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The Speed of Trust: the one thing that changes everything by Stephen M. R. Covey; Rebecca R. Merrill (As told to)
Available in Print, AudioCD, E-Book, E-Audiobook (Libby App)
Stephen M.R. Covey shows how trust--and the speed at which it is established with clients and, employees--is essential to a successful organization. Stephen M.R. Covey defines trust and its importance in leadership vs. management and it's place in organizational culture.
A Few Key Points
Related Readings - Articles
Why Trust Improves Both Ethics and Returns Interview (2007).pdf
Trust Is the New Leadership Test (2021).pdf
Trust is a Competency Covey (2008).pdf
Economics of Trust by Covey (2009).pdf
Building Trust by Covey 2009.pdf
Moderator or Mediator Role of Trust Leadership Paradigm (2011) 17p.pdf
Long View Stephen M.R. Covey Interview (2009).pdf
If Employees Don’t Trust You It’s Up to You to Fix It (2017).pdf
How to Build a Company That (Actually) Values Integrity (2020).pdf
Related Reading - Academic Articles
Four Essential Practices for Building Trust (educational leaders) (2015).pdf
Exploring Trust Dialogue and Empowerment in Servant Leadership (2019).pdf
Does authentic leadership employee work engagement trust (2015) 20p.pdf
Leadership in Turbulent Times by We all have suffered through unforgettably bad bosses, but incredible leaders evoke some of our best memories. Perhaps they were mentors, friends, or confidantes. Something about them motivated us. We wanted to work harder and better for them. We felt guilty if we did not give them our best effort. But, how did they inspire us? Can we identify a trait that made them so different?
We may not know how to explain it, but something in their leadership drew us to them. In today’s terminology, our best leaders probably would be referred to as transformational. Transformational leaders do not rely on “carrots” or “sticks” to get their followers to accomplish the mission. They do not lead through fear and intimidation, but, rather, by respect and compassion. Instead of telling us what to do, they allow us to figure things out on our own. A transformational leader can empathize with us, knowing when to offer encouraging words, as well as when to give us a firm push. Often, these leaders engage in small, subtle, yet powerful gestures that show us how much they care.
Qualities of Transformational Leaders
There are four key components of transformational leadership, also known as the four I's. These consist of:
Intellectual stimulation - a transformational leader challenges followers to be innovative and creative. (outside-the-box thinking)
Individualized consideration - a transformational leader demonstrates genuine concern for the needs and feelings of followers.(compassion)
Inspirational motivation - a transformational leader has the ability to inspire and motivate followers. (excited masses, shared vision)
Idealized influence - a transformational leader serves as a role model for followers and truly "walks the talk." (actions speak louder than words)
When a leader is able to perform each component, serving as a role model, encourager, innovator, and coach all at once, they will transform those around them into better, more productive, and more successful individuals.
Being able to achieve this can be easier said than done, and requires both the possession of innate characteristics associated with transformational leadership and commitment to the guiding principles of this leadership style. To meet these four components, a transformational leader must be someone who:
Empowers followers to do what is best for the organization
Is a strong role model with high values
Listens to all viewpoints to develop a spirit of cooperation
Creates a vision, using people in the organization
Acts as a change agent within the organization by setting an example of how to initiate and implement change
Helps the organization by helping others contribute to the organization
There are so many different leadership styles that you might be wondering why you should focus on transformational leadership instead of another style.
Research shows that groups led by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders. This is because transformational leaders believe in their followers: they know they can do their best, which leads members of the group to feel inspired, motivated, and empowered.
Similarly, transformational leadership often leads to wider success on a business level - transformational leaders help promote the success of the organization by tapping into the strengths of others.
Transformational Leadership: how leaders change teams, companies, and organizations by 
7 Principles of Transformational Leadership: Create a Mindset of Passion, Innovation, and Growth. by 
The Inside-Out Effect: A Practical Guide to Transformational Leadership by The concept of transformational leadership was introduced by leadership expert James McGregor Burns in his 1978 book, Leadership, in which he described this style as a process by which "leaders and followers make each other advance to a higher level of morality and motivation." Several years later, researcher Bernard Bass expanded on this description in his classic text, Transformational Leadership, defining transformational leaders as: "those who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by empowering them and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization."
