Covey on Behavior

Covey's third component of intent, behavior, is discussed on pp. 81-83 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006). He already talked about motive and intent. Now it's focus on what you do.

Behavior is what you do. People judge you by what you do not just what you say. If you say you'll be there at 3:00 PM and show up at 3:30 consistently, people factor that into trust account when they evaluate you. Covey says, "The behavior that best creates credibility and inspires trust is acting in the best interest of others."

Who would you trust more, Mother Teresa or Joseph Stalin.

If you say you care about your employees or your coworkers, but your behavior doesn't line up with your statements, forget it.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing?"

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey on Motive

Covey, on p. 78 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006), gives three components of Intent: Motive, Agenda, and Behavior. We already talked about Agenda--I got ahead of myself. So, let's back up on step and talk about Motive.

Covey says, "Motive is your reason for doing something. It's the 'why' that motivates the 'what.'"

Caring is the motive that puts people in your camp. We're pretty suspicious of people who act like they care. We see examples of all the time. Companies that rename customer service people "Customer Care Agent." We get bulk mail addressed to "Dear Valued Customer." He hear corporate tag lines that say "We care about you" when they don't even know you.

So we get jaundiced when people's statements aren't consistently manifested in their behavior. Still you have to show you care not just say you care. People will pick up on right away. Your motive has to be that you care.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey, on p. 80 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006), gives "Agenda" as "what you intend to do or promote because of your motives."

This is the era of suspicion, the flip side of trust. When I was an agent I heard buyer after buyer ask "what are they up to?" The right things Obama is part of a left wing conspiracy to ruin the country. The left thinks the right is out to put us all in concentration camps. If a person suspects your motives are sinister, there really isn't much you can do about it.

But, Covey goes on to say:

The agenda that generally inspires the greatest trust is seeking mutual benefit--genuinely wanting what's best for everyone involved.

Covey argues for having a mutual benefit agenda based on trust. An open agenda rather than a closed or hidden agenda.

When I was a real estate agent, I was also president of our neighborhood town watch organization. I used to send around the police reports of crimes. Someone accused me of trying to scare everyone out of the neighborhood so I could buy up all the property for cheap. This was ridiculous on its face, but you see the lengths that suspicion and conspiratorial thinking can lead one.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's Three Components of Intent

Covey, in The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006) p. 78, defines "Intent" as a "plan" or a "purpose."

Cover unpacks intent to find 3 components: motive, agenda, and behavior.

More coming up on each of these.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's 2nd Core of Credibility--Intent

If you remember, Covey argues the first wave of trust, self-trust, is based on credibility. The reference is, The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006). pp. 34-35.

Unpacking credibility, Covey finds four "cores" of credibility: integrity, Intent, Capability, and Results.

We already talked about integrity. On pp. 73-90 he talks about the second core: intent. He tells a really good story about his parents, which I won't repeat, but which you should read, but here's what he says about it on p. 76:

> Intent matters.

> It grows out of character.

> While we tend to judge ourselves by our intent, we tend to judge others by their behavior.

> We also tend to judge others' intent based on our own paradigms and experience.

> Our perception of intent has a huge impact on trust.

> People often distrust us because of the conslusions they draw about what we do.

> It is important for us to actively influence the conclusions of others by 'declaring our intent.'

The point of all of this is to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Is it working?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Integrity Accelerators

Covey, pp. 66-72 of The Speed of Trust; The One Thing That Changes Everything (New York: The Free Press, 2006), gives us three "integrity 'accelerators'" which, if we fail the tests prescribed earlier, can help us act with more integrity.

Here are are:

1. Make and keep commitments to yourself.

2. Stand for something.

3. Be open.

The first one is a good way to restore your ability to trust, if you're having trouble trusting others. Start with yourself. Make a promise to yourself and then keep it. Sort of, "For the next week, I'm going to quit work by 5:00 every night." Then go a week and see how you came out. If you flubbed your rub, go more basic: Today I'm going to quit by 5:00. Then when you do it, you say, 'Well boss wants me to go to this meeting at 6:00, so I have to do that, but Wednesday I'll quit by 5:00." Then see how you do. Treat yourself as an experiment.

As you build up significantly more passes than fails, you'll be able to trust yourself and you can go on to work with your behavior regarding others.

The point of all of this is to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Is it working?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's Five Questions on Integrity

Covey, pp. 66 of The Speed of Trust; The One Thing That Changes Everything (New York: The Free Press, 2006), has us ask ourselves 5 questions:

1. Do I genuinely try to be honest in all my interactions with other people?

2. Do I typically "walk my talk"?

3. Am I clear on my values? Do I feel comfortable in standing up for them?

4. Am I open to the possibility of learning new truths that may cause me to rethink issues or even redefine my values?

5. Am I able consistently to make and keep commitments to myself?

He suggests that you go to your friends, coworkers, and bosses and ask them their perceptions "because we all have "blind spots," we sometimes tend to overestimate or underestimate our own level of strength.

The point of all of this is to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Is it working?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey on Integrity--Courage

Covey, pp. 64-66 of The Speed of Trust; The One Thing That Changes Everything (New York: The Free Press, 2006), gives us a third component of integrity: courage, doing the right thing even when it's hard.

These are the real heroes in our midst. Those who do the right thing even though it might be not in their interest to do so or they may suffer because of it.
I trust a courageous person because I know that person will be in my corner when I need them even though it may be hard for them to be there.

Here's a quote Covey attributes to Winston Churchill: "Courage is the fist of the human qualities because it...guarantees all the others." (p. 65)

The point of all of this is to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Is it working?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Coven on Integrity

Covey, pp. 63-64 of The Speed of Trust; The One Thing That Changes Everything (New York: The Free Press, 2006), gives us another component of integrity, humility:

A humble person is more concerned about what is right than about being right, about acting on good ideas than about having the ideas, about embracing new truth than defending outdated position, about building the team than exalting self, about recognizing contribution than being recognized for making it. (p. 63)

It's not about weaknesses, it's about putting principle ahead of self. People into putting themselves first, I don't trust them, do you?

The point of all of this is to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Is it working?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.