Event Overview

An Imperative of Great Leaders                                                        A Competitive Advantage

“72% of business leaders in the Middle East rated lack of trust as the No 1 barrier to business growth.”

Discover:
• The overlooked and underestimated power of Trust
• Why trust is not a soft, social virtue and instead, is a hard-edged, economic
  driver
• Trust as a learnable and measurable skill that makes companies more
   profitable and people more promotable
• How Trust has become the key leadership competency of the new global
  economy
• Gaining the trust of clients, coworkers and partners – quickly and permanently
• The trust dividend – When Trust goes up, speed goes up, while costs come down

Who You Will Meet:

At ‘Dr Covey - Building Organisational Trust’ you will have the unique chance to meet business leaders from major regional organisations who are committed to creating high performing organisations through new approaches and paradigms. You will meet people who want to make a difference in their organisations and who are becoming aware of the need to build trust and benefit from high levels of team focus, a positive work culture and transparent relationships with stakeholders.

About This Event

Trust is not merely a “soft, social virtue” that is nice-to-have. Recent research has revealed that it is instead a hardedged, economic driver, and a learnable and measurable skill that makes organisations more profitable. In the words of Dr Stephen Covey: “Low trust causes friction, whether it is caused by unethical behaviour or by ethical but incompetent behaviour… “Low trust is the greatest cost in life and in organisations …creates hidden agendas, politics, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, win-lose thinking, defensive and protective communication…Low trust slows everything – every decision, every communication, and every relationship.” Trust is something which has an impact on us every day of our lives. We trust that drivers will stop for red lights, we trust that sales assistants will give us the correct change, we trust that ATMs will give us the right amount of money when we key in our withdrawal requests...and so on. Trust underpins all of our relationships and communication, at work and in our private lives. But it’s easy to lose trust. In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M R Covey (Dr Stephen Covey’s son) provides a series of expressions that he has heard repeatedly in organisations, and they are all achingly familiar. With all the scandals, corruption and ethical violations in our society today…I don’t know what – or who – to trust anymore. I have to walk on eggshells at work. If I say what I really think, I’ll get fired…or at least made irrelevant. It’s clear that these comments reflect low trust attitudes which must be affecting organisational performance – if work is checked and re-checked it has to slow things down, which means that the work costs more. This is a tax. And who wants to pay taxes? We’ve also all seen the effects of low trust in the corporate environment – do I need to mention corporate scandals like Enron and WorldCom? But there are things that we can do to establish and restore trust; actions that we can take that will reduce the tax. At Dr Stephen Covey – Building Organisational Trust, you will have a chance to learn more about this vital issue and discover strategies that you can use to make sure that you are minimising the costs to your organisation – strategies that will help you build an environment where people trust each other.

The Promise Of Building Organisational Trust

As an attendee to Dr Stephen Covey on Building Organisational Trust, you will gain: 1.   An understanding of the business impact of trust. 2.   A powerful framework to build and sustain a high level of trust between        an organisation’s members that will promote innovation, generate       productivity and result in cost savings 3.   Practical skills and tools that you can use the ‘next morning’ at the       office

Four Challenges Facing Business Leaders In The Middle East

Building trust is an ongoing process that requires clear vision in setting the goals, proper communication with the team and constant support. Great leaders would never withhold trust because they recognise the risk involved in doing this. Show Respect. Business leaders across the region need to adopt certain practices that lead to a healthier working environment where trust is the core element. For example, the ability to show and demonstrate real respect to employees without being concerned that this is a sign of weakness and undermines their leadership status is a key to developing trust. ‘Listening’ is the simplest and most effective way to achieve this. Clarity and Transparency. Transparency should be present across the organisation and needs to start with the management team. There is nothing more destructive to the working environment than hidden agendas and information. The premise ‘what you see is what you get’ is totally relevant to a successful business environment. High Performance and Accountability. Developing trust is based on characteristics that are demonstrated in the workplace but it is more tangible than this – it is also based on the delivery of results. Craig Weatherup, the former CEO of Pepsi Cola, said: “You can’t create a high-trust culture unless people perform.” Once people understand their goals and are committed to achieving them, a business leader should hold himself and every member of the team accountable for the agreed results. Credit and Rewards. The final key element to building trust in the workplace is the correct credit and rewards for a job well done. If a company or team performance has exceeded expectations, that group needs to feel that it has been recognised.

The Speed of Trust

“Leaders in the region are dangerously underestimating the power of trust and the value it adds to a business.” (Murad Suleiman, General Manager, FranklinCovey ME) Trust. It’s a word that occurs regularly in our conversations and thoughts, particularly when we are talking about our personal lives and relationships. But trust is also essential in the workplace. An organisation without trust would be full of fear, suspicion, and micro-management as managers spend their time checking their colleagues work and correcting ‘mistakes’. Without trust, CEOs and managers would see some of their biggest fears become reality – poor staff attraction and retention, low performance and execution and bad enterprise performance in comparison with competitors. We all like to think that such workplaces do not exist, but the reality is strikingly different. A recent survey conducted by FranklinCovey Middle East revealed that nearly three quarters of the respondents (72%) rated building trust as the main challenge that they need to overcome in order to achieve business success. This shocking statistic indicates that there is massive room for improvement in business performance in the region. Does your company want to be one of those that will benefit from such improvements?