Lessons - How To Build Real Trust | Stephen M. R. Covey, CEO of FranklinCovey

Welcome to Lessons episodes of Success Story, part of the HubSpot podcast network. These lessons episodes will be shorter conversations with past guests, valued members of the success story community, and myself. They'll be focused on teaching you actionable, insightful takeaways that you can use to upskill your personal and professional life. Seven habits of highly effective people. Why has that book and those lessons remained so influential? How has that sort of transcended all the different change, the disruption, the change in how we work, the change in how we hire and train and on board, and even like the personal change in what we hold there, because this book was, this book was, when was this book released? 1989. 1989. So now we're 2022, and it is still, it's still, it's on my shelf, it was the first book that was given to me by one of my CEOs when I joined a company. So why do you think it stayed so influential and remained so influential? I think there's several reasons I'll just highlight three of them. First, I think it's because it's focused on principles that are timeless, that endure. As opposed to just practices or techniques that might have flow and go in and out with different times. Now, these are enduring principles of effectiveness that worked in 1989, that worked in 2022, and we're working 21-22, I believe, because they're fundamental principles of effectiveness, integrity and fairness and trust and enduring principles, service, contribution, these types of things. So that's the first reason. The second is, because seven habits is really about moving from the inside out. As opposed to kind of saying, well, the problem is out there, it's everybody else, it's saying, what can I do? Let's look in the mirror. I'll work from the inside out and take responsibility and own it. And that is empowering to everybody, no matter where we stand, we can do things in our circle of influence and have that grow and expand. So that's, it's so self-empowering to people of how they can engage in these principles and take responsibility for themselves, for their lives. And that gives you a sense of clarity and power in a world of change and disruption. And people want and seek that, to have a sense of, here's what I can do within my circle of influence and enlarge that. And I think that is self-empowering. And finally, I think that I liked how Jim Collins put it, the author of Good to Great. He wrote a forward for my dad's book that is being used today. And in it, he said, he talked about how the internet really was created in the late 60s, but didn't really gain popularity or usage until, you know, the mid-90s. And because it was so complex and so cumbersome. And it wasn't until there was a user interface, a browser that happened with netscape and others in the 90s that made the internet accessible, usable, because it needed a user interface. And he said that these principles of effectiveness have been out there for centuries. But what my father did in the seven habits was create the equivalent of a human effectiveness user interface, a browser that brought them together, made them accessible, practical, tangible, actionable, that we could get our arms around of these universal principles that were existing for a long time. He didn't create the principles. He just created a user interface of human effectiveness that made this accessible. And that's what the seven habits says. And I think it's a good analogy for why it's so useful and so practical. The idea that private victories precede public victories and be proactive, begin with end-to-mind, put first things first, just a really practical way of applying and implementing these universal principles that have been out there. So that's the idea behind the seven habits. And I think it's really one of the main reasons why it's so useful and valuable to people even today. And I think it will be 30 years from now and 100 years from now as well. You have to have the inspiration, but that's such a difficult thing to wrap your mind around. How do I, because you always say that, oh, you want all your employees to feel like they're owners. I mean, you can give out some equity. You can maybe give them some options, but it's very difficult to inspire somebody at the same level as the founder, CEO, people that own the business. So how do you do this? How do you actually do this? Yeah, well, I love how you framed it, Scott, because you're exactly right. That the high-trust culture is half of it. The high-trust culture that inspires, that inspiration is the other half. And you need both halves in our world today to differentiate, to make a difference, to be the kind of organization in place where people feel like they can, where they're trusted and the work they do matters, and makes a difference, and they want to make a difference. And so how do you inspire? Well, first of all, let me say this, that I think you've identified, you know, to use the Wayne Gretzky metaphor, where he was asked, what makes you so great at hockey? And he says, I skate to where the puck is going to be. Not to where it's been, but to where it's going to be. I think in leadership, the puck, so to speak, where things are going is towards inspiration, inspiration. And I think inspiration is actually the new engagement, the next frontier of engagement. We've been focused on engagement for the last 20 years, and it's a good thing. I'm not going to downplay engagement, it's vital to engage people so that they have that discretionary effort that they're giving. That's a good thing. We need to continue to move towards engagement, but I think there's another frontier, another level that's inspiration, even beyond engagement. And there's actually a study from Vaining Company that shows that inspired employees are yes, 125% more productive than merely satisfied employees. And you might expect that, you know, satisfied that's not enough, but they're even 56% more productive than engaged employees. So another frontier level that we can reach when people feel inspired and inspiration, to inspire comes from the Latin term inspirari. It means to breathe life into, so you breathe life into relationships and the teams and organizations and the culture. You light the fire that's within people, it's internal, it's intrinsic, it's inside of them. The motivation is external, it's extrinsic, so you motivate people with care and stick. That can come out of command and control, and it's not a bad thing per se. It's just that you're trying to move people through carrots, through sticks, to try to move people to do things. Inspiration is internal, it's intrinsic, it's inside of people, you're trying to light the fire within and let that fire burn. And you know, there's a need constant, new incentives, new stimuli thrown at it. It can live on, and if you can ignite that fire that's inside of people, that can burn on for years, and that's a higher level that we're trying to achieve to tap into the desire for purpose, for meaning, for contribution. I think that's where things are going, towards inspiration to be inspired, had that fire lit within. I'll give you an example of this, I went and worked with the Pepperdine University, beautiful university in Southern California, and here's their, I worked with Jim Gash, their president, and their cabinet, and their team, listen to the school of business there, the Graziato School of Business, they establish a purpose that people really feel a sense of connection to that inspires them, and they phrase it this way, that our purpose is not to develop leaders who are best in the world. Our purpose is to develop leaders who are best for the world, you know, best for the world leaders. Now to be best for the world, you've got to also be pretty good in the world too, you know, so it's not saying it's not either or it's an ant, but the overarching purpose is contribution to make a difference to matter best for the world leaders, and imagine what that does to inspire the professors, the staff, the janitor, anyone working there feels like I'm part of developing best for the world leaders, and tapping to that sense of purpose and meaning and contribution, that's what we want to do, so that, you know, tapping into that, that sense of purpose matters, but I think it's even possible to inspire people when we do it through caring, as a leader that you care, you connect with people through caring in the sense of belonging, as well as connecting people to purpose, meaning and contribution, so it can be grand in the sense of there's purpose, meaning and contribution, but it also can be micro in the sense of, it's just my immediate supervisor, my colleague, my peer, they care about me, I feel the sense of caring and that inspires me, I feel a sense of belonging, and that inspires me, and every one of us as leaders can do that, everyone can inspire.