Ever wondered how a mindset reset can revolutionize your leadership and productivity? Join us on this episode as Penny Zenker dives into a captivating conversation with Stephen M.R .Covey, the renowned author of The Speed of Trust and Trust and Inspire. In celebration of Penny’s upcoming book, The Reset Mindset, they explore how embracing agility and dynamic thinking can transform the way we lead and live. Stephen shares invaluable insights on building trust, fostering high-trust cultures, and moving beyond command and control to truly inspire and unleash the potential in others. Tune in for actionable strategies and profound paradigm shifts that will help you become a more effective, inspiring leader. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from one of the foremost thought leaders on trust and leadership.

   —

Listen to the podcast here

 

Reset Trust: The Paradigm Shift In The Way We Lead With Stephen M.R. Covey

High Trust Culture

We’re celebrating this new series around the reset mindset. In celebration of the launch of my new book that’s coming out in September 2024. It’s called The Reset Mindset. The book is centered around what is a reset mindset. It talks about how important for this day and age it is to be able to be more agile, to dynamically reassess as we get new information and as the environment changes. It’s going to shift the way that we work, lead, and the way that we live.

We’re going to be talking to different leaders, authors, and thought leaders who are going to be here talking about how we can be more dynamic in our thinking, our behavior, and our innovation. That’s going to be part of the series. Thank you for being here and make sure that you’re catching all of these because we’re going to have some fantastic guests with some unique perspectives.

I’m super excited to have Stephen M. R. Covey on the show. Maybe he needs no introduction. I’m not sure many people know his father from 7 Habits, but Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal number one bestselling author of The Speed of Trust and Trust and Inspire. He’s the former CEO of Covey Leadership, which under his stewardship became the largest leadership development company in the world.

Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s books, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to become one of the two most influential business books in the 20th Century according to CEO Magazine. I’ve been following him for years. He’s an incredible leader and brings some incredibly important perspectives on the speed of trust, how we develop trust, but also what needs to change in our leadership, and a paradigm shift in the way that we approach trust in the organization through our leadership. Without further ado, welcome Stephen M. R. Covey. Stephen, welcome to the show.

Penny, it’s so great to be with you. I’m excited for this.

Me too. We were on a panel together and I was saying I would love to riff a bit about some topics since that was more structured. I’m excited to have you here so we can do that. We can riff a little bit.

I know. We had so much fun on the panel. We said, “We got to get together and go deeper on some of these ideas and be able to have our conversation.” This is it.

High Trust Culture

I’ve been following your work for a while. I loved Speed of Trust and how it is so vital and so true. When I talk about productivity, people often think of the more measurable type of things but I love that you put it very clear that trust is our fastest way to productivity through these relationships.

I like to say that nothing is as fast as the speed of trust. It might take you a little time to create it, but once you create it, you move exceptionally fast. When you talk about a time saver and productivity, you build trust. Speed happens when people trust each other.

Speed happens when people trust each other. Share on X

It’s huge. That’s amazing. I want to start with this. You wrote The Speed of Trust in 2008, and then more recently you wrote Trust and Inspire. There’s been a time gap in between there then you have the future on the horizon. What has changed for you? I don’t even know how to ask that question, but let’s say like that. What has changed for you from when you first wrote the book to the last book? Where do you see the future headed?

Very interesting because when I first came out with The Speed of Trust, I had to spend a lot of time making the case for why trust mattered, the business case for trust, and the leadership case for trust. Now, I don’t have to make the case very much. People get it. It’s everywhere. We have a lot of trust all around us. There’s a high cost and low trust and people see it and we’re stuck. The need to make the case is not as great as it was before because it’s all around us. We’re immersed in a low-trust culture that tends to perpetuate itself. That’s one thing.

The second thing is initially, I focused on how if you could increase trust, it would help you do all the other things that you’re trying to do better like collaborate better, innovate better, engage people, lead change, and retain people. That all remains true. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed though is that now people are saying, “We need trust for trust alone. We need a high team and high trust culture.”

