Today’s blog is another Leadership Insight from CoachingonCall and as trust is a theme present for many of my clients at the moment I was moved to share it.
Just in case you haven’t already come across them, Coaching on Call is an organisation that provides a ground-breaking service from a team of exemplary coaches offering practical on demand coaching for managers. Each month Coaching on Call offers leadership insights to its network. For more information on Coaching on Call and the valuable service they provide visit www.coachingoncall.co.uk
The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey
Trust seems to be in decline almost everywhere we look in public life: in politics, the financial institutions, large organisations and even in social communities. Research shows that trust in leaders is generally lower than ever before, both in public and corporate life.
In this book, subtitled “The One Thing That Changes Everything”, Covey argues that trust is a measurable accelerator to performance and has a bottom-line impact on results – as trust increases, he says, speed also goes up and costs come down.
Trust – a key leadership competency
There are two sides to trust in an organisational capacity: the character side and the competence side. You might think a person is sincere, even honest, but you won’t trust that person fully if he or she doesn’t get results. And the opposite is true. A person might have great skills and talents and a good track record, but if he or she is not honest, you’re not going to trust that person either.
Self trust
Covey identifies the principle of credibility as being core to personal effectiveness. This is particularly important in leaders. So what are the elements that contribute to your personal credibility and therefore the foundation of trust?
- Integrity – being congruent and ethical
- Intent – having a clear and appropriate agenda that serves the organisation
- Capabilities - ensuring that you are delivering consistently on your responsibilities
- Results - demonstrating a track record that backs up your personal credibility
Relationship trust
Covey has sifted and identified thirteen core behaviours of high-trust leaders worldwide. He offers them as a practical way to build and maintain trust, or how to ’behave yourself out of problems you’ve behaved yourself into’!
- Talk straight
- Demonstrate respect
- Create transparency
- Right wrongs
- Show loyalty
- Deliver results
- Get better
- Confront reality
- Clarify expectation
- Practice accountability
- Listen first
- Keep commitments
- Extend trust
He also reminds us that these behaviours all need to be balanced with each other (e.g. talking straight must be balanced by demonstrating respect) and that all behaviours when taken to extreme can become a weakness.
The job of a leader is to go first, to extend trust first. By this, Covey means not blind trust but ’smart trust’ that demonstrates judgement and positive intention. As Craig Weatherup, former CEO of PepsiCo said:
“Trust cannot become a performance multiplier unless the leader is prepared to go first.”
