The Speed of Trust
I have been reading a wonderful book by Stephen M.R. Covey (the son of Stephen R. Covey of The Seven Habits fame…) called The Speed of Trust (http://tiny.cc/tpSn4). Stephen took over as CEO of Franklin Covey and much of the material is from what he learned in leading and ultimately selling this company (not to mention the value based leadership approach his father instilled him in while growing up).
For all of us who have been in leadership roles as well as for those who are followers, we instinctively know that Trust is one of the most important drivers of success in a relationship and a successful corporate culture. Once you lose trust, things disintegrate fast and personal and organizational effectiveness suffers considerably.
Covey, defines Trust as follows: “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. Trust is equal parts character and competence. Both are absolutely necessary. From the family room to the boardroom, you can look at any leadership failure, and it’s always a failure of one or the other.“ His approach is insightful and goes beyond intent – ie., if a person has good intentions then you would trust them. In business especially, to gain trust, you must have the second part of his definition – Competence. You might like a leader with a good heart and caring personality, but if he can’t execute and deliver on his objectives and strategy, you won’t trust him to lead you and run the business. Covey goes on to say: “Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust — distrust — is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them — in their integrity and in their abilities. When you distrust people, you are suspicious of them — of their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities, or their track record. It’s that simple.”
The book goes on to explain in depth through examples from Covey’s business career and family life, how Trust can be created between individuals, and easily lost. He also gives a little advice we could all use about giving someone else a little slack: “…we tend to judge others based on their behavior, and ourselves based on our intent. In almost all situations, we would do well to recognize the possibility — even probability — of good intent in others…sometimes despite their observable behavior.” It’s a tough world out there and we’re not all going to get it right all the time, but just may be, our long term average may not be so bad… But ideally of course, what we all would like strive for is to consistently generate Trust in a consistent manner with the people we meet, live, and work with. Covey gives a great example of a CEO who puts himself on the line and sets up high expectations for himself with everyone he meets: “Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup Company, recently told me that within the first hour of working with new coworkers or other business partners, he lets them know how he operates so that people can know what to expect. He tells them explicitly that his agenda includes building trust with them, and that he wants them to gain trust in him as they see him do what he says he will do. Additionally, Doug finds that declaring his intent not only builds trust, it also puts more accountability on him to be true to what he’s said.” Wow, now that’s Transparency.
Lastly, Covey emphasizes that confidence generates solid results which in turn generate credibility and therefore higher trust. It is therefore a leadership imperative to help others realize it in their work and for leaders to work hard to consistently generate their own 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.” The lack of self trust also undermines our ability to trust others. In the words of Cardinal de Retz, “A man who doesn’t trust himself can never really trust anyone else.”
Covey explains that the best way for us as individuals to develop our own confidence is to keep commitments to ourselves – one step at a time. This of course makes a lot of sense – the people who we know that seem to the most confident, set challenging goals for themselves, work hard, and achieve them: “Every time we make and keep a commitment to ourselves — large or small — we increase our self-confidence. We build our reserves. We enlarge our capacity to make and keep greater commitments, both to ourselves and to others. As you consider how you might step up your ability to make and keep commitments to yourself, let me suggest a few important things to keep in mind: First, don’t make too many commitments. If you do, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Differentiate between a goal, a direction, a focus, and an actual commitment. When you make a commitment to yourself, do so with the clear understanding that you’re pledging your integrity. Second, treat a commitment you make to yourself with as much respect as you do the commitments you make to others. Whether it’s a commitment of time (an appointment with yourself to exercise or read or sleep) or a commitment to prioritize your energy and focus, treat it — and yourself — with respect. Third, don’t make commitments impulsively. I learned this lesson the hard way one time when we were having a family discussion about health. It was around New Year’s, and as we were talking, we decided that we all needed to drink more water instead of soda pop. I started to really get caught up in the spirit of improvement, and — filled with bravado (but no humility) — I said, “I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I am going to make a commitment to myself to drink nothing but water for this entire year! No soda, no juices — nothing but water!” Well, that was foolish and I lived to regret it. I kept the commitment, but it was hard. Out of the experience, I learned to be careful about making commitments and to make sure they were made out of humility, and not pride. 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. So I encourage you to learn to make and keep commitments to yourself with wisdom. There is no faster way to build self trust.”
Overall, a great book on what may be one of the most important determinants of success in Life and Business.
-Jay Kshatri
President, The Kensho Group
www.TheKenshoGroup.com
Tags: leadership, seven habits, trust
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