A few years ago I read a book by Stephen M.R. Covey called The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything. Covey's insights gave me some practical ideas to better discuss the concept of organizational trust with my clients. One of my takeaways was simply a way to describe how you created trust. He said that you built trust by demonstrating your competence (delivering on-time results, utilizing simple processes, etc.) and character (living your values, treating others with respect, etc.) Viewed differently, if trust were a tree, character would be the roots that kept you grounded and competence would be the trunk and branches evident to all.

Conversely, of course, you destroy trust when displaying poor character or incompetence. Perhaps most helpful was a simple and powerful formula he shared to describe the impact of trust. He said that when trust is high, speed increases, and costs decrease. The inverse is also true: when trust is low, speed decreases, and costs increase. Stating this as an equation: A good application of this formula is what happened to our experience in airports after 9/11. As a result of decreased trust, it took longer to get through the terminal and cost more due to the increased security. Can you think of ways that you can apply this formula to your personal and professional relationships?