Covey’s Speed of Trust 10: 2nd Wave—Relationship Trust

We continue our series reviewing Stephen M. R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust. I encourage you to buy the book and study it multiple times.

Once you establish or reestablish self-trust (trusting yourself and others trusting you), you move to the second wave of trust: relationship trust. Covey writes “The Second Wave—Relationship Trust—is all about behavior…consistent behavior. It’s about learning how to interact with others in ways that increase trust and avoid interacting in ways that destroy it.”

Relationship Trust

Covey continues “More specifically, it’s about the 13 Behaviors that are common to high-trust leaders and people throughout the world. These behaviors are powerful because:

• They are based on principles that govern trusting relationships…
• They grow out of the 4 cores…
• They are actionable…
• They are universal…”

The author highlights the need to “If you’re not a caring person now—but you desire to be a caring person—then go out and behave in caring ways. If you’re not an honest person—but you desire to be honest—then go out and behave in honest ways. Just do what caring and honest people do. It may take time, but as you do these things, you can behave yourself into the kind of person you want to be.

Build Trust Accounts

Once again I quote Covey “As you work on behaving in ways that build trust, one helpful way to visualize and quantify your efforts is by thinking in terms of “Trust Accounts.”…By behaving in ways that build trust, you make deposits. By behaving in ways that destroy trust, you make withdrawals. The “balance” in the account reflects the amount of trust in the relationship at any given time.

The 13 Behaviors

He says '”I can promise you that these 13 Behaviors will significantly enhance your ability to establish trust in all relationships—both personal and professional:

1. Talk Straight
2. Demonstrate Respect
3. Create Transparency
4. Right Wrongs
5. Show Loyalty
6. Deliver Results
7. Get Better
8. Confront Reality
9. Clarify Expectations
10. Practice Accountability
11. Listen First
12. Keep Commitments
13. Extend Trust

We’ll review the behaviors in the next few posts.

Wednesday focuses on 2 behaviors of relationship trust—talk straight & demonstrate respect