Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. I'm going to ask you another question today, and I got something really fun I want to kind of share with you. What if the real problem that you have, what if the biggest thing slowing down your business isn't strategy, it's not talent, and it isn't even effort. What if the real problem is trust? See, most leaders think of trust as a soft skill, something nice to have, something, you know, cultural. But what if trust is actually one of the most powerful performance multipliers that you have? Today, I want to kind of share a powerful idea I had that I got from a deep dive interview I did with a global speaker, New York Times bestselling author, Stephen M.R. Covey. He's just an amazing guy. New York Times bestselling author of The Speed of Trust. He's the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which later merged with Franklin Quest to become Franklin Covey. He's a globally recognized authority on leadership, culture, organizational performance, son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, who wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. But, you know, when I had this conversation with him, It was clear to me, he didn't just inherit ideas. He earned them through his real leadership, real pressure, real world experience at the highest level. And when I had the opportunity to interview him on the Franklin Planner podcast, during that conversation, he shared some things with me, something that completely reframed how we should think about trust. He explained that trust isn't just emotional or rational. Trust is economic. I want you to really hear me when I say this. It directly impacts two things in every organization, every relationship, and every team. Speed and cost. Trust actually affects directly speed at which things happen and costs. Because when trust is low, everything slows down. Decisions take longer, communication breaks down, and costs go up. And when trust is high, the opposite happens. execution accelerates, collaboration improves, costs come down, because trust really becomes a multiplier. And the story he shares about how this realization came to life inside Franklin Covey is one every single leader should hear. I'm going to do this. Let me set this up for you. In this clip that I'm going to play with you, it's from the Franklin Planner podcast, and it's a piece of this interview where Stephen explains how trust became the turning point during the merger that actually formed Franklin Covey and why everything changed in this merger once trust increased. So I'm going to cue up this audio, listen to this carefully. I'm going to come back and share a few thoughts with you. Hey George, I'm doing great and I'm excited for a conversation. Yeah, this is difficult to get a gentleman of your caliber, and obviously long history and legacy, so I'm excited. We have a lot of great stuff to talk about. Just for everyone that's listening that might be new to even some of your books, let me give them a quick introduction and background on you, and then we can kind of dig into it. So for those of you listening, remember this, you know, the whole point of the podcast is to help you to lead your life, and we have someone that has a true legacy of timeless principles here with us. Stephen M. R. Covey is a global authority in leadership, also in trust and organizational performance. He's known for transforming individuals and companies by building credibility and accelerating the results. So as a number one Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Speed of Trust, which actually sold 2 million copies or more now, he's a great author, but he's also the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which is the largest leadership development firm in the world, as well as co-founder of Franklin Covey's Global Speed of Trust Practice. So as a global speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, governments, and high growth organizations, he has got quite a heavy pedigree, but he's also the son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, who we talk about all the time here on the podcast with Franklin Planner. So I'm really super excited to have you here. And I do appreciate you taking some time because I think we have some really good foundational stuff we can lay. So maybe what you could do for our listeners is lay a little bit of the foundation because you grew up, you know, around one of the most influential leader thinkers of our time. And so how did that upbringing and kind of your early career lead you to the stuff that we're talking about today on trust and leadership? Yeah, well, again, it's great to be with you, George. And of all the things you mentioned in the introduction. The thing that I'm most proud of, of course, is that I am the son, one of the children of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, and his influence has been profound on my life, both as a parent, but also really as a thought leader, including some of these principles that you talk about here on this Franklin Planner podcast of leading your life. And don't just prioritize your schedule, make sure you also schedule your priorities. Put those big rocks in first, because if you don't, then you'll get filled up with all kinds of other things. So this is kind of what I grew up with. It was all around me. And my dad used to always teach us kids the different principles in each of the seven habits. And we were the first guinea pigs, I like to say. He tried with us first. And if it worked with a bunch of kids, then it's going to work with other people and they were all taught individually before he put them all together where he teach begin with the end in mind as a separate principle and then he teach put first things first as a separate principle and then teach you know seek first to understand then to be understood that's habit five as a separate principle so we kind of grew up hearing the principles and learning them from from my dad and also my mom but then over time he put them together as seven habits and and um with this leading your life being really at the heart of it of the private victory and and um and so it's kind of what i what i grew up with and what i learned firsthand saw it modeled and and it was really extraordinary as i look back on it i'll just give you one quick insight of it one quick anecdote yeah he was trying to teach us kids the idea of begin with the end in mind and so he took us to a um uh to a building that was already built and you know there was all the whole family so there was five or six of us there and I remember being just maybe 10 or 11 at the time. And we got on