The Importance of Trust
As a guest of Sunsuper and Kinetic Super, the Safety People Australia team recently attended the Gamechangers breakfast, and the topic of the day was the importance of trust.
The drawcard of the event was undoubtedly the guest speaker, Stephen M R Covey (*), who shared his insights on the importance of trust, and how to leverage it in your leadership and organisation to drive results. What can I say, the room was chockers!
Stephen opened his presentation with 3 big picture statements:
#1 Trust is an economic driver, not merely a social virtue
#2 Trust is the number 1 competency of leadership needed today
#3 Trust is a learnable skill
Stephen then talked through each of these claims, and was able to clearly demonstrate why these statements were undisputable facts, with significant implications for the profitability of organisations.
As an aside, I never imagined a day on which I would hear the phrases “operationalising trust” or “monetising trust” but how wrong I was. For someone who believes that trust first and foremost comes from a foundation of authenticity, I hadn’t really thought about an underlying process, nor had I ever really considered that a knowledge of this process could be highly lucrative. However, having had the opportunity to reflect, I can without doubt say that my personal career achievements have come from developing trust with colleagues and clients alike, and that there is an underlying process that I have adopted, whether it has been conscious or not.
Moving back to the topic, I can say that we covered A LOT of ground during the 2 hours, with a session that was absolutely jam packed with insights, statistics, humorous anecdotes and clear direction on the subject of trust. I almost feel like I could write a book about it (maybe it would be called The Speed of Trust, lol…). However, along with a very neat pack of Speed of Trust – Trust Action Cards (try and get your hands on these if you can!), the key takeaways for me were:
Trust is reciprocal – the message was clear: those who do not trust are unlikely to be trusted. Conversely, those that display trust are more likely to be trusted. In basic terms, you need to extend trust to inspire trust. Although what would appear to be a pretty simple message, it is often not the case, particularly in business. However, I now have no doubt that it is imperative to place trust in those you work with and / or do business with. Otherwise the outcome is almost inevitable, and it’s not good.
Trust relates to character and competence – Stephen then explained character in the sense that people need to have a clear understanding of your intent / agenda / motives / integrity, and competence with regards to how much people believe you can deliver on your promises or commitments. He further explained that if you only let people know what you’re going to do, but don’t include the ‘why’, there can be a question mark over your motives, which creates suspicion and diminishes trust. Similarly, if people don’t have faith in your abilities to execute, then there is a high probability that you are going nowhere with them. Ultimately, you need to listen, then speak, then most importantly, behave in accordance with what you’ve said both in terms of what you’re going to do, and why you’re going to do it.
In summary, trust is healthy, trust is good, and trust is absolutely critical if you want to succeed in business.
For those that would like to learn more, I would recommend you get a copy of The Speed of Trust by Stephen M R Covey, and if you ever get the chance to see him speak, GO!
(*) For those unaware, Stephen is the son of Stephen R Covey, esteemed author and probably best known for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
The Arnold Group Team.
