Continuing on in the review of Stephen Covey’s book “The Speed of Trust” it really struck me that one of the key points about building trust with others is Transparency. This ties to the one of the 4 Core Principles mentioned last week of Intent. Being transparent is a all about sharing your intent about what you are trying to do, why you are doing it, and what the intended outcomes are. 

The more clear you are about what you stand for and how you are going about achieving your vision and goals the more people can stand behind you. They will then be able to see that you do what you say you are going to do.

When you are not transparent about your needs or who you are there can be mixed messages, people don’t necessarily know what it is that you want or expect from them, and then they can’t live up to your expectations as they were never set. 

Being transparent is really about being authentic and genuine in who you are and sharing that with those around you. I believe this is a key component in building trust for it allows people to see the real you and truly interact with someone who is comfortable in their own skin. People will then respect you more because they know what you stand for and why. 

Are you being authentic in your interactions? Where, if at all, are you withholding information? How can you be acting in a way that “What you see is what you get?”

Stephen M. R. Covey continues his book by talking about 5 waves of trust with the first wave being Self-Trust. I really love this because it talks about the four core principles of integrity, intent, capabilities and results within self-trust so again it ties back to the idea of character and competence being the cornerstones of trust.

So what are these four core principles?

-Integrity - living in alignment with your core values
-Intent - having the intention of a win-win situation
-Capabilities - having the skills to get results
-Results - achieving the outcome we have promised

What really struck me about this first wave is that if you don’t have trust in yourself - in tying your actions and intentions to your values or in your own abilities to create results then it impacts every other relationship. If you can’t keep promises to yourself or act on your values (not just have good intentions but actually follow through on them), then you are undermining yourself and your abilities to make an impact on others. If you don’t trust yourself how can others trust in you?

As a leader you must be in alignment with who you are and show that you are capable of creating lasting results, otherwise people won’t follow you or trust you. 

In which of the four areas of self-trust (if any) do you need to work? Are you strong in integrity, capabilities and results, but your intent is not always win-win? Are you aligned in integrity, intent and capabilities, but you are not producing results? Without all four you can not make the impact that you need to make on your organization or client base. What can you do to increase your self-trust?

Trust. A word that underlies so much that happens in business, in organizations, in countries, and in life, and yet not that many people think about. It is a fundamental building block and according to Stephen M.R. Covey (the son of Stephen Covey) is “the key leadership competency of the new global economy.”

In a time where there were so many ethical lapses in judgment in the business world (with the financial crises) and moral lapses in judgment by politicians and now with the revolution in Egypt that has toppled Hosni Mubarak people are trusting themselves more than their leaders. They are looking to their leaders for character and integrity, but also the ability to get things done, and not necessarily seeing it. That is Stephen Covey’s definition of trust - a combination of character and competence. 

It was thought provoking to me to realize that trust is not just character, but really the ability to also get things done. It is one thing to have the intent to want to the do the right thing, but if you cannot actually get it done then you lose people’s trust. In Egypt’s case you could argue that Mubarak perhaps didn’t have either - character or competence - in the view of his people and that is why he got toppled. In the view of the US the people are pushing their leaders to get things done and truly help the economy and voting and voting again until they get the right people in place to get the job done. 

What are you doing in your organization? As a leader are you showing character and competence? If not, is it impacting your employees, your business, and/or your organization? If you need to increase trust would you work on character or competence?