top of this building. We got on the very top. He had an architect with him. And then he said, okay, kids, look down below. And we looked down from this building. It was like a 15-story building. And there was a big hole in the ground. And he said, you see that hole? um a year and a half from now there's going to be another building that's actually a couple stories taller than the one we're standing on now that building has already been built mentally on a blueprint and then he had his friend the architect there with a blueprint that you know showed us these plans he said so that building this is begin with the end in mind that there's right now we're standing on a building but there's a hole there but a year and a half from now you're going to see a building where there's a hole that building's already been built the end in mind has been built on this blueprint and then the next and then 18 months later we came back to that same site and we looked and there is the building now that's a couple stories higher than the one we were on and he said what did i tell you here it is you know and That was his way of teaching both begin with the end in mind, have it too, but then also put first things first. You carry out your plan. You carry out your blueprint, and you build it and create it. He did fun, practical things like that to teach us kids these foundational principles of time and life management and leadership. That's crazy because there's so many principles actually in that, right? He could have just told you about it. He could have even showed you a couple things. but to have the blueprints, to show before and after as well. But I can imagine that a lot of people that know these principles, they know them in a book, they know them as a system of habits, but they don't gain that perspective of it actually being a true principle that was learned and taught in the family and outside that and then put together. And it shows the timeless principles of how timeless they are, right? Absolutely. There are principles, so they apply everywhere, but they're timeless. They applied when I was a young 11-year-old hearing this story from my dad. They applied today, and they're going to apply in 50 years from now because they're universal principles that are timeless. You know, how we apply them can be timely. The timely application of timeless principles is the idea. And they are universal and they apply everywhere. So you had all of this backdrop and framework, and I'm sure many, many lessons, and I'm sure we'll hear some of the stories. What made you decide to sort of hyper-focus, I guess if that's what you'd call it, into this area of trust? And of that particular topic, you are now multiple author, very well known. And so I'm curious, was there a point at time that you kind of went down this path specifically, or did it just evolve over a period of time? A little bit of both. Honestly, it evolved in the sense that I was drawn to this kind of work, focusing on principles of leadership and human effectiveness. So I was drawn to that. But at first, it was a little daunting to, you know, when I got my dad, who wrote The Seven Habits, and he's this, you know, global thought leader of enormous stature. And I have his name. It's a little daunting, a little scary to do what he's doing. So I went down into the business side of it. And that's where I focused on learning how to sell and lead and manage. And then I ultimately became the president and CEO and ran the business, built the company to go all around the world. And that was really tapping into a lot of my strengths. But then at some point, though, when we did the merger of Covey Leadership Center with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey, two great organizations, fabulous people in both organizations, great values. but when we but we had been arch competitors oh that's crazy put us together and at first there was kind of lower trust not that we were bad people there were great people on both sides but we just been competing in the marketplace yeah and we're kind of almost at each other's throats for years and now we're combined and so the trust wasn't as high initially and and we began to see that without that trust nothing was happening and we you know we were kind of divided into camps kind of a we they and and that we needed to change that and get that and so um we began to work on building greater trust with each other in this merger to get the value of the merger and to create the synergies that we wanted and and as we began to focus on intentionally building trust we actually did remove the needle and the trust went up and when we built the trust suddenly everything changed we were more creative we're more innovative we're more collaborative we move faster less cost we started to get the the results that we were seeking with the merger the synergy and that was exciting and and so i kind of came away from that whole experience saying my goodness trust matters and it matters enormously we've always known it but I think we're underestimating how important trust is, maybe by a factor of 10, maybe by a factor of 100. It's that important because it changes everything. And the second insight was, and look, you can build trust on purpose. You can build it intentionally. You can get good at this. We just did. We went from low trust to high trust because we learned the behaviors. They helped build it. And I walked away from that whole experience saying, I think I just found what I want to talk about. I love it. I love it. And again, it changes everything. Yeah, it grew right out of a need, obviously, which is where some of the best principles grow out of. And it's interesting to me because especially right now in the marketplace, it's so crowded. It's so busy relationships, business and personal. And so trust is one of those things that cuts through the noise. But it may also be, and I'm sure you've found this over time, it may be something that seems very ambiguous to someone. So when you said it's something we can grow, and you've said in your books, measure and economically as well as measurements. Help me understand and help our listeners understand how you see trust, how you define trust in an individual and organization, and how it's possible to make it tangible or have it be something that's not just this ambiguous concept. