The Speed of Trust: The Leadership Mental Model That Improves Every Team In Every Culture

In construction, nepotism is hardly frowned upon—it’s often a talent pipeline that gives businesses continuity, if not consistency. But when it came to listening to the son of Stephen R. Covey, I was hesitant to give him the same benefit of the doubt.

I had two reasons.

One:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey changed my life when I first read it in 2001—and every time I’ve read it since. A book that useful gives its author’s children wide latitude to write just about anything and have it sell well—especially when they share the same first name, last name, and even an initial.

Two: A friend once summarized Stephen M.R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust this way: “Good book. Main ideas could have been covered in 100 pages. The other 250 were occasionally useful, but mostly unnecessary.”

So there I was, at the Associated Schools of Construction conference in April 2016, less than thrilled to be easing into a seat in the back row of the Hinckley Alumni & Visitors Center at BYU, sitting beside a construction professor from Mississippi State.

Fifty minutes later, I stood, clapped, and stepped outside to call my older sister.

A second Covey had just changed my life.

The Big Idea: The Trust Tax

The idea that grabbed me that day was what Covey called The Trust Tax.

When you engage in low-trust relationships, two things happen, he said:

• Speed goes down.
   
• Costs go up.
   

That’s the tax of mistrust.

However, the reverse is also true. When you build high-trust relationships, the Trust Tax transforms into a dividend:

• Speed goes up.
   
• Costs go down.
   

Every day, with every person you lead or influence, you have a choice to make: You either allow low-trust relationships to proliferate or you intentionally invest in building high-trust relationships.

Most people choose the former.
The best leaders, however, choose the latter.

And it is a choice.

Yes, the other person has to pick up their end of the trust stick, but the decision to extend trust begins with you.

And leaders go first.

A Jobsite Example

Stop me if you’ve heard this before . . . It’s RFP time for a new project or a new phase. You send a new subcontractor a set of plans you know aren’t fully accurate.

What happens?

They slow down, dissecting every page, imagining lawsuits in 2033, and insulating their price tag to account for the uncertainty and risk. That’s the Trust Tax.

Now, give those same flawed plans to a subcontractor who has worked with you for 22 years.

What happens?

They breeze through it, flag a few issues, and price the job to win, confident that when problems come up—as they always do—you’ll work with them to resolve issues fairly. That’s the Trust Dividend.

Here’s where this connects to cultural intelligence on the jobsite. In Hispanic cultures, trust is relational first, then transactional.

Performance and productivity follow relationships—not the other way around.

1. Invest in Personal Relationships

• Learn about your crew’s families. Ask about their kids, their soccer league, their hometowns.
   
• A simple “¿Cómo está tu familia?” builds goodwill and signals genuine care.
   
• This emotional deposit pays off when deadlines tighten or unexpected changes arise.

2. Honor Verbal Commitments

• In many Hispanic cultures, la palabra (one’s word) carries more weight than a written document.
   
• If you promise overtime pay, new PPE, or a Friday off during the World Cup—follow through. Every broken promise compounds the Trust Tax.

3. Respect Hierarchies of Trust

• Crews often bring in cousins, brothers, and compadres. That may or may not be nepotism, but it’s certainly how trust is transferred within a minority group.
   
• Hispanic cultures are collectivist in nature, the opposite of the individualistic Uncle Sam-style American culture. So don’t reward the individual, reward the group. For example, don’t give out a “Concrete Craft Worker of the Month” plaque and expect it go over well. Do the same thing (plus a catered lunch together that you pay for) for the best crew—equipo (ay-KEE-poh)—and you’ll get a much better reaction.    

4. Communicate with Clarity and Consistency

• English as a second language means there’s ample opportunity for ambiguity; this breeds mistrust.
• Give clear instructions, confirm understanding (ask them to repeat back the task: “Repítelo, porfa.”), avoid sarcasm, and drop all those clever pun jokes.

5. Show Fairness Publicly

• Hispanic workers watch how leaders treat others more than how leaders treat them personally.
   
• Never publicly call out anyone for making a mistake. Praise in public and criticize in private is a smart move across all cultures.

I walked into that ballroom at BYU skeptical—convinced a son was skiing in his father’s wake. Fifty minutes later, I walked out picking up the phone to call my sister.

That’s the power of trust.

It’s hardly some abstract business principle. It’s what mends families, unites crews, and accelerates schedules that would otherwise bog down in suspicion, red tape, and bureaucracy.

Stephen M.R. Covey taught me that day what his father had taught me years before: The real dividends in life—and in leadership—flow from trust.

On the jobsite, that means investing in relationships before transactions, keeping your word, and recognizing that people from different cultures build trust in different ways.

Construction has always been called a “relationship business.”
When you lead with trust, that’s exactly what you’re building.

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