• FOREWORD •
I’LL NEVER FORGET THE day I met Joel Peterson. It was in November 1985. I had recently been hired by Trammell Crow Company, which at the time was the largest real estate development company in the United States. Joel was serving as its Chief Financial Officer and its de facto strategist.
As a young professional working in my first “real” job, meeting the man who was considered the number two person in the firm was obviously a big deal to me. Yet what I remember most to this day was the extraordinary reputation Joel had with seemingly everyone in the firm. At a relatively young age, he was already a legend, and everyone talked about not only his brilliance, but also his integrity—and in equal parts. After meeting and spending time with him, I was similarly impressed by both his character and competence, commenting to my wife, “Everybody trusts Joel. He’s who I want to be like in business.”
It was a great thrill to me years later to have the chance to be personally mentored by Joel when he served as Vice Chairman of Covey Leadership Center, the firm founded by my father, the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey. I was serving as the company’s CEO, and under Joel’s guidance I learned many things that significantly influenced my leadership, including the judgment that flows from a broad perspective he called “all things considered,” the preeminent importance of focusing on creating value for clients, and the power of simplicity. Through my association with Joel, I also experienced firsthand the impact of credibility and trust. Partly as a result of his influence, I focused intentionally on building a high-trust culture within our organization and with all our stakeholders. That focus became a game-changer for us. Our performance dramatically improved—and we had a lot more fun along the way!
Having since devoted my life and work around what I feel called to do—to help leaders and organizations create and leverage trust—I was humbled and honored when Joel invited me to write the foreword for this superb book, The 10 Laws of Trust.
Before you begin to read this book, I would like to extend a personal invitation to you. I invite you to consider a particularly challenging business situation or relationship you’re currently facing. Assume you have a good grasp of your current circumstances and how you arrived there—but the way forward isn’t clear.
Now imagine that you will have personal access to unparalleled insight and advice from a business leader, investor, and teacher who has worked firsthand with over 2,300 businesses, hundreds of partners and thousands of leaders over a 40-year career, and who has also taught thousands of future leaders at Stanford. Further, imagine that this insight and advice will be given to you in a way that is both extremely engaging and highly practical.
That’s exactly what’s available to you in The 10 Laws of Trust. In this remarkable book, you can gain profound insight, wisdom, skill and courage to move forward in a situation or relationship you’re currently facing—as well as in any other challenging situation or, for that matter, any exciting opportunity in life.
Let me share why I can say this so confidently. For over 25 years I have been focused on helping people understand and implement the power of trust so that they can access the increased speed, lower cost, higher energy, and fundamental joys that come from trusting and being trusted. In the process, I have learned three fundamental truths about trust.
1. Trust is an economic driver. As I analyzed my research and experience to write my own book, The Speed of Trust, it became unarguably clear to me that trust is not merely a soft, “nice to have” social virtue; it’s also an economic driver, always affecting both the speed at which we can move and the cost of everything involved. Put simply, high trust is a dividend; low trust is a tax. In fact, in our increasingly low-trust world, trust has literally become the new currency of our global economy. Joel’s sharing of personal experiences and his astute observation and analysis of headline business news events over the past several decades support this reality. The companies, leaders and educators he cites in this book underscore that lasting success is derived from following enduring principles—particularly trust.
2. Trust is the one thing that changes everything. Trust is the number one leadership competency needed today, principally because of how it affects every other competency leaders need to have. All the things we need to do well as leaders—innovating, collaborating, partnering, teaming, attracting and retaining people, engaging people, executing, selling, leading change—we can do better if we start with trust. Trust is a multiplier for all these competencies, eventually creating a ripple effect that can positively impact not only our organizations but ultimately all of society.
3. Trust is a learnable competency. Trust is not just the domain of a privileged few with charisma or certain personality characteristics. Trust is a competency, a set of attitudes and skills that can be acquired and sustained by anyone who’s willing to pay the price. As Joel’s work illustrates, enduring organizations are created by leaders and people who excel in this competency—who understand and practice the fundamental beliefs of being credible and behaving in ways that inspire trust. Joel gives us a wonderfully comprehensive blueprint of how to do it with his 10 Laws.
Joel’s book is powerfully aligned with these three truths. In addition, as I’ve already mentioned, he himself is an amazingly credible source. He’s built, led, invested in, and guided highly successful organizations. He’s built high-trust cultures. He has lived and modeled these 10 Laws he espouses. Each of the three elements in his definition of trust—character, competence and authority—I have personally seen him demonstrate with excellence. I’ve witnessed his deep integrity, his competence as an organizational leader and investor, and the principled way he exercises and aligns authority.
Because Joel presents the 10 Laws in a way that is immensely practical, they are relatively simple to apply (though not easy). When I began my study of trust, I found that many of the books that had been published were either too simplistic and naive or too philosophical and academic. They shared theories, but not enough practices to enable people to successfully incorporate them in their work and lives. Unlike those books, Joel’s 10 Laws simultaneously blends enduring principles with powerful practical applications that you can implement immediately in the real world.
To me, one of the most impactful parts of Joel’s book is his final chapter on restoring trust. This is a subject I also explored in The Speed of Trust, and I am convinced this is an essential focus in today’s society with so many broken leaders, broken promises, and broken cultures that all need to be made whole again through commitment and alignment with enduring principles. My father wisely taught, “You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into.” While I agree, I’ve also learned that you can often behave your way out of a problem you behaved your way into. Indeed, in many situations, you can restore trust, and Joel’s experience and insight demonstrate where it might be possible, where it might be wise and how it might be done. What incredible hope this gives to those who have been struggling with issues around broken trust!
For all of these reasons—and more—I am firmly convinced that the time you spend considering your current business challenge as you read The 10 Laws of Trust will pay off handsomely for you. But further, it will give you a solid foundation for resolving other issues in the future, and—even more important—for creating behaviors and cultures of trust that will enable you from the outset to avoid many of the challenges that derail other companies and leaders and instead be positioned to maximize all that can go right.
Bottom line, in our uncertain, ever-changing world, Joel has given us a powerful and practical foundation of unchanging principles. As we understand and apply the 10 Laws, we will become people and leaders who can be trusted—and who trust others. It’s my belief and hope that Joel’s book will help us develop the perspective and judgment to inspire and extend trust deliberately so that each of us can enjoy greater prosperity, energy, and joy in all dimensions of our lives. As we do this, the ultimate end will be that together we will be able to increase trust—and the benefits of trust—throughout the world. And that’s how we will continue to make the world a better place for us all.
Stephen M. R. Covey
Author of The New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The Speed of Trust, and co-founder of FranklinCovey’s Trust Practice