Book Review (Take 2): The Speed of Trust

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca Merrill (Free Press 2006)

It amazes me how often the issue of trust comes up in my work with organizations.  Not only is it critically important that my clients trust me to keep confidential information, perform my job well even when they don't exactly understand what I do, and accomplish the responsibilities I take on, but often the substance of our work together involves the broken down trust that has happened between members of the client work team.  Managers don't trust staff and vice versa.  Leaders of partnering organizations don't trust each other. Customers or donors don't trust the product or services.  Yikes.

This is a five-star, life-changing book and my copy of it is worn, dog earred, marked up.  I use it as a refresher for myself and I share it - in whole or in part - with clients, colleagues and friends.  In workshops and planning sessions, I regularly hand out my two-page summary of the book along with a four page description of what Covey Jr. calls "The Four Cores of Credibility" and "The 13 Behaviors of Trust." I've also made much use of two self-assessments in the book, also related to the Four Cores and the 13 Behaviors.  Building trust begins with the self, and finding out how others perceive our trustworthiness is the critical starting point.


When someone says "I don't trust her" what is it that he or she truly means? In the book we learn that we might hold a belief that the other person holds ill-will and intends harm, or at least intends to do their own thing.  Or it might mean that we hold the person to be of low integrity - their words and actions are inconsistent with each other.  On the other hand, we might still distrust someone even if we accept that they have good intentions and desire to do what they say.  In these cases we distrust someone's competence, or their capability to perform as needed.  Or we distrust them based on their results.  They may be able to perform, but if the track record of success isn't there, then neither is the trust.

It seems like such a simple thing, and yet it is so complicated.  It is tremendously beneficial to understand more clearly what is going on, and to have some insight into the things we do that cause others to distrust us.

In addition to the Four Cores (Intent, Integrity, Capability and Results) we also learn about 13 trust-enhancing behaviors, including talk straight, show loyalty, and keep commitments. Failing at these can destroy confidence and ruin relationships.  What can be more important to success than studying these, assessing our current situation, and taking steps to inspire trust? 

In the foreword, the author asserts: "...the ability to establish, grow, extend and restore trust is not only vital to our personal and interpersonal well-being; it is the key leadership competency of the new global economy." The speed of trust refers to how quickly business moves, agreements are reached, employees accept change, and customers buy.  Without trust, it all takes more time. 


Next week I will review the sequel, called Smart Trust, in which we learn some action steps for restoring trust once it has broken down. Thank you Mr. Covey - for taking your Dad's work to a whole new level and for creating a manual that is so useful and so critically important.