Book SummaryTrust and Inspire, by Stephen M.R. Covey

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Trust and Inspire

In today’s world, workers must collaborate effectively and provide quality service and knowledge for their organizations to thrive—as a leader, this requires you to maximize employees’ creativity, innovation, and collaboration. However, you can’t achieve this with traditional leadership styles that rely on carrot-and-stick methods of motivation. Instead, you must evolve as a leader—to inspire employees to maximize the quality of their work by trusting them and encouraging them to achieve their full potential. In Trust and Inspire, Stephen M.R. Covey explains how and why you should step up from traditional to inspirational leadership to succeed in all areas of your organization and life.

Covey is a writer, public speaker, and best-selling author who specializes in the role of trust in leadership. He cofounded the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice, which offers educational materials, training, and public speaking events to...

Trust and Inspire Summary The History of Leadership

Covey argues that the fundamental nature of work has changed since the industrial era, necessitating a corresponding shift in leadership. In this section, we’ll explore the difference between industrial and modern work and explain why leaders must evolve to keep up.

Traditional Leadership Styles Are Tailored for Industrial-Era Work

In the industrial era, workers mainly performed manual tasks in which quality depended on speed and effectiveness. As such, leaders used extrinsic motivators (like threats and rewards) to encourage employees to work faster and harder.

These leaders, whom Covey calls “command and control” leaders, weren't concerned with employee engagement and inspiration because those things didn’t impact work quality. For example, factory line workers assembled products of the same quality regardless of whether they were inspired to do so because the process was streamlined and materials were uniform.

(Shortform note: Research suggests that industrial-era workers may indeed have lacked autonomy, work complexity, and intrinsic motivation, and that the absence of these factors may have left lasting psychological effects on communities previously...

Trust and Inspire Summary The Five Doctrines of Inspirational Leaders

Covey explains that inspirational leaders differ from traditional leaders in their mindset and beliefs about the world. While traditional leaders focus on controlling people, inspirational leaders focus on developing people. He says inspirational leaders hold five beliefs about the world that shape their leadership style.

(Shortform note: CLT also emphasizes the need to shift from controlling people to developing them. However, Covey’s idea that this shift hinges on a leader’s personal belief system is unique. CLT makes no mention of leaders’ personal beliefs—in other words, while Covey focuses on changing leaders (who they are as a person), CLT focuses more narrowly on changing leadership methods.)

Doctrine #1: Everyone Has a Higher Potential to Achieve

Inspirational leaders believe everyone has unique talents. These leaders have the ability to see people’s potential, and they believe that their role as a leader is to help people learn and grow to reach it.

(Shortform note: Covey says you must be able to see people’s potential...

Trust and Inspire Summary The Three Commitments of Inspirational Leaders

Covey explains that inspirational leaders put their five doctrines into action through three primary commitments. In this section, we’ll explain each of the commitments, what they entail, and why they’re important.

Commitment #1: Become an Upstanding Person

The first commitment of inspirational leaders is to be an upstanding person that others look up to. This requires you to be strong, be true to yourself, and understand others.

Covey says that upholding this commitment is important for two reasons. First, becoming an upstanding person naturally makes you an inspirational role model for others because your characteristics make you credible and a source of moral guidance. Second, being an upstanding person means you model the characteristics necessary to reach your full potential—by being this person, you encourage your followers to do the same.

(Shortform note: Becoming an upstanding role model is also a core component of knowledge-era leadership in CLT. Marion and Uhl-Bien argue that modern leaders must [embody and express the ideas and attitudes of their organization that they want their employees to...

Shortform Exercise: Become an Upstanding Person

Covey explains that one of the foundations of being an inspirational leader is becoming an upstanding person—before you can inspire people, you need to become someone that others look up to. In this exercise, we’ll identify which characteristics you need to improve on and how you can do so.

Of the three characteristics Covey says are crucial to being an upstanding person—being strong, authentic, and understanding—which do you struggle with most?