PDF Summary:The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey

Trust makes existing relationships more productive and efficient, opens the door to new relationships and opportunities, builds loyalty and respect, and fosters innovation and collaboration. In short, more than any other asset, trust is the key to success.

In The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey explains why trust is a game-changer in every personal and professional relationship and lays out a roadmap for building and leveraging trust for success. His experience as the co-founder of the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice and CoveyLink, and as the former CEO of The Stephen R. Covey Leadership Center, lends a career-worth of credibility to his arguments. This Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal best seller is accessible and actionable enough that readers can start building trust in their own lives today. We’ll expand on Covey’s ideas in this guide with additional insight from the psychology and business fields.

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For example, say you tell your friend you’ll pick her up at 8:00 but don’t show up until 8:20. If this happens once, your friend might simply be more attuned to your timing the next time. If it happens repeatedly, your friend will likely start mentally adding 20 minutes to any meet-up time you set because she doesn’t trust that you will be there when you say you will. If this causes strain in your relationship, your small timing inconsistencies could result in a significant trust tax.

Covey notes that being willing to address taboo or unpleasant topics with open and authentic communication builds trust. Additionally, since emotionally charged or uncomfortable situations can negatively impact interpersonal interactions and productivity, addressing them within your family or organization can result in major trust dividends.

(Shortform note: Part of maintaining an authentic communication style involves leaving space for emotion in emotional conversations. Conversations about difficult or emotional issues are likely to make participants emotional. But stifling or ignoring these emotions for the sake of objectivity makes these conversations less authentic and potentially less productive.)

Transparency is another way organizations and individuals can show authenticity and build trust. For example, a company could lay out its pay structure and promotion track to give its employees a clear sense of what they can expect from their careers. Covey explains that the more details you share, the more you reduce unknowns, and the easier it becomes to trust you.

(Shortform note: Other experts add that transparency can be a great way to build trust when you aren’t sure where else to start. Transparency projects openness and honesty and can make you seem more approachable. For leaders, transparency is a great way to earn respect, start building trust, and create an open and team-oriented culture in an organization. As Covey notes, simply being transparent about wanting to build trust in an organization can be a great way for a new leader to begin building relationships.)

Rule #2: Treat People Well

To build trust, you must treat people well, which, according to Covey, takes consideration and humility. We’ll briefly look at each.

Consideration: To build trust, you need to be considerate of everyone, all the time. People may question your motives and nature if you only show consideration when you feel you have something to gain.

One way to be considerate is to be an active listener. Covey explains that actively listening to other people before adding your own opinions is one of the best ways to build trust.

Humility: The way you handle failure communicates humility and impacts people’s trust in you. People are more likely to trust someone who is open about their mistakes. Covey explains that making a mistake and making excuses or trying to blame someone else for it depletes trust twice: first when people doubt your proficiency and then when they question your nature. Likewise, for people to be at their most innovative and productive, they need to feel comfortable enough to take risks and make their own mistakes.

You also show loyalty and build trust by giving credit where credit is due, celebrating other people’s attributes and achievements, and never taking credit for someone else’s work.

(Shortform note: Data from nearly 4,000 leaders showed that leaders who gave credit to others were rated in the 85th percentile for effective leadership (meaning they were some of the most effective leaders). In contrast, those who took credit from others were rated in the 13th percentile (meaning they were some of the least effective leaders). These results suggest that while it may be difficult to give credit to others rather than taking it for ourselves, we reap large trust dividends when we do.)

Active Listening Is Easier Said Than Done

Being an active listener requires effort and can be harder than it seems. Often, when people are talking to you, you end up focusing more on your own thoughts than on what they’re saying. For example, if someone makes a statement you don’t agree with, you may stop focusing on what they’re saying and start thinking about your rebuttal.

One way to improve your listening skills is to create a mental image of what the other person is saying. This exercise keeps your mind on them rather than on your thoughts and helps you process their argument. Another way to improve listening skills is to end conversations with a statement summarizing the important information exchanged during it. Crafting a summary statement forces you to revisit the important points of the discussion, and putting ideas in your own words is an effective way to learn and retain information.

