Leadership and Covey
Leadership Paper Principle Centered Leadership & Servant Leadership
Leadership Theories When it comes to leadership everyone has a theory. A theory is just someone’s idea or speculation on how things should be done. Leadership is having the skills to lead others. So when you combine both of those you form leadership theories and in today’s society there are a ton of them. Now keep in mind that none of these have been proven to be 100% effective. Some may work better for certain people than others but they are famous because at some point those theories have worked for someone in a leadership role. When I think of a leader the words power, influence, and reward come to mind. Every theory that you look at normally revolves around at least one of those categories and talks about how to achieve those things. As a leader there are two specific theories that I like to keep in the top of my mind to try and help me be a better leader. Those theories are Principle Centered Leadership developed by Stephen Covey and Servant Leadership developed by Robert Greenleaf. This paper will define, compare, and contrast both Principle Centered Leadership and Servant Leadership theories. Both of these theories produce the concept of teamwork but they are both approached in different ways. My favorite of the two theories is Stephen Covey’s Principle Centered Leadership. Specifically his book on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and the visual of The Maturity Continuum are simply amazing. Covey divides up the seven habits and talks about how they build on each other to help you progress further along the maturity continuum in life. The maturity continuum is divided up into three stages: dependence, independence, and interdependence. (Covey, 1989) Public and private victories split those three stages and divide up the seven habits. (Covey, 1989) Covey’s model represents what is called an “inside-out” approach to effective leadership that is based on your individual
Leadership Theories When it comes to leadership everyone has a theory. A theory is just someone’s idea or speculation on how things should be done. Leadership is having the skills to lead others. So when you combine both of those you form leadership theories and in today’s society there are a ton of them. Now keep in mind that none of these have been proven to be 100% effective. Some may work better for certain people than others but they are famous because at some point those theories have worked for someone in a leadership role. When I think of a leader the words power, influence, and reward come to mind. Every theory that you look at normally revolves around at least one of those categories and talks about how to achieve those things. As a leader there are two specific theories that I like to keep in the top of my mind to try and help me be a better leader. Those theories are Principle Centered Leadership developed by Stephen Covey and Servant Leadership developed by Robert Greenleaf. This paper will define, compare, and contrast both Principle Centered Leadership and Servant Leadership theories. Both of these theories produce the concept of teamwork but they are both approached in different ways. My favorite of the two theories is Stephen Covey’s Principle Centered Leadership. Specifically his book on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and the visual of The Maturity Continuum are simply amazing. Covey divides up the seven habits and talks about how they build on each other to help you progress further along the maturity continuum in life. The maturity continuum is divided up into three stages: dependence, independence, and interdependence. (Covey, 1989) Public and private victories split those three stages and divide up the seven habits. (Covey, 1989) Covey’s model represents what is called an “inside-out” approach to effective leadership that is based on your individual
References: Covey, Stephen R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Covey, Stephen R. (1990). Principle Centered Leadership. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Daft, Richard L. (2007). The Leadership Experience. Canada: Cengage Learning. Greenleaf, Robert K. (1977). Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness Quick MBA. (1999). Internet Center for Management and Business Administration 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in Organizations. The Journal of Leadership Studies 9, no. 2 (2002): 57-64. The Leadership Hub. (2007). Servant Leadership Explained: 10 Essentials. Retrieved February 2, 2012, from www.theleadershiphub.com/userlog/servant-leadership-explained-10-