East Portland Chamber of Commerce

Stephen M.R. Covey, acclaimed author and son of Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habbits of Highly Effective People, spoke at our convention about The Speed of Trust.

Stephen began his presentation with a story I feel  is the best place to start this two-part article.

The first time I went fly fishing I figured I best hire a professional guide to help me, because I always figure it is best to start by learning from the pros.  I bought all the gear, the very best rod and reel, had my hip waders and cold weather gear.  You see, we were going fly fishing in Alaska and even on warm days the water is cold.

After the initial instructions, the guide had me wade out into the water, but he stopped me just before I was about to cast out.  He said, take a look around you.  Do you see them?

“See them”, I said.  “See what?”

“The fish.  They are swimming all around you” the guide replied.

I looked at the water, but the glare prevented me from seeing through the surface of the water.  I said, “I can’t see because of the glare”.

The guide took off his special polarized sun glasses and handed them to me to put on.  When I put on the glasses I could now see through the water and swimming everywhere around me were thousands of fish.

The fact that I couldn’t see the fish doesn’t mean they were not there.  Trust is the same.

The NW Business Leader Conference was about helping business people see the opportunities through the obstacles before us.  Often the glaring issue preventing us from seeing the whole picture is our dis-trust of those we are working with.  Distrust is an expensive, time consuming condition.

“Trust is something we take advantage of and ignore until we lose it.” – Stephen M.R. Covey, 2009 NW Business Leadership Conference.  “Trust and the ability to create it is the key competency for today’s leaders.”

With trust we spend less time proving and more time doing and this improves efficiency.  However, if you are like me, right about now you are saying to yourself, We trusted Wall Street and look where it got us!

Stephen’s point is not to have or convey blind trust, but rather smart trust.  In his book, Stephen tells about Warren Buffett’s acquisition of McLane Distribution from Wal-Mart.  Under normal circumstance when one company buys a $23 billion company from another, the due diligence process lasts for months and costs millions of dollars.  Because Warren Buffett had established trust with Wal-Mart, they reached an agreement in one two-hour meeting and a hand shake.  29 days later, the deal was closed.  No due diligence, no spending millions to prove the numbers, just smart trust.

In Part Two I will describe how Stephen talks about building trust with the people you meet and the world around you.

Ed Bejarana
EPCC Business Blog Editor