Correspondent Emanuel Farrugia (January 14) mentions the importance of trust in business relationships. Allow me to take this one step further. Trust is everywhere, whether we are prepared to admit it or not. It is in our relationships.

It is in our work. It is in our families. We tend to recognise it when it’s not there and, precisely because it is not there, we tend to miss it because lack of trust makes us frustrated, angry and also slows us down.

Stephen M.R. Covey researched and wrote extensively about the power of trust in all our relationships (The Speed of Trust, 2006, and Smart Trust, 2012). Covey discovered that there is a direct relationship between the level of trust in people and organisations and the speed with which they get things done.

“Trust is the confidence born of the character and competence of a person or organisation,” Covey says.

Really, trust changes everything. It is an economic driver and it is a competency. That means you can do something about it. There is nothing as fast as the speed of trust. Nothing as profitable as the economics of trust. Nothing as central to leadership as relationships of trust.

We, at FranklinCovey in Malta, are working to put trust on the business agenda and I am confident that local businesses and organisations stand to benefit from the trust solutions that are coming to market in the coming weeks and months.