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it starts first with kind of the overall framing to recognize that trust is not just a nice, soft, nice to have social virtue. It is a social virtue but it also a hard edged economic driver Here why Because it always impacts two outcomes speed and cost And when trust goes down in any relationship or team or culture you going to find that the speed goes down with it Everything's going to take you longer to do. And the cost goes up. Everything costs you more to do a lot more. Now that is a tax. It's a low trust tax. It's a wasted tax. Our distrust is very expensive so i just invite our listeners and viewers just just think about a person who you work with and who you don't trust yeah how long it takes to do anything yeah how everything slows down costs you more that's a tax it's very real it's playing out everywhere but the good news is the converse is equally real and when that trust goes up in the relationship on the team, in a company, in a culture, with clients, partners, customers, marketplace, when the trust goes up, the speed goes up with it. We can do everything faster, a whole lot faster. And the cost comes down. It costs us less, a lot less. And you can ultimately quantify this. Now that is a dividend, a high trust dividend. And so just kind of recognizing the economics of trust impacting speed and cost and then and then quantifying it with actual um data and then finding examples and stories and and more than anything i could just actually have people tied into their own experience when there's trust in a relationship or on a team or in a company when there's not trust in a relationship or on a team or in a company or between teams or with partners and the difference is so night and day, so stark. Suddenly you begin to reframe trust, not just as social, but also as economic, as a performance multiplier and as an accelerator. So that's the first thing is kind of framing trust for what it really is, a performance multiplier and accelerator, always impacting speed and cost. Yeah, I think, and that's an amazing way to get people to change their paradigm how they see it, right? Because at the end of the day, when you can see for sure speed, I mean, this whole economy, marketplace, lives that we live now are all built around speed, but trust seems to go down because we're moving so fast, we're not thinking about it. But when you see it as speed and cost and the economics of things, I think whether it's an individual team or whether it's a relationship or at an organizational level, there is now something tangible people can actually see how it's impacting you to not have it and your example of the two companies coming together is a very tangible example i think that's it happens i think in a lot of business nowadays things are moving towards collaboration versus competition and and trust is at the center of that it sounds like it really is the foundation of collaboration of partnership if you don't trust each other you're not collaborating yeah you might be coordinating yeah which is fine but you know your performance is nowhere near potential but real creative collaboration innovative collaboration um you know that requires trust and and and real partnership requires trust so it's the heart of what needs to happen today and the data on this is overwhelming i just cite um two studies one is uh watson wyatt that shows that high trust organizations outperform low trust organizations by 286%. Wow. In total return to shareholders, nearly three times higher because they get far greater speed, far lower costs. And ultimately you can monetize that and you can quantify it. Another study shows a very similar thing done by the great place to work Institute, where they measure those hundred best companies to work for. And, and to be on that list, you have to have high trust is actually two thirds. the criteria. Oh, wow. Because the idea is that what is the defining characteristic of a great place to work is mutual trust, where employees trust management, management trust employees. It is a symbiotic process. Well, those organizations in a 27-year study that they continue every year outperform the market by 350 percent. Wow. Three and a half times higher. So I look at it this way. High trust is a performance multiplier of about 3x. Wow. Whereas low trust is a destructive tax that diminishes, dilutes you at every gate. So getting good at trust has economic value. Yeah. As well as all the social outcome, the positive, what it does to energy and to joy and to well-being. It's a better culture to have trust. People are happier. It's more fun. And they have greater well-being. That matters. But it's the business case that often gets people's attention. And they can get better performance and outcomes. And it's really both. The economics and the culture, the well-being, the energy and joy. Yeah, it's interesting how the economics do get a lot of attention. But whatever it takes, the bottom line is I think a lot of people don't realize, and through this conversation, the impact it may be having, whether you consciously think I want to do something about building trust in my organization or unconsciously don't, it's happening. It's either taking away from your organization or slowing your organization regardless. And so whether you intentionally build a foundation of trust in your company or you have it as just some esoteric identity that you want to have, I think that it's definitely impacting organizations whether they like it or not. Wouldn't you agree? Absolutely. These principles are operating. Whether you like it or not, whether you're aware of it or not, they're operating there. And if we're behaving in ways that cause trust to go down, then we will pay a tax. And it doesn't show up conveniently on the income statement as low trust tax, but it's in there. It's in there in the form of redundancy, bureaucracy, and disengagement of people, turnover of people, churn, customer fraud, all kinds of ways. It's in there. and and um and once you start to look at it i call it putting on the trust glasses yeah you know i i went fly fishing on a river and and um and it was uh there were fish everywhere my guide said there's fish everywhere but he was wearing polarized sunglasses i didn't have any so i couldn't see the fish i just saw the river and then he said here put these on so i put on the polarized glasses and suddenly I could see the fish and they were everywhere. They were all around me. Now, the interesting point, and this is true to what you just said, the fish were there all along. I just couldn't see them until I put on the glasses. Wow. I couldn't see them. It didn't mean that they weren't there. No, they were always there. But it took me putting on the glasses to see, to recognize what really was happening. I like to say a similar thing. Put on the trash glasses. Yeah. Because it's happening whether you can see it or not. It's there. And if you can become aware of it, conscious