Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #7: Get Better

Covey (2006, p. 184) says: "Get Better. Continuously improve. Increase your Capabilities. Be a constant learner. Develop feedback systems--both formal and informal. Act on the feedback you receive. Thank people for feedback. Don't consider yourself above feedback. Don't assume today's knowledge and skills will be sufficient for tomorrow's challenges."

Others echo this imperative. Todd Duncan, in Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004) on p. 191, says: "To avoid the stink of a stagnant sales career, you must learn to grown and change." p. 191.

Michael Gerber, in The E-Myth Revisited (New York: Harper Collins, 1995) on p. 195, invites quantification as a means of growth: "Without the numbers you can't possibly know where you are, let alone where you're going. With the numbers, your business will take on a totally new meaning."

People respect you when they see you devoted to getting better. It means you value yourself enough that they would consider valuing you, too.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior That Builds or Maintains Trust #6: Deliver Results

Covey (2006, p. 176) says: "Establish a track record of results. Get the right things done. Make things happen. Accomplish what you're hired to do. Be on time and within budget. Don't over promise and under deliver. Don't make excuses for not delivering."

To establish financial credit (i.e. trust), one excellent tactic is to apply for a credit card, buy something with it, and pay it off right away.

It's the same thing with trust. Having a full trust account is like having a maximum credit score.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #5: Show Loyalty.

Covey (2006, p. 171) says: "Give credit freely. Acknowledge the contributions of others. Speak about people as if they were present. Represent others who aren't there to speak for themselves. Don't bad-mouth others behind their backs. Don't disclose others' private information."

I worked with someone once who took credit for everything that went well, and blamed on others the things that did not. Not a trustworthy person. I stayed as far away from such a person as I could. Imagine what he was saying about me.

Behave just the opposite of this person. If something you were involved in went well, credit other people. If something you were involved in went poorly, take the heat.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #4: Right Wrongs

He summarizes it on p. 157: "Make things right when you're wrong. Apologize quickly. Make restitution where possible. Practice 'service recoveries.' Demonstrate personal humility. Don't cover things up. Don't let pride get in the way of doing the right thing."

For Covey it's more than simply apologizing, "it's also making restitution. It's making up and making whole. It's taking action. It's doing what you can to correct the mistake...and then a little more." (p. 159)

He elaborates on p. 160: "It's based on the principles of humility, integrity, and restitution. It's opposite is to deny or justify wrongs, to rationalize wrongful behavior, or to fail to admit mistakes until you're forced to do so. It involves ego and pride. It's being humbled by circumstance instead of by conscience."

We're talking about humility and courage. The habit of doing the right thing, using your ego to build confidence, to do the right thing, recognize when a mistake has been made, and fix things no matter what the consequences for you.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #3: Create Transparency

Rule #3 from Covey, The Speed of Trust (2006, p. 152): "Create Transparency."

He summarizes it on p. 157: "Tell the truth in a way people can verify. Get real and genuine. Be open and authentic. Err on the side of disclosure. Operate on the premise of 'What you see is what you get.' Don't have hidden agendas. Don't hide information." Be open, honest, authentic, and act with integrity with the people around you. If you run a company, open up your books to your employees. Have an employee sit on your board. Discuss everything with them.

There's a paranoid streak in entrepreneurs that says, "If I tell my employees or coworkers everything, they might steal my idea, or go out and form a company and compete with me." Well, that's a possibility, but more a paranoia than a possibility. If you're open with people, and they trust you, they're more likely to open a business within your business. Of course there are always difficult people, and you would probably have had trouble with them in any case.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #2: Demonstrating Respect

Rule #2 from Covey, The Speed of Trust (2006, p. 144): "Demonstrate Respect."

He summarizes it on p. 151:

Genuinely care for others. Show you care. Respect the Dignity of every person and every role. Treat everyone with respect, especially those who can't do anything for you. Show kindness in the little things. Don't fake caring. Don't attempt to be 'efficient' with people.

He adds, on p. 145

There are two critical dimensions to this behavior--first to behave in ways that show fundamental respect for people, and second, to behave in ways that demonstrate caring and concern.

The thing is, your caring has to be genuine. Once when I was a practicing agent, I got an e-mail that said that because some large percentage of respondents to a National Association of Realtors survey said they worked with agents that they trusted, we should build trust into our marketing.

Caring, like trust, can't be just added to your marketing mix. It has to be there. You have to be a genuine caring person. If you're not, your attempting to appear caring will come of as hypocrisy, which it would be.

If you don't care about people, consider another line of work.

What do you do to maintain your level of trust or build it?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #1: Talking Straight

Rule #1 from Covey, The Speed of Trust (2006, p. 137): "Tell the truth and leave the right impression."

Covey says we need not only to tell the truth, but tell it in a way that people believe you. So we need to be honest with people, but we need to be honest with them in a way that they believe us.

Bill Clinton, for example, when he was President, said: "I did not have sex with that woman." He was prosecuted for lying under oath. But did he really lie?

It all depends. If you equate sex with intimate fondling and kissing, yes. But if you equate sex with intimacy that includes penetration, he may have been telling the truth depending on what they really did. But whether it was or was not "true" it sure sounded like a lie. From then on, you were never sure whether he was telling the truth or not.

Here's how Covey sums it up on p. 143:

Be honest. Tell the truth. Let people know where you stand. Use simple language, Call things what they are. Demonstrate integrity. Don't manipulate or distort facts. Don't sping the truth. Don't leave false impressions.

The simple truth is that it's always easier to tell the truth than to lie. Really.

What do you do to build or maintain trust with others?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Trust Dividend

This is the second of the couple of steps back I took to catch up on Covey's economics of trust, as laid out in his The Speed of Trust (2006), pp. 13ff.

For Covey Trust=Speed-Cost. Coveys argues that increasing trust acts like a dividend. If decreasing trust acts like a tax by slowing business transactions down and making them cost more, then increasing trust speeds up transactions and decreases cost. And cost includes more than just pecuniary costs. If time=money, slower transactions are more expensive transactions.

Think about it. When people trust each other, they don't have to spend time worrying that the other person is who he or she says they are, they don't have to hire attorneys to go over absolutely everything (Nothing personal you attorneys out there--you provide a valuable service), they commission fewer studies, they make decisions faster, and things just work better. Better=Faster and Cheaper.

When people lost their trust in the real estate industry, look what happened. Everything CNN has been covering for the last 2 years.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.

Trust tax

Let me drop back a couple of steps and include an important Covey concept. The concept is that of a trust tax. You can find it under the section "The Economics of Trust" on p. 13ff.

Coveys argues that decreasing trust acts as though it were a tax. He sees trust as an equation that links it to the speed of transactions and the cost of transactions. What it means is that when trust is diminished, the speed of transactions diminishes and the cost of transactions increases.

What this means is, when we don't trust other people, it makes business harder. It costs more and it's slower. In real estate, the washing out of trust burst the bubble. During the bubble we trusted too much, when the bubble burst we didn't trust enough. As the bubble expanded, more people bought, and sellers got more money for their homes. As we reached the breaking point, the surface of the bubble got more and more brittle until the economic crisis of 2008 burst it. When the bubble broke, trust went away.

Did you lose your trust in things when the bubble burst? The Great Recession is acting like a big tax increase.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.