Don’t even worry that we have to do it to accomplish the collaboration that we want or the innovation we want. That remains, but now there’s a focus on our culture. We have to focus on culture and we need trust in our culture. Trust is the job to be done. Not just one of the enablers of another job to be done, where if you have trust, you can do collaboration or innovation or engagement better.

It’s the dominance, the first dominant.

This is the job. We need a high-trust culture.

It’s like once you get that, then the rest of them are possible and will fall.

People are flat-out saying it. We need a high trust culture and we don’t have one.

They’re saying it because people are so skeptical. Why do you think? As you said, the case is made because people are so skeptical and it’s so obvious. It has amplified the problem. Why do you think that is?

It’s because we’re operating in a low-trust world. Distrust is contagious. It spreads. We all become a little bit more careful, cautious, and guarded when there’s low trust around us. People respond back, more careful, more cautious, and more guarded. We can find ourselves perpetuating this vicious downward cycle of distrust and suspicion, creating more distrust and suspicion and everybody feeling justified in the process.

Distrust is contagious. We’ve got to counteract it. It seeps into our organizations. When people start to say, “Who can you trust?” We lose trust and institutions. You start to say, “Can I even trust my leadership?” You start to become cynical. You’re skeptical about everything because none of us want to get burned. It’s understandable. When you’re in a vicious downward cycle, it’s a little bit like the reset. We have to reset our thinking. We have to intentionally say, “We got to counteract this.”

Not just allow this drift of distrust to lead to more distrust. We say, “No, we got to counteract it. We have to reset our purposeful bias. We have to intentionally create trust and lead with trust, especially in a low-trust world because this is not going to take us to where we need to be to collaborate, innovate, and work our way out of our problems. We have to do that with a new way of thinking and we can’t get there without trust. We have to counteract the low trust around us. That’s why I think this is on everyone’s minds. It’s because we’re immersed in a low-trust world. We’re like fish who discover water last. We’re so immersed in it. We’re sometimes not even aware that the issue is trust.

Reset Trust

You mentioned the reset. Because I gave you a copy of my book, The Reset Mindset. I’m maybe reinforcing that language.

I love it.

Thank you. Coming upon that, what is it that we need to reset in our thinking about our leadership that shifts the way that we show up as leaders so that we are intentionally fostering these trusting cultures?

We need to reset our leadership mindset and our thinking to move out of the additional what I call command and control to a mindset of trust inspires, in contrast to command and control. We’ve made a lot of movement within this realm but what I found is we’ve moved from authoritarian command and control to an enlightened command and control. It’s a better version of it.

We think we’ve changed, but we haven’t changed.

The change is incremental. It’s different in degree but not different in kind.

Maybe sidestepping it. It’s like, “I’m not here but I’m taking a step to the side,” because it’s not forward, is it?

Yes, but it’s improved. It’s better but still, it’s a command and control mindset. I call it enlightened command and control. A more advanced and more sophisticated version of it. Better and kinder with people but we need to have the complete, the reset into a whole new way of leading. I call it trust and inspire, in contrast to command and control. I’ll give you a couple of the resets that need to happen.

Command and control manage people and things. Trust and inspire manage things but lead people. We need good management of things, systems, structures, strategies, numbers, and the business. We manage things but we lead people. Sometimes, we’ve gotten so good at the management of things that we start to manage people as if they were things. People don’t want to be managed. People want to be led. They want to be trusted. They want to inspire.

 

In command and control, the focus is efficiency, which is a good thing with things but it’s transactional nature. In trust and inspire, the focus is on effectiveness, which can be transformational to relationships, teams, and cultures, be efficient with things, and be effective with people. In command and control, the focus is on motivation, which is external and extrinsic. It tends to be heavy hair and stick motivation, rewards focus. Nothing is wrong with that. It’s just incomplete.

We have to have it as a base. Trust and inspire, by contrast, the focus is on inspiration. It’s internal, intrinsic, and inside of people. You light the fire within. That fire once lit can burn on for months. If not, years without the need for constant external stimuli, more carrots, and more sticks. Inspiration can take you to a whole different place than motivation ever can.