about it, if you can see it, then suddenly you're inspired to want to work on it and to take steps to build that trust because you recognize it's impacting everything. So I like to give people a pair of trust-lap. That's a great example. Oh, man, I love that. That's a great analogy, and it's a great example because people can relate. It's there all along. So I'm curious, what is, and you can kind of go whichever direction you want with this question, but what is the way that you begin to build high value trust? And maybe this leads you into your five waves of trust. But at the end of the day, I would love for you to kind of break down for our listeners or our watchers on YouTube. What is it that you feel like it takes to begin to build this high level of trust? yeah trust always begins from the inside out as opposed to outside in so inside out means i look in the mirror i start with myself outside in i look out the window and everybody else and point the finger and say they need to change you know he needs to change he needs to change they do and the system the structure that might be true that people need to change but how we're going to bring it about how we're going to develop it grow it transform it just always start from the inside and then move out so inside out and so i use a metaphor of a ripple effect where you know you got the drop of water coming down and then it hits and then the ripples the waves they start at the inside and they ripple out so the very first wave of trust where it all begins is self-trust that's you know do I trust myself and do I give to my team my my partners a person who they can trust is it smart to trust me so I start with myself self-trust and both the trust I have in myself and the trust others have in me but then I ripple out into my relationships that's the second wave one by one and there you build that relationship trust but you can see why you got to start with yourself because if you don't trust yourself you're going to project that distrust onto others into relationships so start with self then relationships then it ripples out in the next wave which is our team trust and i can broaden the team to multiple teams and even to an organization so team slash organizational trust now this is going from me to me and another and several others to me and an organized entity a team an organization and so that team and organizational trust is the next wave that we focus on building the trust there we then move to the fourth wave which is now marketplace trust you know customer trust stakeholder trust building that trust externally outside of the organization the first three waves were building it internally inside of the organization and then we move from that fourth wave from the customer and market trust to societal trust building trust in communities and all society and we ultimately want to ripple out to that because that matters too yeah and so so uh you know we look at right now it's a low trust world we're operating in so at the societal level there's low trust everywhere and if we say well look until that changes we can't build trust we'll be waiting a long time yeah taking action on this but instead if we go inside out and say I'm gonna look in the mirror and I'm gonna ripple out first starting with myself I'm gonna become a leader who people can trust I'm gonna build that trust one-on-one in relationships and I'm gonna build it on my team and then between teams that we interact with and then an organization then we'll ripple it out to our customers and partners and then we'll ripple it out to all society so diagnosed from the outside in but change develop from the inside out form from the inside out well that's got to be it's got to be very powerful for or empowering for people to feel because a lot of people see trust as do i trust them or can they trust me but they don't start from the inside so i think that's very empowering for people to think hey listen your level of influence and trust comes from the inside out and so from an individual level it seems like the most logical place to start especially if you're dealing, even if let's say there's a lot of people that are dealing with people in their workplace they don't trust, people in their relationships or in their life they don't trust, they generally will start to focus on that first. But what you're saying is it comes from the inside out. Yeah. And again, I'm not naive and blind to the fact that you may not trust that person and that person may not be trustworthy and have problems. But But the better way to do something about it, impact that, change that, solve it, is not to just point the finger and say, hey, you're the problem. And until you change, we're never going to build any trust around here. That might be true that they need to change. But the way we'll influence that, help it come about, let's model. Let's go first. Let's look in the mirror. How credible am I? How trustworthy am I? am I not only trustworthy, but am I also trusting, willing to give that trust to extend it? And by going inside out, you just have greater impact, not only on others, but also even on yourself. And like you say, it's empowering to say, I don't have to wait on everybody else. And so I'll give you just a quick example of this where I worked with an organization that they were doing, they were okay on trust. They weren't great. They weren't horrible. but we worked with a leader inside of her team and and and rather than pointing the finger I'm saying well we're gonna need the boss to change and this and that this leader just took the initiative of the responsibility to say I'm gonna lead out with this and she modeled it she modeled the behavior that built trust she modeled the credibility and she built it one-on-one then she built it on her team and her team became a high-trust team and they began to interact with other teams but in a different way than they ever had before because they built such high trust and it became part of how they viewed the world in interactions as they collaborated and partnered with other teams internally and it began to impact these other teams of saying hey what are you doing because this is great this is working you're great to work with they saw it and then they saw it and then they also the engagement scores their her engagement scores were off the charts. So her performance was high, her engagement was high. People loved working with that team because they were so good to work with they built trust They started to ask about it And these other teams would start to ask about it What are you doing well we learned how to build trust could you teach us how they began to teach them and