Smart Trust: The Defining Skill that Transforms Managers into Leaders

I finished my reading of "Smart Trust." When I first read "Speed of Trust" in 2006 I was profoundly impacted by the structure that was added to a relatively elusive topic. I keep a small paper with the thirteen behaviors of a High Trust Leader on my desk and refer to it often. "Smart Trust" seems like the natural follow up to all the HOW questions that were generated by "Speed of Trust."The five Smart Trust actions that this book teaches make a clear outline of how to generate trust in a team, family, or other organization. Simple, but not to a fault, these five actions make it easy to understand. They are, Choose to Believe in Trust, Start with Self, Declare Your Intent, Do What You Say, and Lead Out in Extending Trust. While they sound straight forward on the surface, the book explores valuable examples and insights that help create a framework of putting it all together in a clear action plan.The order of the five actions is not an accident. I suspect that I will need to go back to the book often to continue my journey in implementing trust in the various arenas of life as I move through the action steps.The biggest take away from this book is a continuation of the first. Simply put, trust changes everything. It plays the biggest part in the bottom line and success of any relationship or organization. Creating a vocabulary around the principle allows us to discuss it among ourselves in terms that we all understand. These authors have done that and I believe that this is part of the revolution of restoring trust in our families, relationships, work places, communities, and countries.NOTE: I read this book as part of the 12 Books Group.

The books is very though provoking about the costs or benefits of trust in the workplace. It covers not only personal trust which is often talked about but organizational levels of trust and the consequences (such as tons of meetings) of having low trust. A good read for leaders of all levels.

I read this book as the monthly selection of the Credit Union Leaders Book Club group on LinkedIn.This is an expansion of the last chapter in the author's prior book "The Speed of Trust." It contains numerous examples in each chapter along with many great quotes and extensive notes at the end of the book.The first chapter deals with The Paradox. The authors raise some interesting issues in regards to a crisis of trust in the world and its overall impact using different examples and quotes. It also presents hope for building trust.Chapter two deals with Blind Trust or Distrust and addresses the dangers of blind trust (being too trustful) and distrustful (not being trustful enough). The authors discuss how society causes blind trust or distrust to develop within individuals and the net impact it can have going forward. The chapter contains a table that you can use to determine how you see others and the cost of your view.Chapter 3 begins the discussion of Smart Trust, the alternative to blind trust and distrust. Smart Trust is judgment and boils down to how to trust in a low trust world. The two key factors for Smart Trust are a propensity to trust and analysis. The propensity to trust is about leading out with trust. Analysis is about not getting burned in a low trust world. The analysis involves 3 components: Opportunity, Risk and Credibility. The authors use these components to launch into a discussion of the Smart Trust Matrix citing a number of examples. The chapter ends with examples of the reciprocity of trust.The next several chapters deal with the five Smart Trust Actions:* Choose to Believe in Trust: The authors delve into the three beliefs of trust:1. A belief in being worthy of trust.2. A belief that most people can be trusted.3. A belief that extending trust is a better way to lead.* Start with Self: Based on the principles of responsibility and creditability.* Declare Your Intent and Assume Positive Intent in Others: Stating what we want to do and why we want to do it.* Do What You Say You Are Going To Do* Lead Out in Extending Trust to Others: It produces results, it increases trust and it elicits reciprocity.The authors end with a chapter on how one person can make a change.My recommendation is that while this book can stand on its own, the reader will get more out of it by reading the author's prior book "The Speed of Trust" first.

It goes by pretty quick and isn't exactly ground breaking, but as a business owner, I found the CD uplifting. In fact, I ordered a half dozen of them and had them sent to employees who deal with the public regularly. Again, no earth shaking news, but it leaves you with the feeling that the cure for what ails the economy is for business people at all levels to give this trust experiment a chance.

Now here is a product that for the sheer fact that it has no electronic or mechanical parts, it will last a very long time! It would be great if we could go back to the days of long lasting, product backing companies that took pride in what they manufactured!There is very little I trust in anymore, in the way of products!

Great book for discussing how to deal with the lack of trust in today's society. Once a basic value such as trust is destroyed, future relationships with the one who has proven not to be trustworthy take on a different dynamic. Learn how to cope with that and, then, restore the value.

Stephen M. R. Covey and Greg Link has done it again. Smart Trust is at the core of what leaders need to succeed in today's world.Peter Foss, Management Consultant, [...]

This is a sensible follow-up to the first book and has some good points. These points could have been made more succinctly. For me it was worth the purchase none the less.

Herr Covey versucht in diesem Buch dem 'Phänomen' Vertrauen einen Schritt näher zu kommen. Das Buch geizt nicht mit vielen Geschichten - ,storytelling' als Versuch", das Thema lebendig und fuer den Leser interessant zu gestalten. Er vernachlässigt jedoch fast völlig die neuesten Erkenntnisse aus den verschiedensten wissenschaftlichen Richtungen. Der Versuch, diese Lücke mit der Oxytocin-Vertrauensdiskussion (Zak, Fehr, Kosfeld, ....) zu füllen, zeigt das fehlende Verständnis des Autors mit dem Thema. Eine kurzes Gespräch mit den Wissenschsfts-Autoren hätte Covey sicherlich erkennen lassen, das diese Oxytocin-Studien eher therapeutischen Nutzen besitzen und weniger für sein Buch geeignet sind. Auch ist der wissenschschaftliche Ruf von Prof. Zag nicht einwand- und zweifelsfrei. Die Vorschläge im letzten Kapitel, wie man Vertrauen erhöhen kann, basieren eher auf Glaubens- als auf Wissensgrundsätzen, werden nicht empirisch untermauert und sind möglicherweise auf verschiedene Kukturräume nicht anwendbar.Zusammenfassend finde ich das Buch eher schlecht recherchiert und viel zu wenig in der Tiefe analysiert - die vielen Anekdoten und Zitate können das nicht ändern.

I love it. This is great common sense that we have to be told as we ( I for one) seem to forget and need reminding.

Smart Trust! Take my word/ Trust me......... it's a Smart Book!

Good

Nice book and very useful