These are the resets and paradigm shift of rethinking of how we’re leading. We’re very much immersed still with all our progress in a command and control world. The research shows about 90% of organizations are still operating in some form of command and control as their primary leadership style. We’ve got a shift to one of trust and inspire where we see the potential, the greatness, the talent inside of people, and see our job is not to try to contain and control people, but to unleash them and to grow them as means of how we’re going to get the results by doing it in a way that grows people. We have to shift our leadership style.

With that being said, some of the research that I’ve done and the people that I’ve interviewed and spoken with, it seems like the pandemic amplified this command and control because people going to work from home gave people less control. That’s why they’re also forcing this, “Let’s all come back to the office full-time,” because they want to stay in that command and control.

I get it, when we feel like we’re out of control, we’re all control freaks. If we think about it, we feel stressed and overwhelmed when we feel in control. We look for things to try to control. We’re fighting against this part of ourselves. The leaders who want to feel in control. How do you explain to people that you have more control? You get more results from inspiring peace because you’re not getting the commitment from people. You’re getting compliance. It’s a transaction versus ownership.

You expressed it beautifully. You’re getting compliance, not commitment. You’re getting the status quo, not innovation and change. People will do what they’re told but not their heartfelt commitment, creativity, innovation, and passion. Here’s the irony to this. There’s more control in trust and inspire culture than there is in any command and control culture. You can’t come up with enough rules, regulations, policies, and procedures for people who you can’t and don’t trust. There’s enough.

That’s true, and then everybody else suffers as a result. When you put all those rules in place, you’re crushing everybody’s spirit.

[00:14:02] We’re penalizing the 98% that we can trust because of the 2% that we can’t. We penalize the many because of the few. That’s the great irony of this. There’s greater control in the high trust culture plus greater results because of the reasons you mentioned. People are more committed. When they’re involved, they’re more committed. When you build the agreement together with someone, they’re more committed. They achieve it better.

When they’re creative, they’re more innovative in doing so. You get better results but I would argue also, you haven’t lost control. You shift the control from having to hover over or micromanage to when you built the agreement and the controls in the agreement with expectations and accountability. The person governs themselves against that agreement reporting back to you so they’re accountable against the expectations you build together.

They feel empowered. You don’t have to micromanage. You gain more time and they perform better. They’re happier and you still have control. You’re just shifting it from being the one that tries to control to the agreement governing. When agreements govern and the agreements are built right with the person, not dictated to the person, then there’s greater control in that very agreement itself. It’s a beautiful synergistic process that sounds so simple. It’s just that we’re trapped in a command and control world, our language, our systems, and our structures. It’s all around us.

Language Shifts

That brings me when you say language. I’m curious because I like to play with language. As I said, the difference between accountability and ownership. I play with these perspectives because even though there’s a slight change in words, it changes everything. It changes our attitudes, expectations, and priorities. I’m interested in what language shifts for you. How could people use language to make part of that shift?

[00:16:00] Think of some of the common languages of my span of control. The very word span of control. The number of people reporting to me, “That’s a military term.” It comes from the command and control language and reset it. Rethink it in terms of how about my span of care. Those that I have a stewardship for and to demonstrate the care and the concern for. I learned that from Bob Chapman, span of care, instead of the span of control.

Instead of doing something to someone or even for someone, that’s transactional. I do this for you, then you for me. Let’s do this with each other. It’s a with. We’re moving from for to with. It shifts everything. Now we’re working together. We’re collaborating. We’re partnering. We’re working on inspiration, not motivation. From the words of employees instead of associates, coworkers, vendors, suppliers, or partners.

I’ve heard a lot of companies be shifting that language. Disney also has a good one with its guests.

Even at a higher level than the customer, it’s a guest, an associate, a colleague, a coworker, or an employee. It communicates a lot in the very language itself and so much of our language. It does come from a command and control mindset, the rank and file. Heaven forbid, we don’t use these words anymore. We used to say subordinates. Luckily, we don’t anymore but it’s so deeply scripted and in our system structures.

