Relationship Trust and Your Behavior

As a continuation from last week’s post, please enjoy Part 2 of 3 in a series by my colleague, Dr. Todd Wangsgard.  Todd expounds on Trust and how it impacts relationships.  Enjoy!

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Leadership and Relationship Trust – Keyword: “Behavior”

(Part 2 of 3)



Actions speak louder than words.

Years ago Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (and father to Speed of Trust author Stephen M.R. Covey) found himself teaching a workshop in Oregon where a participant related to him during a break some of the challenges he was facing due to his past indiscretions.  Dr. Covey was careful to bring out the principle that:

You can’t talk your way out of a problem you’ve behaved your way into.

Years later in his research, SMRC noted that while it is true you can’t talk your way out of a problem you’ve behaved your way into, it is true that:

You can behave your way out of a problem you’ve behaved your way into.

Once the leader establishes and continues to build personal credibility through the Four Cores (see my Part 1 blog posting, Leadership and Trust – Keyword: “Confidence”), it is critical to examine and practice the behaviors that will allow him or her to build trust in relationships with individuals – personally and professionally.

Let’s look at the headlines.

Without divulging specifics on these stories, let’s uncover what business headlines from the past few days suggest to us about the importance of trusting behaviors:

·         Fast food CEO has big plans to flip its ranking

·         Auto manufacturer changes body style to appeal to customers

·         Board of private company opens the books to dispel rumors

·         Company makes good on broken promises

Each of these speaks to the behaviors that are being demonstrated in order to build or rebuild trust. Those include at least five from SMRC’s 13 High Trust Behaviors list, such as Listen First, Get Better, Create Transparency, Confront Reality, and Right Wrongs.

Simply put, trustworthy leaders lead out when it comes to behaving in ways that builds confidence and they inspire others within their ranks to do likewise.  And just because you may have slipped and lost the trust of someone significant, it is often easier than you thought to rebuild that trust by quickly identifying the key behaviors that were/are missing and behaving your way back into the other person’s good graces.

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Join us next Friday as Dr. Wangsgard wraps up this 3-part series and discusses the power of Leadership and Team Trust.  Click here to learn more about Todd and the programs he can facilitate for your organization.

Restoring relationships through The Speed of Trust,

John Vakidis

Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey

214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com

PS - Check out our upcoming Speed of Trust event on LinkedIn!