A Winning Team: The best team players are humble, hungry and smart
An interview with author Patrick Lencioni is presented in which he discusses teamwork in the workplace, employee engagement, and his thoughts on why employees dislike meetings.
- What is the biggest threat to an effective team? A lack of trust. If people can’t trust each other, they’ll be unwilling to admit when they make a mistake or need help.
- What causes workers to be disengaged? Anonymity, irrelevance and a lack of meaningful performance measures. Employees need a way to assess for themselves that they are doing a good job and making an impact, separate from the feedback they get from management.
- Why do people hate meetings so much? Often we come together for a kind of “meeting stew.” We throw every possible topic into the mix.
- Four types of meetings worth holding:
Daily check-ins - five-minute standing huddle
Weekly tactical meetings - 15 minute review of how we’re doing against our immediate goals
Monthly strategic meetings - tackle big problems, challenge & debate, explore the future
Offsite quarterly reviews – Assess your team’s morale, conflict issues: How are we doing?
Collaboration or Distraction? How leaders can promote effective team work
- Avoid collaboration for collaboration’s sake, too many joint projects can lead to collaboration overload. Have a strategy.
- Model collaborative behaviors – Delegate decision making, create an open idea friendly environment
- Build strong networks – Connect people with others that can enhance their skill sets. Share best practices.
- Encourage collaboration across the enterprise – Establish connections across departments and outside of your organization
- Structure the work to avoid overload – Be aware of the burden of too much time in meetings or answering e-mails.
As organizations become more global, matrixed, and complex, they are requiring employees to collaborate with more internal colleagues and external contacts than ever before. According to research, most managers now spend 85% or more of their work time on e-mail, in meetings, and on the phone. And although greater collaboration has benefits, it also leaves significantly less time for focused inpidual work, careful reflection, and sound decision making. Organizational solutions are, of course, necessary to eradicate collaborative overload across the board. But research shows that with some strategic self-management, inpiduals can also tackle the problem on their own, clawing back 18% to 24% of their collaborative time. The first step is to understand why you take on too much work for and with others; this often involves challenging your identity as a “helper,” a “team player,” or a “star performer.” Next, figure out how you add—and from where you derive—the most value and eliminate any collaborations that distract from that work. Last, ensure that the collaboration you continue with is as productive as possible.
Have We Gone Too Far In Promoting Collaboration? All teamwork--and no individual play--can make for dull employees
-Topics discussed include the specific roles of inpiduals in the workplace despite a team-oriented culture, how solitude and quiet moments can help workers enhance creativity, and tips to build a better balance between individual time and teamwork.
- Teams of “genius opposites”— that is, those that balance introverts and extroverts—get exponentially more accomplished together than their individual members would alone.
- The reality is that, no matter how team-oriented our cultures are, individuals will always have specific roles that require solo contributions. Our overly team- and meeting-focused work culture doesn’t always acknowledge that.
- Moreover, when all brainstorming happens in meetings and conference calls, the ideas of quieter contributors may never surface.
- Giving workers sufficient solitude allows them to tap into their unique skills and experience to solve problems and cultivate new ideas. Preparation is a key success strategy for any meeting, coaching session or process-improvement initiative. But in order for people to plan adequately—or to digest information afterward—they need to pause.
- The right half of our brains—the side that is more experimental, innovative and visionary - works at its fullest capacity when people are in a relaxed state.
Team Development Interventions: Evidence-Based Approaches for Improving Teamwork (Academic Article)
Team development interventions (TDIs) increase effective team competencies and processes, thereby leading to improvements in proximal and distal outcomes. The effectiveness of TDIs is evident across domains (e.g., education, health care, military, aviation), and they are applicable in a wide range of settings. To stimulate the adoption and effective use of TDIs, the current article provides a review of four types of evidence-based TDIs including team training, leadership training, team building, and team debriefing. In doing so, we aim to provide psychologists with an understanding of the scientific principles underlying TDIs and their impact on team dynamics. Moreover, we provide evidence-based recommendations regarding how to increase the effectiveness of TDIs as well as a discussion on future research needed within this domain.
A little more...
4 Ways to Help Different Generations Share Wisdom at Work
Igniting Your Team to New Levels of Performance
The Perceived Impact of Leaders’ Humility on Team Effectiveness: an Empirical Study