Subscribe to my Feed
« Did Food Network chef overseason his credentials? | Home | Senator Clinton, knock it off! »
Use Stephen M.R. Covey’s “The Speed of Trust” to rev up your business and personal relationships
By Lauren | February 24, 2008
If you’ve been concerned that your clients, customers and business associates seem reluctant to deal with you, the problem may be, to quote the old Billy Joel song, “a matter of trust.” Let’s face it - no matter how good your products and services might be, if people don’t trust you, they’ll drag their feet in doing business with you.
Stephen M.R. Covey’s new book, The Speed of Trust, provides a marvelous description of how trust “greases the wheels” in professional and personal relationships. As Covey (son of the Stephen Covey who brought us The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) explains, high trust speeds up business and lowers costs; low trust, by contrast, leads to slower transactions and higher costs.
For proof of Covey’s theory, you need look no further than the check-in line at the airport. Back in the days when people generally trusted travelers to harbor no illicit intent, it was possible to walk your granny down to the gate without once passing through a metal detector. In these post-9/11 days, even toddlers are required to take off their shoes and get screened. Guess which process was faster and less expensive?
I’d be the last person to criticize airports for taking appropriate security precautions. Still, wouldn’t it be nice if we could enhance trust in our other business relationships, thereby reducing the costs and increasing the efficiency of the business we do together? Covey says that we can, and faster than we think. The Speed of Trust offers a wealth of great advice on how to build and maintain trusting relationships, and how to restore trust after it’s been damaged. As an added bonus, Covey’s wisdom works as well in personal relationships as it does in professional ones.
If you’d like to benefit from Covey’s insights, check out The Speed of Trust. You’ll be glad you did!
Topics: Business Ethics |
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Hi Lauren, Greg Link here Stephen M. R. Covey’s business partner. Thanks for the shout out for Speed of Trust. Stephen loved your book Art of the Apology. I look forward to reading it. Thanks for advocating trust and joining us in sparking a Global renaissance of Trust.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the kind words, and I’m delighted that Stephen loved “The Art of the Apology.” Hope you enjoy it, too!
The renaissance of trust is crucial to our collective future. Let’s keep on it!
Lauren