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I was given The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything last year by the group leader of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Signature Workshop I attended last year. Like many reviewers on the Internet I was worried that Covey Jr. wouldn’t be able to add much to the conversation that his father had started and rather he was just making use of the family name.

My suspicions were way off base. Covey Jr. does an excellent job of discussing “the one thing that changes everything.” He provides excellent examples of how building trust – both personally and within an organization – leads to better results, faster paths to excellence and greater efficiency.

Covey Jr. presents a 360 degree action plan for building trust, first with yourself right through your organization. He doesn’t sugar coat the process pretending that’s as easy as flipping a switch but he does provide proof of concept that it can be done.

Just as his father has seven steps to become highly effective, ‘lil Covey presents four broad subject headings that are then broken down into smaller steps beginning with:

The Five Waves of Trust

1. Self Trust: It’s about building the 4 Cores of Credibility that make you believable, both to oneself and others.
2. Relationship Trust: Imbuing the 13 Behaviors to develop consistent behavior.
3. Organizational Trust: Utilizing the 4 Cores and 13 Behaviors to build alignment in an organization.
4. Market Trust: It’s all about brand and the principle of reputation.
5. Societal Trust: Is contribution.*

* notes after the colon are from another excellent review from this Web site.

Oftentimes simple ideas and concepts are made into very long and confusing books. While some sections of Covey’s book is long and a tad boring I didn’t find the different sections to be fluffy.

Four Cores of Credibility

1. Integrity: Being the same individual inside and out (no gap between intent and behavior).
2. Intent: Having a good plan, or purpose.
3. Capabilities: Creating both personal and organizational credibility.
4. Results: Classify an individual as a producer and performer

Covey Jr. puts a large emphasis on starting with oneself. The Four Cores of Credibility really focus on building trust with yourself – being able to do what you say and or think you’ll do – and building out from there.

Thirteen Behaviours

The largest part of this book is spent on the Thirteen Behaviours which Covey Jr. presents as a checklist to building trust. Most of these seem like common sense but if there were really such a thing as common sense it would be … well … much more common and clearly it’s not.

1. Talking Straight
2. Demonstrating Respect
3. Creating Transparency
4. Righting Wrongs
5. Showing Loyalty
6. Delivering Results
7. Getting Better
8. Confronting Reality
9. Clarifying Expectations
10. Practicing Accountability
11. Listening First
12. Keeping Commitments
13. Extending Trust

Smart Trust

Throughout the book the message being delivered seems to be that if you extend trust to someone your relationship will improve, productivity will go up and everyone will be happy. Fortunately he clarifies this position under the heading of Smart Trust. He contends that a certain level of trust is warranted for each individual. He’s not suggesting your loyal coworker shouldn’t really be as trusted as the consistent client, but rather should you trust that loyal coworker to lead the next meeting. Perhaps their skill base isn’t at a level where they would be successful in that meeting.

However, after building trust with the loyal coworker, they will agree and appreciate your frankness with them when you tell them the can’t lead the meeting. That’s how Smart Trust works and why it’s an important part of this book.

In Conclusion

If you enjoyed The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey or Good to Great by Jim Collins then you’ll definitely enjoy this book. I listened to it on audio book and then referenced the print version and while Covey Jr. narrates the book himself and has s distinct voice it’s not hard to listen to.

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Tags: book, book review, business book, Dr. Stephen Covey, I think it's cool, Learning, reading, Stephen M. R. Covey, trust
Posted in Books, Learning