I even think of things like high potential. What is that communicating to everybody else that’s not on that list? We’re not seeing the greatness in them. How do I feel if I’m not on the high-potential list and you’re my leader? From boss to coach. These language shifts. It needs to be both the language but also the paradigm. Another one is that leadership is stewardship. It’s not about rights. It’s about responsibilities. That’s what stewardship is, an essential responsibility. Stewardship is a job with a trust. As leaders, we are stewards. We’re not mechanics who go around fixing people and things. We’re gardeners, creating conditions for the seeds to grow.

Leadership is stewardship. It's not about rights. It's about responsibilities. Share on X

It’s like the life and the powers in the seed, the life, the powers, and the people as leaders were gardeners creating conditions for the people to grow. We’re trying to get results, both command and control, and trust and inspire try to get results. Command and control do it through people, but they use people as a means to an end. Trust and inspire says, “We get results in a way that grows people.

We have two ends, the results but also the growth of people. Our ability to grow in the future has gone up. Our people are happier, with greater energy, joy, well-being, and better productivity, which is the great irony in all of this. That’s the idea of its language, system, and structures. We’re in a command-and-control world. It’s like our native tongue. This trust and inspires like an acquired tongue. We got to learn it. We have to get better at it. We got to find models and mentors for it then become one ourselves.

To put it into my language, if we have to find these reset moments so that we can look for opportunities. Those opportunities to reset that language would be like those reset moments. It’s to notice when we’re in command and control. Take that as a reset moment to shift the language to embed more inspiration into the process or look at those systems, the process, and the language and use that.

The reset moments, there are so many opportunities for reset moments in our leadership as we reset any interaction. We could approach this even as an interruption. Other than this from Mette Norgaard and Doug Conant in their book Touchpoints, where the reset idea is that we get all these interruptions. Their whole point is those interruptions are where leadership is learned and experienced. The action is in the interaction. Rather than an interruption from people, it’s a chance to connect, teach, learn, grow, and coach and a whole shift in how I view all the demands on my time when people come up and talk to me, “Interrupt me.” That’s not an interruption. It’s a chance for growth.

That’s a nice reframe. I like that. How you approach it with that sense of mindset is how you’re going to interact with them. Are you going to snap at them and make them feel like they’re an annoyance or are they going to feel welcomed? Even if you don’t “fix.” You may ask them a question but you ask it in a completely different interactive way than you would if you were interrupted.

Failure Is Feedback

A couple of the reset moments, I also saw this in your book. The idea of failure is feedback. I’ve said a similar thing. I’ve said failure is growth. You fell fast, fell forward, and fell often, but learn faster because it’s all about learning. Learning is more important than knowledge. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than memory.” You’ve got to learn, grow, reframe, re-shift, and reset yourself in these things.

Another one you highlight that I do as well is assume positive intent. It’s such a big one because it’s very easy to go down the path of starting to cast motives on people. Often from our frame of reference, in a worst case, from worst case scenarios, and when you reset and say, “I’m going to assume positive intent.” Instantly, things change.

I’ve had some great personal experiences where I’ve seen that happen and it stops that spiral that you were talking about earlier.

It can be profound. Indra Newey, the former CEO of PepsiCo, was asked, “What is the single greatest learning of your life?” She said, “Always assume positive intent. Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent because you’ll be amazed how that will change everything,” because it’s a purposeful pause. It’s a reset, the very thing you talk about. It makes such a difference.

We need that resetting in our leadership, including how we see people. They’re whole people, body, heart, mind, and spirit that brings their whole stuff to work. Not just economic beans who want to get paid. They do want to be paid because they have a body but they also have a heart. They want to connect, care, and love. They have a mind they want to grow and develop. They have a spirit they want to contribute, make a difference that matters, and do meaningful and purposeful work.

See them as whole people, not just people who want to be paid. Not just an employee who wants to be paid. See them as having greatness in them and potential. Even if it’s lying dormant or not seen, our job as a leader is to see that potential and then communicate it to them so that they come to see it in themselves and develop and unleash it. Versus, I have to control or contain people. There’s a whole series of resets that need to happen in our leadership.