they began their own inside out five-way process of starting with their teams and it ultimately spread from this one team to multiple teams and then ultimately those teams spread it up to their leader because their leader began to see that the the you know the power of this they saw it in the performance of this um this individualist team but also the impact they were having on other teams and people came to the leader and said we need this for the whole company ultimately long story made short is that the leader said we need this for the whole company and they took speed of trust to 45 000 people and gave them a common framework language and process And some of them might say, well, I wish we had a CEO like that. They had the vision. And I said, it didn't start with him. It didn't start with him. Yeah. It started with this person working in her circle of influence and rippling out and then up. And ultimately, it went impacted everyone. So don't underestimate the power of modeling this from the inside out to impact not only you and your team, but also other teams. and ultimately even perhaps an entire organization. Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, the obvious is that people say, listen, you know, trust is something you can work on on an internal, personal level. But for individuals, even trying to lead their life, you know, how does there's this self-trust piece that's starting, right? How do individuals trying to lead their life, how does building credibility with yourself, your habits, your commitments, your values translate into greater confidence and productivity and things as well. Because I would imagine a lot of people dealing with a lot of things right now that want to influence their teams and organizations, but on a personal level, that lack of self-trust, that's got to really manifest in a lot of areas in your life as well, right? As an individual level? It ultimately manifests in every area. And especially right now with all the change and disruption hitting us and AI and all these things, it's really important that we have a sense of clarity and a sense of changelessness in the midst of all this change. And that's what self-trust can do. It's so powerful. So I'll never forget this. One time I gave a presentation on the speed of trust, and at a break, I'd just done the five waves of trust. At a break, someone came up to me and said, hey Stephen this is really helpful because look let me just talk openly with you and then he kind of pulled me aside there you go no one was hearing he goes I'm not happy with my life I'm not where I thought I'd be I thought I'd be in a different place in my career I thought I'd be a different place in my family I'm not and I realized now when you put up the five waves and this ripple effect this inside out approach I realize what my problem is he said I've been blaming everyone my whole life I've you know my first job I can't trust my boss so I get another boss can't trust this boss so I leave the company go to another company can't trust that boss can't trust the management can't trust this my whole life I've been pointing the finger I can't trust anyone and then I go home and I can't trust my kids can't trust my spouse can't trust my neighbors when you put up the five ways I realized what my problem is and then he kind of made sure no one was looking he said Stephen I don't trust myself. Oh, wow. I don't trust myself. And I realize I'm now, I now realize I'm projecting that distrust of myself out onto everybody else. So what do I do? And my advice was I would focus on starting by learning to make and keep commitments to yourself. See, it's interesting, George. there's behaviors that build trust i talk about 13 behaviors that build trust the the research shows the number one behavior is to keep commitments with another person making keep commitments so you make a commitment you keep a commitment with another and the trust goes up you make another commitment you keep it repeat that process make keep repeat make keep repeat you can build trust with others very fast that way well guess what that's also the fastest way to build it with yourself yeah we often don't treat a commitment to ourself with the same respect that we treat a commitment to somebody else and we over promise and under deliver to ourselves we say yeah i'm gonna get up at you know at five tomorrow to go exercise and then the alarm goes off we turn it off go back to sleep you know little things little things learn to make and keep commitments to yourself and as you do that a greater sense of integrity clarity and power starts to come to you. I like how Admiral William McRaven, commander of special operations. And, and I worked with him when he was there. And, and, you know, elite fighting forces. And then when he retired, he became the chancellor of the university of Texas system. And he gives this commencement address that goes viral. And he said, graduates, you know, college graduates now graduates, if you want to change the world, make your bed. I know isn't that crazy that's amazing yeah this whole idea is start with a small commitment that you can make and keep to yourself and then keep it at all costs and then go from that commitment to the next commitment to the next commitment what happens is your sense of clarity of integrity of power begins to grow that self-trust grows and when that's in place that you trust yourself because you're a person of character you're a person of competence and you focus on your character and your competence your credibility, then your sense of clarity and power grows with that. And then you begin to build trust with others and in relationships on teams and cultures. But it's always inside out. And it starts with our self-trust, which is really our credibility, our character, our competence focused there. The best behavior in order to do it, learning to make and keep commitments to ourselves. Yeah, and it's amazing to me how much we tend to underestimate the power of little things, and we're overwhelmed by the big things. And so these little commitments to ourself make such a big difference. So tell me from your perspective, from your teachings and trainings, what are ways that people tend to break trust? Because I think that's another perspective to look at where we might be dealing with struggling with things on our teams or in our lives. But if there's things that we're doing that are breaking down trust, those behaviors, which of those have you found to be the most common? And what were your thoughts on that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, as I mentioned, I've identified 13 high trust behaviors. And there's research