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 An Important Topic, but Over-Written
The author, son of Stephen Covey of 7 Habits fame, begins by convincingly proving that when trust goes up, the speed of any transaction goes up and the cost goes down.
The author offers `Five Waves of Trust' that spill out in concentric circles across all relationships:
First Wave is self-trust, which is the foundation of all credibility.
Second Wave is relationship trust, accomplished by consistent behavior.
Third Wave is organizational trust, accomplished by alignment.
Fourth Wave is market trust, accomplished by reputation.
Fifth Wave is societal trust, achieved by contribution to the larger society.
One key point is the author's insistence that inspiring trust starts with yourself. Keeping commitments to yourself is key if you expect to have any credibility with other people.
Any book on the topic of `Trust' automatically has the gravitas of tackling a core subject dear to everyone. The importance of the topic, however, should not be confused with how good the author's ideas are. This book is overwritten, and should have been cut in half. The examples Covey gives are often personal, but conveys a naïveté that undercuts his credibility at times.
Although I still recommend this book, an interesting alternative Maister's The Trusted Advisor.
 DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
I was looking for a a book that has to do with personal relationships an not with organizational trust! THIS IS A BETRAYAL. THE TITLE SAID BUILDING TRUST THEY SHOULD BE MORE SPECIFIC AN NOT MAKE PEOPLES WASTE TIME AN MONEY, SO IF IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR TRUST IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS DO NOT BUY THIS BOOOK!!
IM VERY DISSPOINTED
 Speed of Trust
A must read Top Down for anyone in a position of trust or with supervisory responsibilities over others within the organization!
The SPEED of Trust
The information is fair (at best). It retells you what intuition and experience told you long ago.
Good Information, Hard to Listen to
In light of the recent financial crisis and events that led or contributed to the current recession, the topic of this book is both timely and enduring. Covey describes trust as being based on character and competence, where character is required and competence is situational. He uses financial terms as a concrete way to convey the cost of low trust and the benefit of high trust, describing the former as a trust tax and the latter as a trust dividend. The quickest way to make a withdrawal, he insists, is to violate a behavior of character, and the quickest way to make a deposit is to demonstrate a behavior of competence. He goes on to detail seven low trust taxes (redundancy, bureaucracy, politics, disengagement, turnover, churn, and fraud) and seven high trust dividends (increased value, accelerated growth, enhanced motivation, improved collaboration, stronger partnering, better execution, and heightened loyalty).
Covey also outlines what he characterizes as five waves of trust: self-trust, relationship trust, organizational trust, market trust, and societal trust. For each of these waves, he applies the concept of the four cores (integrity, intention, capabilities, and results) and the thirteen behaviors of high-trust leaders (talk straight, demonstrate respect, create transparency, right wrongs, show loyalty, deliver results, get better, confront reality, clarify expectations, practice accountability, listen first, keep commitments, and extend trust). The book includes a multitude of practical applications and pushes the reader to reflect on his or her own behavior.
Despite the fact that I have recommended this book, I do so with some caveats. First, I listened to this book as an audio download and although I generally like it when an author reads the book, that was not the case for this one. Covey is a Harvard MBA, but I was astounded at the number of mispronunciations. His reading style has a hesitating tempo to it that comes across as patronizing, and his incessant family examples are over the top. He's a business man, not a family therapist, and as Tom Peters would say, he should stick to his knitting. Those examples got very tiresome. Still, there are nuggets in the book, so perhaps reading it rather than listening to it is the way to go.
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(based on 104 reviews)
