Book SummaryThe Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Speed of Trust

Trust is a critical yet undervalued prerequisite for success in the modern world. Trust deepens relationships, creates opportunities, and improves the efficiency of interpersonal interactions. In The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey argues that you’ll be more successful in your personal and professional life when you make trust a top priority.

Covey is an expert on trust. He co-founded the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice and CoveyLink, which offers educational materials, training, and public speaking events to individuals and organizations looking to maximize their...

The Speed of Trust Summary Trust Is Our Most Valuable Asset

While you might not think about trust like you would other assets (property and bank account balances, for instance), Covey argues that it’s actually your most valuable asset. In this section, we’ll explore this argument by examining how Covey sees the relationship between trust and value, trust and efficiency, and trust and effort.

Trust and Value

Trust sets the tone of every interpersonal interaction. Therefore, it dictates how much your assets are worth in real-world situations, regardless of their worth “on paper.” For example, say you are moving and need to sell your cherished family home. A prospective buyer offers to buy the house in cash for well over the asking price, with no inspections. She says she loves the home and will “take good care of it.” On paper, this is a no-brainer. But you know that this buyer has a history of purchasing investment properties and tearing down existing homes to build expensive vacation rentals. Her lucrative offer on paper might be worthless to you because you don’t trust her intentions for your home.

Trust Gives Money Its Value

Trust doesn’t just modify the value of our money in real-world interactions: It is...

The Speed of Trust Summary Trust “Accounts”

Trust can be challenging to quantify, making it difficult to factor it into your decision-making, writes Covey. He offers two frameworks for quantifying trust, which we will summarize next.

Trust Taxes and Trust Dividends

Covey refers to the impact of trust on results as either a “trust tax” or a “trust dividend.” When trust is high, you reap “trust dividends;” when trust is low, you pay “trust taxes” on every interaction. The “units” on your trust taxes and dividends can be in dollars and cents, time and resources, or even emotional energy.

For example, say you decline the offer to sell your house to the wealthy investor and sell it directly to a close friend instead. Because your friend trusts that you will give them a fair price and disclose any major issues, you forgo realtors and save thousands of dollars on commissions. You also save months of time and energy putting your house on the market, scheduling showings, and waiting for closing dates. Finally, you gain the emotional benefit of knowing that your house will remain a loving home. All of these are your trust dividends.

As an example of a trust tax, say after you sell your friend the house, they realize...

The Speed of Trust Summary Defining Trustworthiness

After recognizing the importance of trust and thinking of it as a measurable quantity, Covey suggests learning how to cultivate trust in your personal and professional relationships. The first step in learning how to build trust is understanding what makes a person trustworthy. According to Covey, trust comes from credibility, which has four components: principles, motives, skills, and track record. He calls these the “four cores of credibility.” We’ll refer to them as the building blocks of trust. To merit trust in any situation, you must display all four building blocks of trust. Any missing or questionable building block can erode people’s trust in you and your trust in yourself.

Principles and Motives

According to Covey, the first two building blocks of trust, your principles and motives, are a function of your nature. Your principles shape how you interpret and respond to your circumstances. For instance, if you hold to the principle of charity, you’ll be a respectful listener even when you find another person’s argument distasteful or misinformed.

Your principles also inform your motives which, in turn, drive your actions. To continue the...

The Speed of Trust Summary Building Trust

We’ve reviewed the characteristics that make someone trustworthy. Next, we’ll review Covey’s advice on applying these characteristics to your behavior.

(Shortform note: Covey highlights “13 behaviors” that build trust. We’ve condensed them into five rules since many of Covey’s 13 behaviors contain overlapping advice.)

Rule #1: Be Authentic

To build trust, you should strive for an authentic communication style. Covey explains that people should come away from conversations with you with the right impression of your intentions and motivations. He notes that people are good at spotting inauthentic communication, for example, spinning or telling only parts of the truth. Unfortunately, these tactics waste time, and you pay a hefty trust tax on all future communication when people don’t see you as authentic.

Little Fibs Diminish Trust

The evolutionary drive for self-preservation makes us attuned to inconsistencies between what people say and what they do. When people don’t mean what they say or don’t do what they say they will, we learn to trust what they say less. [Over time, even seemingly inconsequential fibs, inconsistencies, or omissions can diminish...

The Speed of Trust Summary 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...

Shortform Exercise: Study Your Building Blocks

As Covey explains, low trust often yields low results despite proper strategy and execution. Since trust requires all four building blocks (principles, motives, skills, and track record), a breakdown in any of these areas can impede your success as an individual or organization.

Pick a sphere (you can think about yourself as an individual or as a member of a team, organization, or larger community). Think about the last interaction when your strategy and execution yielded negative results. (For example, maybe the last time you conducted a performance evaluation with an employee at work, the meeting became confrontational rather than constructive.)nnConsidering that trust sets the tone of every interaction, what role do you think trust might have played in this instance?