In his classic book, The Speed of Trust, our colleague Stephen M. R. Covey explained that the first imperative of a leader is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity
and possibility.

TRUST—A PERFORMANCE MULTIPLIER

Only 10 percent of workers trust their bosses to do the right thing, and only 14 percent believe their company’s leaders are ethical and honest. Less than a fifth of the general public trusts business leaders to be ethical and honest.

For companies known as being trusted, thebad news is good news. People are hungrierthan ever to do business with people they can trust. A Watson Wyatt study found the high-trust organizations outperform low-trust organizations in total return to shareholdersby threefold. Why is that?