Covey describes trust as being based on character and competence, where character is required and competence is situational. He uses financial terms as a concrete way to convey the cost of low trust and the benefit of high trust, describing the former as a trust tax and the latter as a trust dividend. The quickest way to make a withdrawal, he insists, is to violate a behavior of character, and the quickest way to make a deposit is to demonstrate a behavior of competence. He goes on to detail seven low trust taxes (redundancy, bureaucracy, politics, disengagement, turnover, churn, and fraud) and seven high trust dividends (increased value, accelerated growth, enhanced motivation, improved collaboration, stronger partnering, better execution, and heightened loyalty).
Covey also outlines what he characterizes as five waves of trust: self-trust, relationship trust, organizational trust, market trust, and societal trust. For each of these waves, he applies the concept of the four cores (integrity, intention, capabilities, and results) and the thirteen behaviors of high-trust leaders (talk straight, demonstrate respect, create transparency, right wrongs, show loyalty, deliver results, get better, confront reality, clarify expectations, practice accountability, listen first, keep commitments, and extend trust). The book includes a multitude of practical applications and pushes the reader to reflect on his or her own behavior.
Despite the fact that I have recommended this book, I do so with some caveats. Although I generally like it when an author reads the book, that was not the case for this one. Covey is a Harvard MBA, but I was astounded at the number of mispronunciations. His reading style has a hesitating tempo to it that comes across as patronizing, and his incessant family examples are over the top. He's a business man, not a family therapist. Those examples got very tiresome. Still, there are nuggets in the book.