I heard a little segment on NPR a few days ago about Steven M. R. Covey and his book "The Speed of Trust". The book has garnered praise from various prominent people and has evidently sold well, I, however, haven't read it yet. The little I heard from Mr. Covey sounded intriguing and rang of truth to me.

Is it possible to do anything of value without trust?

Trusting in the things we have learned allows us to do things. Organize, build, design, communicate, calculate. Trust in someone else allows us to combine skills and efforts toward a common goal. We put our trust in things like computer programs, a marketing message, a process. The more trust that exists the more confidently and quickly we get to our goal.

Take away trust and everything is hindered. Lack of trust breeds fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It produces delays as you investigate what you can't trust someone else for. It causes relationships to be strained and torn apart, teams to break up. Lack of trust keeps customers away from a business.

The lack of trust is poison to a business and trust makes everything good happen.

What do you do to build trust among your employees? Your partners? Your customers?

Mr. Covey has outlined 13 behaviors to help leaders create trust in their organizations, focusing on character and competency. Want your business to grow faster? Do things to increase trust throughout it.