 

That’s what my Trust and Inspire book is trying to do, but you’ve given me some good language with the reset idea of these shifts that need to happen. There are big ones, the big paradigm shifts. There are a lot of these small ones that you talk about that happen all the time and need to happen all the time. As we’re leading, how are we showing up to our people generically overall? How about going one by one? How do I show up to this person who I’m leading?

Reset Leadership

I love listening to you talk. I think people would be interested to hear maybe a story from your own experience. When was a time when you had to reset your leadership style or have a leadership reset for yourself that you can recall that would be pivotal and interesting for people to learn something from?

When I was the CEO of Covey Leadership Center, we had one of our divisions that I had a paradigm of mindset about them that they were important to us. They’re part of our mission but they weren’t adding a lot of economic value. I saw it as, “We got to do this.” We’re not just any company. We’re a company with a mission, but they’re not getting a lot of margin.

I labeled them that way and found the evidence to prove it. We did some activity-based costing and tried to assign what things were costing and everything else. I realized these folks are being extraordinarily productive to inform more with less. When we came out of the activity-based costing, I realized they’re quite profitable too. They’re producing a lot and I had no data that showed it. The data helped shift my paradigm. Suddenly, once my paradigm shifted, I found a thousand different ways how I viewed them differently and saw them differently.

I had to go back and apologize for how I’d labeled them and perpetuated that label, then I became their greatest advocate and champion. I wanted to undo how I’d wrongly labeled them and show how they were not only vital to our mission. They were vital to our margin. We needed both and they were indispensable. I had to be humble and take it that I was wrong. I had to make this shift around them. That was with a division. I had hard data. Sometimes we have to do it with a person but we got to see them differently.

That’s incredible. I had a similar experience where somebody came and apologized to me as an individual for a label or a wrong look at work. I could only imagine from my experience the way that group probably responds. When you talk about speed to trust, being vulnerable and simply saying, “I got this wrong.” Whether it’s how I’m going to make it up to you or here’s how I see things now or whatever, that must have completely had them so fired up about working with you and what they were creating because now they had that.

It creates such a different connection. I remember when this person apologized to me. I felt like we never had any issues. There were no more rules that had to be in place because we knew. I would have been able to assume positive intent then he had my back because of that one vulnerable moment. Even if other things didn’t work out well, it was because of that one moment that his integrity went off the charts that I knew that he was a good person and I could trust him.

Beautiful. I love it. I agree completely, especially when we’re authentic. That’s integrity and vulnerability. That requires humility. There’s a blending of both humility and courage that you’re going to be humble enough to say, “I was wrong,” and be courageous enough to say, “I was wrong.” I want to make it right when I’m wrong and make this up and try to find ways to behave my way back into trust.

Suddenly, some people are far more open to letting you do that. If it’s unauthentic, it does not happen and you’re not real about it. Don’t take ownership, of your point earlier and own it. It may not work and it could backfire if it’s not sincere. When it’s authentic, real, and grounded in humility, and you’re vulnerable and humble, I find the same thing you have found that suddenly people want to help.

They want to be part of the process you’ve involved them and they see it as real. Here’s the key thing, I always say in terms of restoring trust and reestablishing it, you can’t talk your way out of a problem that you behaved your way into. I learned this from my father. If we’ve lost people’s trust or behavior, words alone will help but they won’t get it back. We have to behave our way back into trust just like you behaved your way out of it.

You can't talk your way out of a problem that you behaved your way into. Share on X

We do the apology then we say, “I’m going to rethink this. I’m going to go forward and do things differently because of this.” In this case, I said, “I’m going to become your greatest advocate and champion. I want to undo and not just that, I want to reframe who you are. I feel like I’m responsible.” It’s amazing. I was in a low trust deficit with them because they thought I didn’t understand them and had badmouthed them in effect.

