‘Trust and Inspire’
Once upon a time, ‘Shock and Awe’ was the strategy to win a war.
In these times — unprecedented yes, but unchanged with regard to many aspects of human nature — a motivational speaker and book author is suggesting another two-pronged approach to winning.
Trust and inspire.
Stephen M.R. Covey, son of the legendary Stephen R. Covey of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame, was a special guest this week at the 25th anniversary of the Center for Leadership and Change, Inc. (CLCI), the Philippine partner of Franklin Covey Co.
According to online sources, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide since its first publication in 1989. Nanay Coring Ramos of National Book Store once told me it is one of NBS’ all-time bestsellers.
I met its author Stephen R. Covey, who passed away in 2012, during a live forum (those were the days!) organized by CLCI at the Ateneo in 2004. CLCI’s vice president Lirio Ongpin Mapa was once my class adviser and Religion teacher at the Assumption, and I was privileged to be invited by her to meet Stephen in 2004, and Stephen the son during the virtual meet this week.
“A leader must be trusted first in order for him/ her to inspire,” says Mrs. Mapa, who is the first accredited facilitator of the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in the Philippines.
The younger Covey is touted by CLCI as the “global thought-leader on building ‘trust.’” He is the author of two books: The Speed of Trust and Smart Trust.
We’re operating increasingly in a low-trust world where people aren’t quite sure who or what they can trust. In a world of fake news and other different things, trust is the new currency.
Next year, Covey will launch a book, Trust and Inspire, which, he believes, “is really a new way to lead in the new world… because of all that’s going on.” For Covey, trust has always mattered, “but has never mattered more than it does today. It’s always been important, but never more so than today.”
“One, is that we’re operating increasingly in a low-trust world where people aren’t quite sure who or what they can trust. In a world of fake news and other different things, trust is the new currency,” stresses Covey.
He points out that with virtually everyone working from home, he or she needs to be trusted to deliver even without a boss looking over his or her shoulder.
To build on this trust, Covey believes a leader should “trust and inspire” instead of “command and control.”
“To command and control is all about managing people and things. Trust and inspire is about managing things, but leading people. The danger in command and control is managing people, as if they were things. So command and control is all about compliance to follow the rules. Trust and inspire is about commitment to do the right thing, there’s so much more. Command and control is far more transactional; trust and inspire is transformational — literally transformed relationships, teams and cultures,” he said.
For Covey, “command and control” is about motivation while “trust and inspire” is inspiration.
“Trust-Inspire is all about releasing their capabilities and their talents and developing them and unleashing all they can do on behalf of the organization. Command-Control is about motivation, it’s external, so I use carrot and stick to motivate people. Trust-Inspire is all about inspiration. The whole idea is that it’s inside of people already. And our job is to ignite the fire again. Inspire means to breathe life into what’s already there. And so, that’s the way to lead in this new world. And I gotta trust and inspire.”
Covey believes that winning begins within.
“It’s like private victories precede public victory; winning in the workplace precedes winning in the marketplace,” he said.
Covey shared what a “trust and inspire” leader is like:
First, a “trust and inspire leader” believes greatness is within everyone, and an inspired leader sees that.
“So my job as a leader is to unleash their potential. Not to try to contain or control them. I’m trying to see their potential development. Second, I believe that people are whole people, we embody our mind, spirit, when we talk about the whole person. So, my job as a leader is to inspire, not merely motivate, but inspire the whole person, inside and out.”
Covey also believes a true leader elevates “caring” over “competing.” He cited Filipino civic leader Patricia Non, who started the establishment of community pantries in the Philippines, as an example of that kind of leader.
‘Leadership is stewardship’
“Third, I believe that leadership is stewardship,” says Covey. He believes effective leaders look out for “the interest of those that we lead and serve.”
“So, because I believe that leadership is stewardship, my job as a leader is to put service above self-interest,” he emphasizes, citing Patricia Non anew as exhibiting “service above self-interest.”
“Finally, I believe that enduring influence is created from the inside out. So, my job as a leader is to go first. Someone needs to go first. ‘Leaders who go first’ is a better way to lead.”
When I asked how leaders and managers can effectively navigate this crisis and win, his response was to seize the opportunity to build trust within teams and organizations.
“(In) some organizations, people are working at home but don’t get trusted. They feel like they’re now just being micromanaged from the distance because we are not quite sure if they will take advantage of us. None of us want to be taken advantage of. But if we can’t trust our people, they cannot trust you back.
“Right now is a great opportunity to create an agreement with your people, to give trust in a smart way, by clarifying expectations, agreeing to accountabilities. And by doing that, it’s telling them that you trust them. If you do this well up front, right now is a great opportunity to actually build more trust, not less, but also build more trust, not only by being trusting, but by demonstrating your genuine care and concern for your people.”
“If they feel that you understand,” he continues, “that you have empathy and understanding and if they feel that you care about them, they tend to trust you. If they don’t think that you care about them, they tend to withhold the trust.
“So, I think right now is a great opportunity to build more trust in navigating this pandemic crisis,” he concludes.
After all, it takes a trusted leader and an inspired people to reach the “promised land.”