and data behind all 13 and how they work collectively and individually. And these are straightforward things like talk straight, demonstrate respect, create transparency. I phrased them in two-word expressions for simplicity and clarity. Clarify expectations, practice accountability, listen first, keep commitments, extend trust. So kind of straightforward in a very real sense, they're almost common sense behaviors. yeah i think in there that probably surprised you these are you know you talk straight you demonstrate respect yeah of course that will build trust so the behavior is common sense but it's not common practice here's what i find is is more common practice see so i'll use i'll use talk straight as an example the authentic trust building behavior means i tell the truth that's what talk straight means i tell the truth i i use simple language i'm honest i call things but they are i'm candid candor is the language of trust so telling the truth builds trust now the opposite of that behavior the opposite of talking straight the opposite of telling the truth is to lie and that's kind of self-evident that lying not going to work at least not in the long run you because you might get away with it up front but you can't over time and so the opposite line will destroy trust that's self-evident here's what i think is the more the bigger challenge it's what i call the counterfeit behavior see counterfeit behavior is kind of like counterfeit money it looks real might even work but it comes at a price trust goes down so the counterfeit behavior is not the line that's the opposite the counterfeit is the spin uh embellishment and the twisting and posturing and exaggerating rationalizing rationalizing and and it's where you tell people what they want to hear you know versus what the truth is and and i just was with a group two days ago in investment banking and their whole approach is we don't tell you what you want to hear you may not want to hear what we tell you but you can trust what we tell you because it'll be true and and and and so it's the spin it's that counterfeit that trips us up even more than the opposite the line because it's kind of self-evident the line's not going to work in the long run yeah but the spin and it might even work in the short term but it actually will count work against you right in the long term yeah it might work you might get away with it but when everyone's spinning you're paying a tax the spin tax at every gate and and and people don't believe what they're hearing from you they're they're saying okay well this is coming from steven or from george and if we're spinning and we get a reputation that we always spin then they they hear it they say well i'm not quite sure i believe it though because they see our track record they know that we always we always embellish exaggerate sugarcoat versus i tell the truth and i call things yeah it's interesting go ahead finish no i just didn't say with all 13 it's a similar thing practice accountability means I take responsibility. The opposite, I say, not my fault. The counterfeit, I point the finger and blame others. It's their fault. And create transparency. I'm open. I let people see in. The opposite, I obscure the counterfeit. I have hidden agendas, hidden objectives, hidden motives. So I really think it's the counterfeit behavior is what trips most of us up because most of us are not bad people trying to do bad things no we're good people but oftentimes we can be caught in a culture of counterfeit behavior where everyone is sugar coating spinning or finger pointing blaming or you know or bad or you know sweet talking people to their face and then band mapping behind their back instead of speaking about people as if they were present and so forth that's the idea that's yeah this up i'm glad you made that distinction because i think in today's world of social media and influencers the buzzwords of be real and authentic and raw are thrown out there not with this true filter of trust involved because i think being raw and speaking what's on your mind is different than you know telling the truth uh you know, candor and things like these. And so I love the idea of and I love what you said with, you know, these are common sense things. They're just not common practice. And when you don't practice these, they will come back to to stunt your growth, make you unhappy, unfulfilled. This is why many of the challenges our listeners are facing, a lot of them, no matter what it is, depression, anxiety, self, you know, worth, confidence can come back to this inner trust wave, the first starting point at some level, whether it's individually or with teams or organizations and others. I do. I wanted to ask you one question, because I think on a tangible level, there are a lot of leaders listening to this and that we work with at Franklin Planner that they say things like, and you've probably heard this a million times, you know, it's hard for me to delegate and give trust because I want to make sure it gets done right. I, you know, and sometimes I'm afraid that will impact me and my organization. And so what do you say to someone like that where they sort of fear that extending trust will hurt them yeah two things first you you do acknowledge that to trust is to take a risk but also be aware of this not to trust is also to take a risk and in today's world where we've got to move fast, where we need to attract talent and retain it and inspire people, or else they'll leave and go elsewhere, they have choices, they have options. With these younger generations coming up that don't want to be commanded and controlled in how they do things, to not trust, I think, is becoming the greater risk. So you acknowledge that, yeah, it's a risk to trust, but the risk of not trusting is perhaps greater. But then you want to mitigate that risk by saying, what if we extend smart trust? Not a blind trust that's just indiscriminate, just trust everyone and everyone, but a smart trust that blends my propensity to trust flowing from my heart with my analysis and assessment flowing from my head about what am I extending trust on? What's the risk involved? What's the credibility of the people involved? And then I kind of tailor it to the person, to the context, to the situation. So it's not I trust everyone all the same and everything. No, it's I'm trying to extend as much trust as I can to this group or to this person. And given this context this risk situation their credibility where they at I can go further or maybe not quite as far yet But I want to I want to get farther so i start them here and i say hey i going to extend this trust to you and i'll extend more and