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Building a Winning Culture:
Inspire Trust
In his classic book, The Speed of Trust, our
colleague Stephen M. R. Covey explained that
the first imperative of a leader is to inspire trust.
It's to bring out the best in people by entrusting
them with meaningful stewardships, and to
create an environment in which high-trust
interaction inspires creativity and possibility.
TRUST — A PERFORMANCE MULTIPLIER
Only 10 percent of workers trust their bosses to
do the right thing, and only 14 percent believe
their company's leaders are ethical and honest.
Less than a fifth of the general public trusts
business leaders to be ethical and honest.
For companies known as being trusted, the
bad news is good news. People are hungrier
than ever to do business with people they
can trust. A Watson Wyatt study found the
high-trust organizations outperform low-trust
organizations in total return to shareholders by
threefold. Why is that?
Consider this: Trust always affects two
measurable outcomes — speed and cost. When
trust goes down, speed goes down and cost
goes up. This creates a trust tax. When trust
goes up, speed goes up and cost goes down.
This creates a trust dividend. It's that simple,
real, and predictable.
How do you feel about relationships where trust
is high? How effective is your communication
with a person you trust? In our experience, it's
easy and fast. Conversely, when trust is low,
"
Trust is the highest
form of human
motivation. it
brings out the very
best in people."
— Stephen M. R. Covey