Apologies That Promote Trust

Apologizing for mistakes can help restore broken trust, but not all apologies are equally effective. Research from two studies of over 700 participants suggests six aspects of an effective apology: showing regret, offering an explanation, taking responsibility, showing remorse, sharing a plan to fix the issue, and asking for forgiveness.

The results of the study on apologies align with Covey’s discussion of building trust. Of the six elements of an apology, taking responsibility—which we can think of as showing humility—and sharing a plan to fix the issue—which we can think of as demonstrating our ability—were the two most important elements of an effective apology.

Rule #3: Be Competent

Covey explains that one of the fastest ways to build trust is to get people the results they are looking for. The more you deliver results, the more freedom and flexibility you have in your relationships because people will trust you to get the job done with little oversight. In contrast, you pay a trust tax when you make commitments you can’t keep. According to Covey, this is why you need to be realistic and honest about the projects you take on.

Projecting Proficiency

Sometimes, demonstrating proficiency with your results might not be enough to earn people’s trust. Research suggests that projecting confidence can make people more likely to trust you even if you don’t deliver results. Our collective tendency towards confirmation bias may explain this, as we tend to look for and focus on the results we expect and use these results to reaffirm our beliefs.

For example, say two equally competent people are assigned a task. One accepts the task with the statement, “This is right up my alley; I’m going to rock this assignment!” The other quietly accepts the task saying, “I hope you’ll approve of my work.” We’re likely to perceive the more confident person as more competent. Even if the quality of the confident person’s work isn’t as high as the humble person’s, we might still rate them as more competent, thinking maybe they had a bad day or this simply wasn’t their strongest performance.

Since people’s impression of your proficiency is influenced by your confidence, producing results and broadcasting your proficiency may earn you more trust than proficiency alone.

Rule #4: Be Explicit

Explicit expectations are important for trusting relationships. Covey notes that many trust taxes result from different ideas about what an outcome should look like. For example, results might look like a success to one person and a failure to someone else if they are not on the same page before a project starts. Clarifying expectations upfront builds trust and saves time and conflict down the road.

(Shortform note: Clarity is particularly important when you’re trying to establish trust in a new relationship where the other party has no context for your trustworthiness. When you’re clear about your goals from the start, people can trust your intentions (whether or not they agree with them) and can better understand your thought process and decision-making. Research confirms Covey’s belief that being transparent and explicit about your goals engenders trust while being ambiguous makes you seem less trustworthy.)

An explicit system of accountability is another way to build trust. Covey explains that while conversations about accountability can be uncomfortable, clear and mutually agreeable contracts ultimately make people feel more comfortable and build trust because everyone knows what to expect.

Effective Accountability

As Covey explains, when done well, accountability builds trust, especially when systems of accountability are mutually agreeable. In fact, people are four times more honest and open to discussing their mistakes when they feel the systems of accountability that they’re being held to are fair.

Unfortunately, many workplace systems of accountability are built on rating systems that categorize people by faults instead of strengths, making them feel defensive and resentful rather than comfortable. Research from Gallup shows that just 14% of employees feel motivated by their company’s accountability methods, and only 21% feel that they’re evaluated on criteria that they have control over. These data support the need for more dialogue between management and employees so that everyone feels confident that they are being evaluated by a system built on trust.

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Rule #5: Be Trusting

One of the best ways to get trust is to give it. Covey explains that people have a natural inclination to trust and an innate desire to be trusted. He argues that when people are trusted, they almost always rise to the occasion. In contrast, when they feel like they aren’t trusted, they may (consciously or unconsciously) underperform or even act in untrustworthy ways. Therefore, even though it might seem scary, Covey assures you that you will get the most out of your personal and professional relationships (reap the most trust dividends) when you choose to extend trust.

Demonstrating Trust

The people you choose to trust need to know you trust them to extend trust back to you. For example, as an employer, you may trust your employees, but if you don’t communicate that trust to them through your words and actions, they may not even know that you trust them and may not trust you back. Therefore, if you trust people without communicating that trust, you risk losing trust dividends from the relationship. As Covey notes, trust dividends are large in a high-trust work environment. Research shows that employees work harder, perform better, and even work beyond the scope of their role when they feel their employer trusts them.

