Stephen M. R. Covey: Trust & Inspire

Best-selling author Stephen M. R. Covey is the former president and CEO of The Covey Leadership Center, where he increased shareholder value by 67 times. Through his methods, he led The Covey Leadership Center to be the #1 leadership group in the world. He’s a Harvard MBA, who founded and currently leads Franklin Covey’s global speed of trust practice.“I saw firsthand the high cost of low trust,” [7:40] says Stephen. He points out the toxicity of a low-trust environment from his own personal experience: “We became aware that we need to build trust with each other intentionally.” [8:00]“Trust matters. It impacts everything.” [9:50] As Stephen says, trust is a performance multiplier and a leadership creator. It impacts organizations at virtually every level, creating benefits big, small, and everywhere in between. “My work on trust is ten times better because I also experienced the negative side. I experienced what it was like to not be trusted and to have a low-trust culture,” [12:05] Stephen says. His book isn’t just based on theory: Stephen has experienced low-trust work environments, and he’s seen firsthand how that quality can cripple an organization. “The world has changed but our style of leadership has not.” [13:03] One of the man great insights that Stephen provides is the world’s need for a new style of leadership.“This is not just a book on trust. This is a book on a new kind of leadership that is needed to succeed in our world today.” [14:41] It’s important to remember that Stephen’s book isn’t just about the idea of trust, or even the idea of trust in the workplace. The book can be applied to every aspect of your life. Stephen emphasizes the importance of elevating caring above competing. In business, it’s easy to fall into the trap of scarcity. But Stephen believes in an abundance mentality, and discusses how this can create trust in an organization. Stephen pointed to Satya Nadella as an example of a trust hero. He describes how Nadella changed Microsoft from a company on the decline to an innovative leader in their industry. “We need to become more trusting in our world, not less,” [37:45] says Stephen. There are a lot of doubters, saying that there’s too much risk in trusting. But Stephen always concludes that we need more trust, and that there’s some risk involved in trusting people, but there’s more risk in not trusting people.ResourcesFrom Boss to Leader: https://www.marcelschwantes.com/Trust and Inspire Book: www.trustandinspire.comStephen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-m-r-covey-6400191a5/Stephen on Twitter: ​​https://twitter.com/stephenmrcovey