more to you as you show you develop these capabilities because i got my goal is to extend abundant trust to you so i move them along and continue them help them do more and so it's not a blind trust it's a smart trust um but also i would say this see this is three of the behaviors three of the 13 extend trust is which is what we're doing but then do it with two other behaviors as part of that extension of trust and that is clarifying expectations and practice accountability so what i do is i build an agreement together with the person around the trust being extended saying look i'm going to trust you to lead this team or to lead this project or to to work from home or to do this. So let's go over the expectations around desired results, outcomes, you know, and, and I'm trying to delegate outcomes, not methods. So let them be creative, but, but, you know, because otherwise they could fall into the activity trap where I said, Hey, I did what you told me to do. It didn't work. I'm not responsible. You are, you know, no, I want to delegate outcomes. You know, uh, what, what is it that we're after results outcomes and then i have guidelines within what limits you know um you know what what are the parameters so that people don't draw way outside the line and get us in trouble yeah and then i talk about resources what do you have to work with you know the financial people that can help you achieve it but i'm really empowering them around here's the results we want to get, but then we also, let's clarify expectations around the outcomes and, and the parameters and the resources. But then we add the second behavior to go with that, which is, and agree to a process of accountability against those expectations of how they'll report back on how they're doing against this. And what are the implications of achieving or not achieving the results. And that way the person feels empowered. They feel trusted. But you as a leader have not lost control. You shift control from you having to hover over and micromanage them to the agreement, the control is built by doing it that way, right? A lot more trust because when you trust people, they trust you back. Yeah, when you don't trust people, they tend to not trust you too. So by building this agreement with the person, you So if you involve them in the agreement, you build it together. So rather than dictate the agreement, here it is. I'm going to judge you. Let's build this together. So there's buy-in. There's commitment. And then in the accountability, have them lead out in reporting back to you on how they're doing on an agreed-upon timeline versus you just trying to micromanage what might appear as arbitrary versus agreed-upon. and that way they feel trusted, not micromanaged, but you as a leader have not lost control. Yeah, and you still have maintained some level of control for yourself. I think it does. It goes right back to this communication and candor that you're talking about. Instead of just doing things, when you open up a dialogue and you talk about the fear of the risk that may be taken, but you can set the parameters, communicate it, and have accountability. Well, I tell you, oh, man, you probably noticed So I was scribbling down a ton of notes and questions. And we could go all day, but I know we both have a very tight schedule here. So I want to get to this last question for you because I want to respect your time. And we had kind of a hard stop. From an individual basis, Franklin Planner's mission, Franklin Planner's mission overall is to help people lead their life, whether it's a team or an individual level. And so with regards to this amazing notion of it starts with you, Could you recommend two or three daily actions or things that could dramatically help increase the trust that people are experiencing but also having with themselves? You probably have your own daily rituals or habits, but these are things a lot of times at the end of our podcast we'll leave our listeners with a challenge. Maybe there's something like that. But what would you recommend for individuals listening to this episode in order to be able to build high trust in their life, which will definitely impact them? yeah great here's three things you can do right away first focus on yourself focus on your credibility and your behavior and identify high leverage behaviors where maybe you could get better at and that could be keeping commitments it could be clarified expectations it could be listening first but the whole idea is that trust is built from the inside out but how through your credibility and through your behavior. And behavior is really practical and tangible. So you can say, you know what, I'm going to make sure that I'm always going to be more transparent. Transparency builds trust, creating transparency. So I'm going to be open and transparent in what I'm doing. Or I'm going to focus on really clarifying expectations with my team so that it doesn't feel arbitrary or capricious that I'm coming in later. I got to get better at that. Or I'm going to work on listening first because I too often listen with the intent to reply, not with the intent to understand. So I'd identify, you know, my first step would be focus on yourself by identifying a behavior or two that you could work. You could take it from the 13. So you could Google the 13 behaviors of high trust leaders and say, you know what, you're going to get these instantly. They're intuitive. They're self-evident. They're common sense. Make it common practice. Get really good at a couple of those that you say, this would be high leverage for me. That'd be the first step. Here's a second thing. Get really good at declaring your intent. That means that you share not only what you're doing, but share why you're doing it. Always give the why behind the what, because when you do that, people will interpret you differently they'll see you differently so if you if you need to talk straight to someone and tell them hard news make sure up front you say hey my intent here is to help not to hurt and you know and so i'm trying to say i'm giving context to what my agenda is what my motive is it's not a hidden agenda it's an open agenda i'm transparent there's nothing to hide Transparency builds trust. Authenticity, vulnerability builds trust. So a great practice of being vulnerable, being transparent, is to declare your intent, meaning give the why. Here's my agenda. Here's my motive. It's not a hidden agenda. It's an open agenda. Team, here's what we're trying to do. Here's why we're trying to do it. Love it. When you give the why, people interpret you differently. They'll see you differently. When you don't give the why, when you