The apology shifted their thinking and they were hopeful that I had to put it into action. I had to prove it and put it into practice. They allowed that shift to take place with me because of the apology. When I did what I said I was going to do, became their advocate and champion. Trust was built almost overnight. You can build trust faster than you think through intentional behavior. It’s not a technique and manipulation. It is an authentic manifestation of saying, “I’m going to behave my way into greater trust. I own and take responsibility for the lack of trust, but here’s what I’m going to do to make it right.” It’s remarkable.

That can happen with customers and partners. I even saw this with Eric Yuan of Zoom. He’s the CEO and the founder of a remarkable company. They went from 10 million users to 200 million users in one month when the pandemic hit. They had a little bit of an issue for some of their customers around security. Eric Yuan owned it. He took responsibility, and then he came out and apologized. He said, “We lost some of your trust. Here’s what we’re going to do to gain it back.”

He took all these steps, did the actions, and did the things. It was like a blip. They moved and people said, “We can trust them. We can trust him. We can trust Zoom.” They took off from there. Such a responsible way of making it right and restoring trust. Trust is higher now today than it ever was because of how they did it. It’s a remarkable way of doing this. The whole idea of restoring trust is a reset.

Reset Mindset

With that, because we’re running out of time for the show here, I want to ask you. I’ve started to ask every guest this and you read the book, so you know a little bit more about how I’ve defined the reset mindset. I’m curious, in your own words and from your experience and background. What does the reset mindset mean to you? Why is it important?

Let me do it at a meta-level, then at a more granular level. At a meta-level, it’s the big reset, the paradigm shift. The whole idea of having the big paradigm shift that could be the big reset of, “Life isn’t about accumulation. It’s about contribution.” That’s a big meta-level. Leadership is not about me. It’s about them. It’s a big one. I think this. In how we lead, our leadership style, and the idea of command and control, which is very much a thing paradigm. It’s transactional. The big reset is now. It’s a people paradigm and it’s transformational.

It’s always about them. It’s doing 2 or 4. It’s with them and we need to make that shift. Here’s a meta way of describing a reset for me. Every significant breakthrough is a break with. It’s a break with traditional thinking, models, and language. You have to break with that to have the breakthrough. We need to break through in our leadership. We can’t just incrementally improve and evolve it. We need to break through from command and control to trust and inspire. That needs to be a break with how we’ve been doing it. That’s a meta. A big one.

At the micro level, this is what you talk about, these moments. There’s not one big thing like you described your father passing at nineteen. That’s a big thing but it’s these ongoing moments. It’s in the moment of choice, in the moment of interaction, the moment of connection, and the moment of pausing between what happens to us, the stimulus, and our response to it. In between the stimulus and the response, there is a space.

I call it the reset moment. I named that space.

You named the space the reset moment, where I can step back and I can get perspective. I can realign. I can align around my values. I can respond based on my values. Not just upon my instincts and my immediate reaction to it. I’m proactive, not reactive. I choose my response based on my values because I’m intentional. I’m having that purposeful pause. I’m choosing this. I think those moments in leadership are left and right. Those moments in trust, the decision to trust instead of being distrustful. The decision to extend that trust and tell people that you trust them and why you trust them instead of doing it and not telling them that. They may not know it.

It makes a difference. That specific why makes a difference.

It makes a profound difference. When they say, “I’m giving you this responsibility. Let me tell you why. It’s because you can do this. I trust you and I believe in you. You’ve demonstrated it to me and have confidence you’ll do it again.” That is different in kind than you got this job. You might feel like I do trust them. That’s why I gave them the job. Tell them. Normally, why? I use the words I trust you because it’s powerful.

There are so many reset moments and leadership in the micro things along the way that matter, that make a difference. Another key one, always declare your intent. Assuming positive intent. That’s on one side. On the other side, declare your intent. Let people know what you’re doing especially why you’re doing it. You give the why behind the what. Here’s what we’re trying to do. Here’s why we’re trying to do it. Here’s our agenda.

