Leadership books that never go out of style (2012 edition): Part III

The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey, son of the famous author and lecturer Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), is a timely book for leading in a global marketplace.

Most business people recognize that great leaders engender trust from employees, customers, vendors, and the market at large. The concept of linking trust to speed – decreasing time to market – is a new, but intuitively appealing concept to executives. Trust saves time in many important dealings between stakeholders by reducing the use of contracts, eliminating much red tape, and obviating the need for intense, time-consuming vetting of many details of doing business. Time is money because speed is a requirement in reacting to a competitive global market. Jack Welch’s words, “If you’re not fast, you’re dead…” is more true now than ever before.

Covey goes beyond a discussion of why trust is necessary for effective leadership.  He understands that credibility is the prime requisite for building trust and lists the four “Cores of Credibility” for an organization to self-diagnose its own culture of trust.  Covey then lists the “13 Behaviors” necessary to build self-trust and relationship trust in executives. Finally, he focuses on how an executive “can use these tools to increase speed, lower cost, create value, establish trust, and maximize (the executive’s) influence and the influence of (the) organization.”¹

The Speed of Trust is a fascinating read and offers readily useable ideas to build a key requirement for effective leadership  – the all-important value of trust.

¹Covey, Stephen H.R., The Speed of Trust, pg. 233.

Written by: Jay Staley, M.B.A.