Yesterday as part of a Buffalo Niagara Leadership business event, I attended a day long conference on The Speed of Trust. Keynote speaker: Stephen M.R. Covey.
Covey's summaries about trust:
The 4 Cores of Credibility: Integrity - Congruency in values, beliefs and behaviors, deep honesty, humility and courage.(make and keep commitments, stand for something, be open)
Intent - Seeking mutual benefit, Acting in others' best interests, genuine concern and caring for others (examine your motives, open your agenda, choose abundance)
Capabilities - the capacities we have that inspire confidence, our ability to produce and accomplish tasks: talents, attitudes, skills,knowledge and style (run with your strengths, keep yourself relevant, know where you're going)
Results- our track record pas and present, getting the right things done, accomplishing the desired objectives. (take responsibility, expect to win, finish strong)
The 13 Behaviors That Accomplish Trust: First 5 are Character:
Talk Straight - be honest, let people know where you stand, call things the way they are, demonstrate integrity, don't "spin" the truth, don't leave false impressions
Demonstrate Respect - show you care, respect the dignity of every person and every role
Create Transparency - tell the truth, err on the side of disclosure, don't have hidden agendas, operate on "what you see is what you get", don't hide information
Right Wrongs - make things right when you're wrong, don't cover things up, don't let personal pride get in the way of doing the right thing
Show Loyalty -give credit to others, speak about people as if they were in the room, represent others who aren't there to speak for themselves
Next 5 are Competencies
Deliver Results - establish a track record of results, get the right things done, make things happen, accomplish what you're hired to do
Get Better- continuously improve, increase your capabilities, act upon the feedback you receive, don't consider yourself above feedback, don't assume your knowledge and skills will be sufficient for tomorrow's challenges
Confront Reality - take issues head on even the "undiscussables: Address the tough stuff directly. Lead out courageously in conversation, don't skirt the issues, don't bury your head in the sand, confront the reality of the situation.
Clarify Expectations - disclose and reveal expectations, discuss them, Validate them. Renegotiate them if needed and possible, don't violate expectations
Practice Accountability - hold yourself accountable, hold others accountable,take responsibility for the results, don't avoid or shirk responsibility, don't blame or point fingers when things go wrong
The Last 3 Combine Character and Competencies
Listen first - Understand, Diagnose, Listen with your ears...your eyes and heart, find out what the most important behaviors are to the people you're working with, don't presume that you have all the answers - or all the questions
Keep Commitments - Say what you're going to do. Then do what you say you're going to do. Make commitments carefully and keep them at all costs, Make keeping commitments the symbol o f your honor, don't break confidences, don't attempt to "PR" your way out of a commitment you've broken.
Extend Trust - Demonstrate a propensity to trust, extend trust abundantly to those who have earned your trust. Extend trust conditionally to those earning your trust,
Trust Gaps Self Trust - A Credibility gap Relationship Trust - a Behavior gap Organizational Trust- An alignment gap Market Trust - A Reputation gap Societal Trust - a Contribution gap
We are only one year into the process of funding the greenway and already the process exhibits trust gaps.
If I had no fear, I’d parachute over Niagara Falls and milkweed drift the gorge with an egg timer cradled in my hand.
My grandmother kept a small glass and plastic egg timer on an upper kitchen shelf. If asked, she’d hand it down and I’d play with time. The trickling white grains held a moribund fascination, a faint consciousness about inevitability. I’d flip it; place it in the yellow holder, the pour rapid through the pinched-in middle, a small mound growing in the glass bottom reservoir. Over, and over, I spun time. Sometimes, I’d pretend to beat the clock and race the timer against the red second hand. Accuracy at the time didn’t matter. I wanted to catch a final motion, stop an instant, and prevent the last grain’s fall.
Over long afternoons, I’d slow time, tilt the little timer not quite horizontal, intent on length, slowing and holding moments. As I drowsily manipulated time at the kitchen table, parental conversation meandered to obituaries. I laid the timer on its side--the tiny river suspended-- and went outside.
Actions reflect inner temperatures. They are truths displayed, buffed gold, even when socially or mentally tarnished.
I am what I do and what I do triumphs reason. My actions reflect my character. They reveal its content, honest emotion. They are inner mirrors exploited out.
What I do defines me without me speaking. What I do can be self-motivated, group related, or simply a reaction. Even my remaining silent and standing still, politically inert, is action. It’s truth smudged, encroached by darkness.
I did this because you did that. I did this because I wanted/needed/had to have that. Because I did, I am something defined: I give a kiss/money/support. I am kind. I take. I am redefined. I don’t respond. I am transformation.
What I do defines me since what I do is always done by choice, conscious or unconscious. It’s the why, the motivation, which requires close examination. My observed behavior may be explained, rationalized, but never denied. You may recognize the emotion as a sapphire glitter, gleam, glow, or glint.
You will surmise my movements, my decisions, as actions seen through a lens, the filters of your past. In your gaze, I am always upside down, a reflection.
I am a summary of actions. What I do matters more than why because with any action there is always an explainable reason: this is why I did it.
Suppose you’re on a committee to select a political candidate. On what will you base your decision?
Do you choose your candidate by party only? Do you select by popularity? Do you declare people deserve a choice and nominate an individual to break a political stranglehold? Should a private issue(s) be the reason(s) for your choice? Or, do you choose a person who will make an honest effort to be well informed and will make thoughtful decisions? Do you support a leader who benefits you personally or the region as a whole?
Now, suppose you worked on that candidate’s campaign, contributed substantial sums, organized a fundraiser and your candidate won. What if, months later, you realize that the one you supported lied by omission about everything. What would do you do then?
I’ll roust his bony frame out of a certain slow-rollover with an imperative; look how they’ve blackened a vision. See how pavement and Moses have transmuted dreams for the Niagara Reservation State Park, Goat Island, and the Niagara River gorge.
Before I go under, I’ll exchange Olmsted’s rose-colored eyepiece for my paper reams: lists, resolutions, petitions, memos of understanding, newspaper articles, letters, presentations, and some guiding principals about a greenway. Here, I’ll say as I thrust that ultimate, final pulp fiction into his hands, here are the names of the commissioners. Are their documented words consistent with their actions? Here’s a paperless address for an opinion, please.
Integrity’s a willingness to take a controversial stand over removing the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway to protect the natural landscape, a calcareous cliff community along the Niagara gorge-- a unique, fragile botanical and old growth environment. It’s the courage to speak against the status quo.
It’s an embrace given in a shared hospital elevator, an offer to listen over coffee when one adversary in tears states her mother’s admitted.
Integrity's my clear blue gaze meeting fourteen granite faces at a microphone, a presentation of employment facts and eco-tourism profits listed, bulleted in a mild tone, countering bureaucracy: a poor subjective decision to compromise principals and transparency in regional greenway spending.
Integrity's my slight head tilt, an unstated acknowledgment that, yes, two key people abandoned a shared environmental commitment by claiming a project consistent, one also sanctioned the commission’s decision to send letters, remonstrations, written to marginalize two Niagara resolutions--maneuvers consistent with social ostracism, silent peer criticism, and political isolation. My thank-you to the Commission for the speaking opportunity graced their public forum momentarily silent.
The morning headline: GREENWAY: Lewiston plan wins approval. Parkway removal advocates question pathway’s impact on roadway.
Integrity is locating a granule of infinitesimal gold in those I dislike. I admire the mayor who fights for his municipality.
A river. A waterfall. Human faces undeveloped nature. I’m a community of ones. Introspection. Ambition. Reflection. Domination. Conversation. Desperation. Can words swim? A lifejacket’s irony.
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