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.

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