It’s not hidden. It’s not unknown or self-serving. It’s open. It’s transparent. Nothing to hide. Here’s what we’re trying to do. Here’s why. Here’s our motive. Here’s our agenda. That’s it. That can be a reset moment for others when they say, “That’s what the boss says. That’s what the leader’s trying to do. That’s what they’re trying to do.” We allow others to reset and have reset moments for them because we have a reset moment of don’t assume they understand the why. You have the why.

When they reconnect, then they’re going to be able to bring more creativity when they reconnect to what it is that you’re working for and why it’s so important. It shifts everything. I know I have to know the why for me. It is important to me. I can imagine that it is for others as well.

The what matters and the why matters even more. It is like you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle that’s got 500 pieces. How important is it to see the image of what you’re doing when you do that puzzle? It’s so invaluable. It’s hard to do without it. That’s the what. You have to give them the vision but give them the why. That’s 10 times or 100 times even more important and because now they understand why this matters and the meaningful how it connects.

Many of those moments. I love the reset mindset idea. We’ve got to constantly or we have these many moments along the way. You’re giving me language for some of what I’m trying to do with leadership at large. We need to, at a macro level, reset how we’re thinking about leadership. Command and control don’t work anymore. Trust and inspire do, especially now with younger generations.

 

People don’t want to be managed. They want to be led. We have to move fast. We have to be agile, collaborative, and innovative. Command and control won’t achieve those outcomes. We won’t attract and keep top talent. We won’t bring out the best in people and it’s in them. We have to have that meta shift, and then a whole bunch of reset moments along the way, along the journey.

Stay on because it’s easy to fall back into command and control.

Very easy, especially when it’s all around us.

Thank you so much. I would love to keep talking and asking you questions, but we also have a certain attention span from our audience here. Thank you so much for being here. Where’s the best place that people can find you and hear more about you besides getting your books on Amazon?

Go to SpeedOfTrust.com or TrustAndInspire.com. That’s about both those books, Speed of Trust and Trust and Inspire. There are a lot of tools, resources, videos, and different things that you can do to go deeper with this. I love to connect. I’m on all the social media sites on X, LinkedIn and Instagram. I’m at Stephen MR Covey. I’d love to connect with people.

Thank you so much for being here and sharing what I believe is the paradigm shift. I love your work because I think it’s such a critical paradigm shift. Thank you for helping us and guiding us in this great reset that we need to make as leaders.

You are welcome and thank you for what you’re doing to help us do precisely that by giving us language and describing what it is and how we do it. We’re co-catalysts. You’re trying to help bring this about. Thanks to everyone.

Thank you. That’s what I was going to say. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I hope you took lots of notes. I hope that you’re thinking about your leadership not just in the office space, but also your leadership at home and in other areas of your life and how you’re showing up. It’s not just at work, the command and control. Look at every aspect of your life and how you can shift that paradigm to trust and inspire and see the difference that it makes in your life.

When we shift our perspective, we shift our attitudes, our expectations, and our priorities. I’m excited for all of you. Go check out Stephen’s site and connect with him and connect with me. Let me know what you want to hear on the show and let me know what you’re taking away. My name is Penny Zenker and this is Take Back Time. We’ll see you in the next episode.

Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Penny.

 

Important Links

• Stephen M. R. Covey – LinkedIn
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Touchpoints
• SpeedOfTrust.com
• TrustAndInspire.com
• X – Stephen MR Covey
• Instagram – Stephen MR Covey

 

About Stephen M. R. Covey

Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust and Trust & Inspire. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. As president and CEO of Covey Leadership Center, Stephen nearly doubled revenues while increasing profits by 12 times. During that period, the company expanded throughout the world into over 40 countries, greatly increasing the value of the brand and enterprise. The company was valued at $2.4 million when Stephen was named CEO, and, within three years, he had grown shareholder value to $160 million in a merger he orchestrated with Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey. Stephen co-founded CoveyLink, a consulting practice, which focuses on enabling leaders and organizations to increase and leverage trust to achieve superior performance. Stephen recently merged CoveyLink with FranklinCovey, forming the Global Speed of Trust Practice, where Stephen serves as global practice leader.

 

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/