A few ways managers can demonstrate their trust in their employees include giving them control over their work process, sharing information freely, and showing their investment in employees by supporting their professional development.

Exercising Good Judgment in Trust

Choosing to extend trust does not mean you should abandon your reasoning and judgment. While Covey maintains that trust will almost always bring dividends, blind trust exposes you to unnecessary risk and can result in devastating trust taxes (for instance, someone stealing from you or running your business into the ground). Therefore, Covey argues that you should default to trust over suspicion while maintaining a high vigilance for potential risks. This might look like hiring a mildly underqualified new employee who comes highly recommended by a trusted friend and ensuring that they have extra training and oversight.

Why We Trust “Blindly”

Humans are biologically programmed for trust. We seek connection with other people and generally (barring having experienced severe breaches of trust) default to trust over suspicion in an effort to form relationships. However, as Covey notes, there are times when trust isn’t warranted, but we extend it anyway. Researchers have found two main thought processes that lead us to extend trust when we shouldn’t:

First, while we understand that bad things happen, we tend to think of ourselves as far less likely than other people to experience unfortunate events. Second, we similarly think of ourselves as far more likely to experience fortunate events than others. Together, these two assumptions cause us to misjudge the probability of a bad outcome due to misplaced trust.

Leveraging Trust

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of trust and how to build it, we will cover the benefits you can expect from high-trust relationships.

Covey explains that the benefits of trust begin within you and radiate outwards. He calls this effect the “waves of trust.” (Shortform note: Since these waves start with you and move outwards into every group you are a part of, we will refer to the waves of trust as “spheres of trust.”) We’ll briefly examine each sphere of trust.

Sphere One: Trust Yourself

If you want other people to trust you, you first need to trust yourself. According to Covey, self-trust is a function of harmony between your principles, your motives, your capabilities, and your track record. Essentially, self-trust comes from behaving in a way that reflects your values. Any dissonance between the person you want to be and your behavior can erode your self-trust.

For example, say you have a foundational belief that you are a kind person, but you find yourself berating your employees and being rude around the office. Since your behavior doesn’t reflect your values, you might start to question whether you are in fact, a kind person, and your self-confidence may be shaken.

To build self-trust, Covey suggests conducting an honest inventory of your nature and your proficiency. Once you know who you want to be and identify where your actions deviate from your personal mission and values, you can make a commitment to yourself to work on those areas. The more you keep these promises to yourself and the more alignment you see between your nature and proficiency, the more you will trust yourself.

An Aligned Self-Concept Builds Self-Trust

Covey's discussion of harmony between our inner self (our principles and motives) and our outer self (our capabilities and track record) mirrors the idea of self-concept in the field of psychology. Some psychologists describe self-concept as having three parts: the ideal self (who we want to be), self-image (how we perceive ourselves right now), and self-esteem (how much we value ourselves).

When there is alignment between the three parts of self-concept, we tend to feel good about ourselves (Covey explains it as trusting ourselves). But when there is dissonance between any of these three parts, we suffer emotionally. For example, if our ideal self is generous but our self-image is selfish, we might feel disappointed in ourselves and lose some of our self-esteem. Covey explains this difference between who we want to be and how we see ourselves behaving as a lack of congruence, which results in lower self-trust.

Sphere Two: Interpersonal Trust

Once you’ve worked on the four building blocks of trust within yourself, the harmony between your nature and your proficiency will be clear to those around you. If you’re a trustworthy person, you consistently demonstrate your values, and people notice. This consistency builds trust because people know what to expect from you. On the other hand, Covey notes that disrupting this consistency with a violation of your nature (stealing, lying, cheating, and so on) is the fastest way to lose someone’s trust.

Forgiving Breaches of Trust

As Covey explains, your nature (he calls it character) is intrinsic. Therefore, it should be constant despite changing circumstances. This could help explain why people tend to forgive breaches of trust involving competence more readily than breaches of trust involving character.

