In this concise "6 questions in 7 minutes" interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust. Covey explains that trust is a learnable competency that fuels high‑performing teams and cultures. He shares why seeing leaders move from low to high trust makes him smile, points listeners to the pivotal chapter “Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything,” and outlines his inside‑out framework (self‑trust → relationship → team → organization → market → societal trust). Covey recounts his first job caring for his father’s yard at age six, illustrating how early responsibility and being trusted shaped his lifelong trust philosophy. He recommends his brother David Covey, author of Trap Tales, as a future guest, and directs listeners to speedoftrust.com for tools, videos, and free resources to foster a renaissance of trust.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Well, thank you, Professor Pete Alexander. It's great to be with you. I'm Stephen M. R. Covey. I'm the author of The Speed of Trust, and what I do is I speak to audiences and organizations all around the world about how to build a high-trust team, a high-trust culture, as a better way to lead and navigate in our world today. To be able to solve our problems, we can't do it without trust, and it's a low-trust world, and I'm trying to help reverse that, counteract that by teaching how trust is learnable as a skill. I call it the Speed of Trust.
Stephen, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Well, I'll tell you what makes me smile is to see leaders and people and even organizations really move the needle in creating high-trust teams and cultures, high-trust relationships. And the reason it makes me smile is because it makes them smile. And because, think about it, to all of our listeners and viewers, the happiest relationships are those in which people can trust each other. They're the most enduring, they're the most productive, they're the most sustainable, but they're also The most fun, the most enjoyable is when people can trust each other. Whereas the opposite is true when there's distrust in a relationship, a team, a culture. It's exhausting. It's no fun. You want to avoid it, get away from it. So high trust energizes and it creates great joy, happiness, and a lot of smiles. And low trust, just the opposite. So to see leaders, teams, organizations move from high trust or from low trust to high trust or medium to high or high to higher is exciting because I smile because they smile and there's more energy and joy.
And I absolutely love not only your energy but your passion and your voice. It is so wonderful. So question number 3, now this is a book question, so we know that you have that book, but my book is a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
The chapter that is called Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything. And in, in that chapter, you'd read about how the presence of trust will make us better at everything else that we're trying to do. Our ability to collaborate, our ability to engage people, our ability to build teams, our ability to partner with people, our ability to execute strategy, our ability to lead change. Everything we're trying to do, we can do better when we start with trust. And the opposite is true as well. If there's distrust in relationships, in teams, in organizations, or in a particular leader and they're not trusted, everything else that you're trying to do there will be diminished, diluted, what I call taxed. And so the basic premise is this, is that high trust is a dividend and low trust is a tax and it is impacting everything. Trust truly is the one thing that changes everything. I think people kind of intuitively know this from their own experience. But if you play it out in business and in life, as this podcast is about, you'll see it impacts us at work. It impacts us at home and in the community. Trust changes everything in either direction in profound ways.
And I couldn't agree with you more. It is so, so insightful. Thank you. Question number 4: other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Probably simply this: that trust is a learnable skill. It is a competency. That's a paradigm shift for most people. Most people kind of think, hey, You either have trust or you don't. It's either there or it's not. And I'll acknowledge that that's your starting point, but in the same way that you can diminish and lose trust through your behavior, you can also consciously, deliberately create it, grow it, expand it, extend it, and in some cases, even restore it through your behavior. And in fact, you can get intentionally good at building trust on purpose. It is a learnable skill. And that's what I spend the bulk of the Speed of Trust book on is kind of the first couple chapters are on why this matters, the one thing that changes everything, and then it's on how we build trust on purpose. And the basic premise is that trust is built from the inside out. So self-trust precedes relationship trust. Which precedes team trust, which precedes organizational trust, which precedes market and customer trust, which precedes societal trust. Inside out. Trust is built from the inside out by looking in the mirror, starting with ourselves, focusing on our credibility and our behavior. And I try to give people tools and a framework and a language and a process of how trust is learnable if we become more credible and behave in ways that build the trust. Simple, but not easy. But I think the impact can be profound.
Oh, I can only imagine. And it is so insightful that you say from the inside out, because it really does. It's similar to love. You have to love yourself first before you can love other people. You have to be able to trust yourself before you can trust others. Am I right?
You are absolutely right. If you don't trust yourself, how can you possibly build and sustain trust with others? That distrust of self would leak out into the relationship. When you do trust yourself, you start with that, this base of credible trust ability, who I am, my character, my competence, then it becomes natural and abundant to build trust in all your other relationships and to be both trustworthy but also trusting. And we need to be both trustworthy and trusting to build trust with others.
Absolutely. So, so insightful. Thank you so much. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
I'll tell you who I'm thinking of, my brother, David Covey. David Covey is a tremendous thought leader. He's a leader in his own right, built businesses, and he's got a great book out on "Trap Tales" and the traps that people get, they get in the way of people's success and how to turn this into a success. And, but it's really a lot of fun. He is an exciting, fun personality that will bring extraordinary energy, but also great insight. And you'll have a lot of fun doing that show with him. So David Covey, Trap Tales, I think you'll love him.
Oh, I'm looking forward to interviewing him. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Well, my first job was with my dad, and it's a famous one. For those that have read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which my dad wrote, it's when he taught me how to take care of the yard, the lawn. He called it green and clean. And he's, you know, I was only 6 years old and he said, "Son, your job is to take care of the yard." And this was, you know, years ago before they had automatic sprinklers. And he taught me that how I did it was up to me. He wasn't gonna manage my methods. He said I could turn the hose on and spit all day long if I wanted, or if I wanted, I could turn the sprinklers on. He goes, "All I care about is green and clean." And we kind of created this agreement together It took some, you know, I was 6 years old. It took a couple of weeks for him to train me. And then he turned me loose on it. And at first I let him down and did nothing. And, you know, I didn't respond to it because I was just a 6-year-old boy. But then, you know, he said, let's walk around and see how you're doing. That was part of the agreement. And when I walked around, I said, I realized that I had not done anything. I said, Dad, this is just so hard. And he said, what's hard? You haven't done one thing. 'But what was hard was me learning to take responsibility, to take initiative, to own this.' And then he said, 'I'll help you.' And I said, 'Great.' And then I started to say, 'Would you go pick up this garbage and that garbage?' I started to instruct him. And it was at that moment when I realized I'm in charge. This is my responsibility. My dad trusts me to take care of this yard. And from that moment, I took care of the yard and the yard was green and it was clean. I lived up to the stewardship, the trust being given. I responded. I rose to the occasion. That was That was my first job. I learned it from my father. He trusted me first and I rose to the occasion and gave the trust right back to him. So that's what inspires me to this day as I do all this work about trust. I think I started with someone who trusted me in a little thing that became a big thing, became a framework for how I viewed the world and my life.
What a great story. And I do remember reading that, and but for you to describe it in the way that you did, just brought a whole new flavor to it for me. So thank you for sharing that.
And you are welcome.
Yeah, Stephen, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Um, all the social media channels, but also, uh, just, uh, speedoftrust.com is, uh, you know, just a core website where we got a lot of tools, videos, things that are free that you can access, use that to learn more about trust. And, and, uh, so speedoftrust.com is probably the best way. And I invite you to join me and, and you, Professor Pete, and countless others to help bring about a renaissance of trust in this world. It's what we need.
Absolutely. And I'm, I'm on board for that. So thank you so much, Stephen. And this is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
