person is to seek a mutual benefit. Self-seeking people cannot be trusted. In order to build trust with others, you must be genuinely seeking their good as well. Building trust requires an "abundance" mindset, that there is enough value to go around for everyone. Trust-seekers seek a win-win solution.
  7. Capabilities include TASKS. Talents, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge and Style. Even if you have great intentions and are willing to do the work, if you don't have the right capablities, you can't be trusted to get a job done.
  8. Focus on results, not on activities. Trustworthy people avoid making excuses. They are not content with having simply "tried" to honor a commitment. They do it. They don't make calls; they make sales. They don't go on a diet; they lose weight. Results, not activities, are what build trust.
  9. Speak about others as if they're there. A huge way to destroy trust is to talk about others behind their backs. It destroys trust with the people you are talking about (if they find out) as well as with the people you are talking to (they'll wonder what you say behind their backs). Speak well of people and, if you have to speak ill of them, do it to their faces and not to someone else's.
  10. Make sure that expectations are clear. Broken trust is very often the result of misunderstood expectations--a failure in communication. Covey gives the example of a time that he told his daughter to clean her room. He came home later that day to find it a mess. When he aksed her about it, she insisted that it was clean. She really believed that she had cleaned her room. It turns out that they each simply had different expectations of what a clean room ought to look like. Whenever you're interacting with another person, it's important that both of you know what is expected from the other. If not, trust is bound to suffer.

2 comments:

  1. I read a lot of book reviews and this one is excellent. It summarizes the work and has convinced me to read the book and share it with my family. I think Takeaway #4 says it all. The best thing, is that this sounds like a great formula for life and character building, not just business.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much, Victoria! This is a great, potentially life-changing, book and my review doesn't do it justice. I'm glad you've decided to read it. This week was my second time reading it and takeaway no. 4 was what I remembered most. If you view all of your activities through the lens of those four things, you're bound to be more trustworthy, in business and in life! Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete