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The Speed of Trust

Written by: Stephen M. R. Covey
Narrated by: Stephen M. R. Covey
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Publisher's Summary

From Stephen R. Covey's eldest son comes a revolutionary new path towards productivity and satisfaction. Trust, says Stephen M.R. Covey, is the very basis of the new global economy, and he shows how trust - and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents - is the essential ingredient for any high - performance, successful organization.

For business leaders and public figures in any arena, The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in our every transaction and relationship - from the most personal to the broadest, most indirect interaction - and how to establish trust immediately so that you and your organization can forego the time - killing, bureaucratic check - and - balance processes so often deployed in lieu of actual trust.

©2008 Stephen M.R. Covey (P)2008 Franklin Covey Co.

What listeners say about The Speed of Trust

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Helpful information, but no real insights

My executive team is handing out this book as a resource to all directors and up in my company. Just so that I can see what ethos they claim to be following, I decided to give this book a try. I was never a fan of his fathers "7 habits of highly effective people" and this one falls short of that book unfortunately.

Steven M.R. Covey actually recorded this audio book -- with the rare and somewhat odd interjections of Rebecca Merrrill. While he doesn't exactly have a monotone voice, Covey's deliver is mostly flat and hard to listen to for any prolonged period of time. Added to the fact that the recorded material "skips" in several places throughout the book, this has the feel of a rather immature audio book.

To be honest, you can get by on a someone's summary of this book on the concepts within as reading/listening to the book in its entirety doesn't provide any additional insights as Covey tends to be rather repetitive. I would have given up on the book long ago if it wasn't for the fact that my company's CEO has claimed that he wants our company to live up to the values within this book (and as an aside: 3 months after laying out this game plan to senior management, there aren't any signs that they are).

And just a few notes about the examples given throughout this book (granted, the book was written over 10 years ago and the hindsight of time can point out some obvious mistakes):

1. Tiger Woods was trotted out as a example in the "self-trust" and how he was working at always bettering himself (I guess the big sexual addiction scandals somewhat got in the way).

2. Nokia was an example that was a company that constantly worked at reinvented itself to stay relevant and a world power in the telecommunication industry (and now all but disappeared into the huge Microsoft beast).

3. Joe Paterno and the Penn Stat football team was an organization demonstrated qualities that exemplified a great example of a trusted organization (except for the small problem of 15 years of sexual abuse of several vulnerable boys).

4 people found this helpful

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Read it

This book provides a powerful new frame by which to view organizations and your own interactions. I was initially attracted to this book to enhance my profession and career, but, similar to his father’s contributions, I found it applied to and changed me as a whole person.

Stephen’s nasally, breathy and sometimes staccato reading detracts from the message. However, occasionally the principles and stories would pull me in and I would forget.

Overall, I very much recommend this book and will look back to it often for advice.

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Great content!

The material in this book should be heard and understood by everyone. Thank you.

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Good book, good tips!

I liked the overall context of the book but it took a while to get through as I found a lot of the content to be a bit dry. But the tips and advice were mostly great and I learned a lot about trust and how it can be applied to everyday life, not just in romantic relationships.

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Too long

I understand that the concept of trust is important but I gave up after 30% of the book. The stories are way too repetitive and I feel like you can turn around a certain subject for a while until we get the point. Make that 2-4h and I’d read it.

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Stephen Covey shares wisdom you can trust.

Every chapter added value to my life and business. I especially liked the Cores and Habits of trust.

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Great content.

After listening to this book I have decided to forgive someone whom hurt me and the family quite bad. Great book

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Very insightful audiobook on trust taxes

This has been a very insightful audiobook that helps you see the taxes you didn't even know you were spending when trust is not properly administered and received. Trust is so essential to success in all areas of life.

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worth it

Great truths unpacked in a useful way, found myself understanding where management failed and how to make it better.

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Powerful and Insightful

A very interesting read with useful tips on building lifetime value in your professional and personal relationships.

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  • Marty
  • 2010-12-23

Good Information, Hard to Listen to

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. 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. Those examples got very tiresome. Still, there are nuggets in the book.

77 people found this helpful

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  • Gary
  • 2010-07-10

Disappointed

I have listened to ~30 audible selections over the past year. Though I had read reviewers' comments concerning poor narration, I never thought a bad narrator could undermine the content of a book so greatly.

Mr. Covey is probably a really nice guy, but is simply a poor reader. The choppy, uneven flow made me wish I would have purchased the book rather than listening to it.

Recommendation: Please listen to the sample audio prior to purchasing. (I will from now on.)

65 people found this helpful

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  • Tim
  • 2009-09-09

Very true!

This book was a pleasant surprise. There is much truth to what Covey says in this book, both about how trust changes everything and how to increase your "trust" quotient in life and in the office. It is also interesting how the principles in this book apply to virtually everything in life: Marriage, Church and Family, relationships between nations, etc..... This was recommended by my boss and I'm truly glad I read (or more accurately listened to ) it. Well worth your time!

22 people found this helpful

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  • Sara
  • 2017-07-27

Better at 1.3x Speed

This was a decent book and series of concepts, which I will have the opportunity to try. However, it screams for and would be better enjoyed with a better tempo. The pace made it difficult to stay engaged.

7 people found this helpful

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  • Trompe La Mort
  • 2016-09-19

Some good information in there, but is too long

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

This book has some great information. But it could be about 2/3rds shorter.A lot of information is repeated, and I couldnt' finish it.

7 people found this helpful

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  • TeamDavidAndSarah
  • 2014-02-19

Good concept - not a good book

What disappointed you about The Speed of Trust?

While some have commented on not liking Covey's style of narration, I didn't mind that but really disliked the alternative narrator.

The book also seemed very repetitive as if it is trying to fill more pages than it would naturally.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Strongly agreed with and found the concept informative about how big a role trust plays but the shallowness of a lot of the material later on and the other narrator's affected tone made it an unpleasant experience overall.

7 people found this helpful

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  • fredheat
  • 2017-04-30

Outstanding!

This book is a game changer! No other book, or person, has helped me realize that my approach to trust saw it as an illusion I was creating. I had no self trust, and then wondered why people didn't trust me. This bok helped me realize why I must have self -trust, and how I could get it... fast!

This bok will change your life... if you let it!

4 people found this helpful

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  • Chris Warfield
  • 2014-04-26

10% good, 90% redundancy

What would have made The Speed of Trust better?

Cut, cut, and more cut.

Has The Speed of Trust turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes, Stephen MR Covey is long winded, and redundant.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Stephen R. Covey?

Anyone else.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Speed of Trust?

90% of every chapter.

Any additional comments?

Buy the Cliff's Notes.

3 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2021-02-21

Behavior

The reason things are told over and over is because our mindset sometimes is a period instead of comma which is continual journey.
Yes, we (humanity) have all kinds of family habits that make us related to our families, yet to give everyone a perspective and be diligent in our own core values: we because we are all in this together need to forgive and to trust; be brave and overcome the mountains of our lives. Thank you, Stephen, for the last hour of this audiobook: It gave me a release. -Jeremy

2 people found this helpful

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  • Mike A Ciccocioppo
  • 2020-06-13

not bad

I liked it enough, but 7 Habits was better in my opinion. this is actually written by the son.

2 people found this helpful