don't declare your intent, people will ascribe intent to you anyways. Yes. They'll do it for their vantage point, and often it's fear-based. I wonder if they're bringing this in because they want to replace us with AI. They start to bring things, you know, they start to read things into it out of fear. And at best, it'd be guessing. My rule, no guessing. To declare your intent. Yes. And finally, third step. So the first step was, you know, you model the behavior, you become more trustworthy. But this last step, I'm going to say, not only be trustworthy, focus on being more trusting. Find ways to extend more trust, where you can lead out in extending more trust to others. Why? Because when people are trusted, they tend to be inspired by it. and they rise to the occasion. They perform better and they grow and develop so that you'll get better results, better outcomes. You'll grow the person more and guess what else? They reciprocate and return and give it back to you. And so, again, I'm not saying to blindly go out and trust everyone. No, target it. But find ways that you can extend more trust to people as a means of both performing better and developing the person. they'll perform better which helps you perform better but also developing the person they grow and develop they can perform better in the future because of that but also they trust you more because you've trusted them you went first and not only being trustworthy but also in being trusting and we need leaders to do both someone needs to go first leaders go first they go first to lead in their life which is what the frame of planner is all about and they go first in being trustworthy and in being trusting. We need to do both. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Identify the behavior, declare your intent, and be more trusting. I think that's amazing ways for people to be able to focus on doing this. Now, one of the things I want to do in this, so if you're listening to this, I will put links in the show notes to Stephen's book so that you've got that and some notes on the things that we had here. I'm also going to get them links to be able to connect with you because I think that would be helpful for them to learn and grow and get more additional. But once again, I just want to express my gratitude for you taking time, not just because of your background and your amazing content, but your ability to interact and your true desire to help individuals and like our mission, lead their life and lead their life with more trust comes back to a more fulfilling life as well. So I appreciate you being here. Absolutely. I'm excited to be here, george and and i love your focus on really what the end goal of what you're doing with franklin planner is lead your life i remember we had an early statement where we would say this why just manage your time when you can lead your life yeah i'm not again we need good time management that is an important principle but the broader principle the overarching principle is leading your life, which includes good time management. So that we, we, we, you know, prioritize our schedules and we schedule our priorities. So good time management is part of it, but the broader, the, the, the overriding, the, the meta principle is lead your life. And that's beautiful what you're doing. And, and I think that trust is the foundation of a life well led, that you trust yourself. You start with that. You will lead your life so much better, which will then help you lead your relationships and your team, your organization, and have an impact on all society. Wow. Beautifully put. Beautifully put. Well, listen, if you're listening to this episode, do us a favor, share the episode. And just remember, no matter where you're at, what you're doing, it's never too late to start living the life you're meant to live and creating the life that is going to be your best life. And so we appreciate you spending time here today with Stephen M. R. Covey. I'm George Wright III, your host. Have an amazing day, and we'll talk with you soon. Okay, that was a pretty powerful insight, wasn't it? You know, Stephen M. R. Covey makes it clear trust is either a tax or it's a dividend. Low trust silently taxes your organization. High trust quietly compounds your results. And what really stood out to me is this idea. You know, trust isn't vague. It isn't mysterious. It can be built intentionally. And when trust goes up, you see a direct correlation to speed increasing, cost decreasing, creativity expanding, and collaboration also becomes super real. That's true in your leadership. It's true in your teams. It's going to apply to your families, partnerships, and even your organizations. And if you've ever wondered why things feel harder than they should, why progress feels slower than it needs to be, maybe trust might be that hidden variable that you haven't thought about. So what you just heard is only just a small moment from a much deeper conversation and more impactful conversation that I had. If you want to hear more, some of the things he talks about is the full origin of the Speed of trust book, how trust directly drives performance and results, and how leaders can build trust deliberately, not accidentally. I highly encourage you to go check out the full interview with Stephen M. R. Covey on the Franklin Planner Podcast. I'm going to put the link in the show notes, and you can find it right now pretty much on any platform. But as you move throughout your day, here's the question I'm going to leave you with. Where in your life or in your business would things move faster if trust was higher? Where would things move faster if trust was higher? That's my message for today. I hope you enjoyed that. I'm really looking forward to sharing some things with you over the coming weeks. We're rebranding and we're going to be launching some amazing content with The Daily Mastermind. And once again, super, super grateful for you listening. We have been climbing the charts. We're making a positive impact. We want to build a massive mastermind that will help everyone increase and grow in their mind, money, body, business, lifestyle. And just remember this, I'll leave you with this thought. You know, you were meant to have your best life and it's never too late to start living the life that you were meant to live, but you've got to take action. I'm going to challenge you to reach out to me and let me know what you're working on. Let me know what you're struggling with. Let me know what you're winning at. I want to celebrate the wins with you. And, uh, and I hope to hear from you soon. My name is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a great day.