People can change their competence with practice or by learning new skills. Their character, on the other hand, is more difficult to change. Therefore, if someone violates your trust with a transgression of character, it is reasonable to assume that they’ll do it again, and you might decide not to trust them.

For example, say you are working with a fitness trainer you selected because of her empathy. One day she mistakenly chooses an exercise that reaggravates an old injury of yours, and she feels bad. You forgive her breach of competence because she has been a great trainer, and you know she cares about you.

On the other hand, say one day you tell her a particular movement hurts, and she rolls her eyes and calls you a wimp. Her lack of empathy at that moment makes you question her empathy and her nature, and you might feel uncomfortable working with her again.

Sphere Three: Team Trust

Groups of people—such as families, school classes, businesses, and so on—function best when trust is high between members. Covey notes that too often, people only think about the importance of team trust when they notice the symptoms of its absence. He highlights the following symptoms of low team trust:

Political Tactics. When group trust is low, people often talk behind each other’s backs, compete for status, and question each other’s principles and motivations. Time and energy spent here detract from productivity and group culture.

Rules and Red Tape. Covey notes that organizations often try to make up for low group trust with extensive rulebooks, elaborate systems of checks and balances, and redundancy in operations. But no amount of rules can make up for a lack of trust. In fact, if you try to replace trust with rules, you can incur trust taxes in efficiency, productivity, and group culture because the constraints stifle creativity and ingenuity and can also make people feel resentful and defensive.

(Shortform note: In The Seven Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni discusses the absence of trust as a foundational element of a dysfunctional team. He notes that when trust is low, people worry more about what others will think of what they say than about sharing their true thoughts and ideas. This leads to a culture of unproductive office politics where people don’t ask for help or offer it to one another. This lack of collaboration hurts productivity and leads to redundancy.)

High Turnover. When group trust is low, turnover is often high among employees, investors, and suppliers because people feel less invested in the organization.

(Shortform note: High turnover is not only a symptom of low team trust, but it also contributes to a low-trust atmosphere. We feel more comfortable with people the more we interact with them. Therefore, building enough trust for a team to function at a high level can take time. When turnover in an organization is high, team members may never reach the point in their relationships when they’re performing at their best, which means the organization misses out on trust dividends.)

How to Build Team Trust

Rather than focusing on the symptoms of low trust, Covey suggests that organizations should actively structure themselves to build trust. He suggests the following:

1. Think about your organization’s symbols and rituals. Every ritual your organization has impacts trust. For example, if your company caters a fancy lunch for management every Friday but does nothing for everyone else, that may be seen as a symbol of disconnection that erodes trust.

(Shortform note: In addition to building trust, symbols can make employees feel more connected to the organization they are part of. A survey of 727 employees of family-run businesses showed that the structure of the organization and the way their managers treated them had a large effect on how connected they felt to the business. These results also suggested that feelings of belonging among employees had a positive impact on business performance.)

2. Revisit and revise your organization’s mission statement using the four building blocks of trust. Then, just as you would for an individual, make sure the organization embodies those values.

(Shortform note: Having a clear collective mission for your organization can make people more engaged in their work. Data suggests that workers who buy into the mission of their organization stay with their company for five or more years and are more likely to be high-performing employees than those for whom a paycheck is their primary motivation.)

3. Bring in people you trust, and trust them. As we have noted, people respond to trust and rise to the occasion. When people feel trusted within a group, they think outside the box, take healthy risks, and celebrate diversity rather than being suspicious of each other.

(Shortform note: There’s a difference between being a trusting manager and a manager who is so hands-off that she isn’t there when her employees need her. In fact, entrusting people with a job and then “abandoning” the project by not following up on progress, not knowing or asking for details, and not asking employees if they need support can lead to trust taxes if people feel unsupported and underappreciated. While every manager will have their own style, consider striking a balance between giving people autonomy and making sure they feel supported and seen.)

4. Be as transparent as possible. As with individuals, transparency within an organization’s structures, norms, and operations builds trust and increases efficiency.

(Shortform note: One way to build trust as a leader is to be transparent about the reasoning behind your decisions. Following Covey’s four building blocks of trust, sharing your reasoning can give people insight into your principles and motives, which can help them trust your decision-making.)

