FranklinCovey Consultant Blogs | Todd Wangsgard | Sales Professionals

Winning with Trust is Predictable

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments

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Last week I had the privilege of delivering a good-news presentation on behalf of a regional client to their larger corporate, North American counterparts. They were gathered together, in part, to learn about the client’s great success with improving employees’ trust in management over the past 4 years. Prior to engaging FranklinCovey with the solution, this client location’s ‘trust in management’ scores had been in sharp decline.

Together, representatives from the client’s HR and management team, along with a group of dedicated consultants and sales professionals at FranklinCovey, mapped out a potential process to turn the culture and scores around. Senior management devoted countless hours to kick-off speeches for each group of workshop attendees. Hundreds of frontline and mid-level managers completed a 10-week-long program to study and implement  trust and leadership skills and tools. They specifically committed to improving one or more challenges in their areas of responsibility. Participants finally delivered formal presentations to senior leadership on their own ‘case study’ and shared improved 360-degree assessment scores.

Bottom line: This client saw a more than 17% increase in trust scores on the latest plant-wide employee engagement survey. 

Stephen M R Covey, author of Speed of Trust and his more recent work, Smart Trust, cites a recent study in 2-minute online video on engagement that found:

A 10% increase in trust scores has the same effect on employee satisfaction as a 36% increase in pay.

You can imagine the client’s satisfaction with the new scores and their counterparts’ intrigue with the possibility of replicating those results back home.

Another researcher who is referenced in Stephen’s video found that trust was the key driver of employee engagement.

I love my job! It’s exciting, to say the least, to witness these kinds of results repeated with hundreds of our clients who follow a proven process of cultural change.

Are you part of an organization whose trust is suffering? Are you responsible for influencing the level of trust within your organization? Would you like to see more trust working for you, generating measurable, bottom line results? I’m waiting by the phone to talk…

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Tags: American Counterparts, Assessment Scores, Case Study, Client Location, Countless Hours, Covey, Degree Assessment, Employee Engagement, Employee Satisfaction, Formal Presentations, Franklincovey, Intrigue, Leadership Skills, Level Managers, Management Team, Mid Level, Privilege, Sales Professionals, Senior Management, Workshop Attendees

Thank You, Stephen!

Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Goodbye, Stephen. 

My first exposure to his landmark work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was life-changing. Common sense, organized, is how many have described the principles that Stephen packaged in such understandable terms. I knew, the first time I participated in the classroom experience, that I would need to become a facilitator and share those principles with whomever I could get to listen. 

In 1997 I had the privilege of partnering with a number of Covey Leadership Center professionals, among them the dedicated, gracious, and talented Nancy Moore, now a colleague of mine who leads many initiatives within our Education Division. The company I worked for at the time hosted a number of beta-test classes for an early version of Covey Leadership Center’s coursework on trust. I was asked to teach these beta versions of the class. You can imagine my surprise when Nancy asked me to co-present with Dr. Covey at the sales kick-off of Building Trust at their corporate offices in Provo, Utah. Stephen’s spirit and character were bigger in person than I had imagined. He made me feel like I was the most important person in the room. He affirmed to his team of sales professionals the timeless principles of loyalty, transparency, and empathic understanding. 

During Saturday’s funeral service, all 9 of his children shared stories and thoughts about their father that reinforced the public principles he preached. His oldest son, Stephen M. R. Covey, said it most plainly. “Dad was congruent, whole, complete.” He went on to emphasize that as great an author, speaker and consultant that he was in public, in private Stephen was even better. Dr. Covey’s best friend and brother, John Covey, gave us a glimpse into Stephen’s primary motivation in life – both personal and professional. Early in their professional lives Stephen once asked John, “What do you want to do with your career?” Understanding how Stephen thought, John turned the question back to his brother. Stephen’s response was three simple yet powerful words: “Release Human Potential.” 

And throughout the service, memories of Stephen did just that. Every story, every thought, every snapshot of his great life and example evoked, on one hand, feelings of inadequacy, but more importantly it inspired feelings of resolve, commitment, and desire to be a better husband, father, and friend. I hereby commit to redefine the potential I am capable of releasing in the coming days, weeks, and months. 

Yes, Stephen R. Covey will be missed. But the life, learning, love, and legacy he leaves behind will endure in the work we carry on at FranklinCovey and in the lives of those touched by his great work.

Thank you, Stephen!

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Tags: 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Beta Versions, Brothe, Brother John, Brother Stephen, Building Trust, Center Professionals, Classroom Experience, Covey Leadership Center, Education Division, First Exposure, Goodbye Stephen, Human Potential, Important Person, Landmark Work, Nancy Moore, Powerful Words, Professional Lives, Sales Professionals, Stephen Covey, Test Classes, Timeless Principles, Trust Content, Understandable Terms