Sphere Four: Reputation

The reputation sphere encompasses the way your organization is viewed by the rest of the world. Just as an individual gains others’ trust by consistently acting with integrity, Covey explains that people are more likely to trust an organization when they see alignment between its nature (mission statement, values, and so on) and its track record.

Organizations that are perceived as trustworthy reap huge trust dividends. They have more eager and willing collaborators and more opportunities because people want to work with them, asserts Covey. They also benefit from increased efficiency because their trusted reputation allows them to operate with less red tape, oversight, and checks and balances. Consistently producing results magnifies these benefits.

(Shortform note: Consumers who share their opinions on social media have a great deal of influence on a brand’s reputation. Therefore, disappointing customers by not delivering what your brand promises is riskier than ever for a business, as many people will likely find out about it quickly. In contrast, brands that deliver consistently are poised to reap even more trust dividends from happy customers on social media.)

In business, a reputation for principles and transparency brings trust dividends in the form of a larger and more loyal customer base, writes Covey. Additionally, many consumers are willing to pay a higher price for products they trust. For example, people pay more for fair trade coffee or Oeko-Tex-certified fabrics because they have more trust in products that carry this label. While they may not be able to distinguish fair trade from conventional coffee in a blind taste test or the feel of Oeko-Tex-certified and conventional fabrics, their trust in the labels (and the insight into the production process the labels provide) impacts the value of the product.

Trust Taxes and Dividends From Labels

The steadily growing demand for food products carrying the USDA organic label illustrates how trust shapes consumer preferences. Many consumers concerned about their food's production methods trust organic produce to be a healthier choice for humans and the environment. Therefore, farmers and retailers making and selling certified organic food at a premium reap trust dividends from the label.

The USDA organic label also highlights how fraud in the marketplace can reduce transparency and lead to trust taxes. Many nonorganic producers try to capitalize on the high consumer demand for organic produce by “greenwashing” their products with buzzwords such as “all-natural,” “farm fresh,” “artisanal,” and so on. The distrust created by label copycats can lead to trust taxes for organic producers when consumers get confused and frustrated, losing trust in labels in general.

Sphere Five: Collective Trust

Trust is integral to a functioning society, claims Covey. Yet modern society is changing so quickly that knowing when and how to extend trust can be difficult. For example, thanks to technology, much of society operates on a global scale. Companies can hire people to work as a team from all corners of the world. Consumers can go online and conduct extensive research before choosing where to spend their money, with exponentially more options. But as our personal and professional spheres grow larger, relationships can feel more and more impersonal. Therefore, people gravitate towards organizations and individuals that demonstrate their trustworthiness.

Maintaining Trust in an Online Workplace

The Speed of Trust was published before the coronavirus pandemic, which has only accelerated the trend towards remote work environments. Remote work presents challenges for managers, particularly when it comes to establishing organizational trust.

Managers who lead groups remotely cannot spend time organically interacting with their employees, listening to their opinions, getting their advice, and experiencing the organization's culture in person. However, there are ways for managers to build trust in a remote workplace. These include: prioritizing time to interact with employees both one-on-one and as a group, prioritizing dialogue (including creating space for difficult conversations) during meetings, and fostering a connection to the organization by making sure that team members feel appreciated.

Covey notes a modern resurgence of interest in trust with more organizations recognizing trust not as a soft or bonus skill, but as a prerequisite for success. These changes can be seen even in the largest corporations, which are now quick to advertise their company’s ethical and social commitments. Additionally, modern consumers actively look to give their money to companies that operate not just for profit but for mutual benefit. Covey adds that as a society we are becoming increasingly aware of the huge taxes that come from capitalism without trust and the huge dividends we all stand to gain when corporations and individuals seek mutual benefits.

(Shortform note: The growing call for trustworthy business provides a rare advantage for small businesses over larger corporations. Modern consumers are increasingly rejecting what they see as greedy capitalism, opting to give their business to smaller or local establishments. Therefore, small businesses are likely to have a built-in advantage when it comes to gaining the trust of modern customers.)