Stephen R. Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership - Research Paper Example

?Stephen R. Covey, “Principle-Centered Leadership” Stephen R. Covey ed the book “Principle-Centered Leadership”. He talks about both the professional and personal life. In the event of any problems, we tend to solve it by making quick plans and strategies. This problem which occurred is generally due to the misalignment of the events and decisions from that of the correct principle. Not only solving the external circumstance is enough in this case, but also the personal perspective. This new paradigm postulated by the authors assists in transformation of the organizational and personal relationship. This book teaches the ways to achieve personal leadership and organizational leadership by centering the principles that are time-tested actions and decisions. In an organization, it is visible that there may exist interdepartmental rivalries, polarized subgroups on important philosophical issues, conflict over conversation such as back talking and bad-mouths, unionized with the people, fake nice behavior on the surface exchanges, etc. Such conflicting situations are due to the misalignment or the imbalance. This is the indication that wrong paradigm is being used in the organization. This is due to the fact that the individuals are not centered with the solid principles but are laid back with the distorted beliefs and values. Covey mentions both values and principles. For example of value, the profit which we receive ultimately leads to better functioning of organization and the employees, thereby providing better lives to the employees. In the case of principle, for instance, ethics is much more important than that of the profit. It is said that both “values” and “principles” are sole responsible factors for our behavior. These are the means to judge the working environment. On provided with a particular situation, values provide us with an insight, as to where to go and what to do, based on its features of subjectivity and temporariness. They tend to be outdated when the situation changes or transforms. The representation of the influence of culture and personal discoveries are made by values. It is not constant for all individuals, but it varies from each individual and more on role basis. An individual may carry different values suiting the different roles played by him. For instance, an individual may play a role of the parent, husband, friend, executive, etc. Therefore, these different values possessed by the individual are contradictory in nature and are susceptible to change depending upon the individuals newly acquired traits and roles. In contrast to values, principles show us the directions which are correct. Principles can be referred to the basic natural laws which remain unchanged and which are always correct without taking in to consideration of the other outside situations. These are the standards for universal behaviors not perceptible to change, i.e. they remain constant. Principles are governed by the social values and are embodied on all individuals irrespective of their roles played. Some of the examples of principles include “fairness”, “equality”, “justice”, “integrity”, “honesty” and “trust”. Covey mentions of the four sourced of strengths obtained by being principle-centered. They are security, guidance, wisdom, and power. Security is related to personal strength, sense of worthiness, personal identity, emotional anchorage and self-esteem. Power is the capacity to make decision with courage to accomplish a goal. At times, individuals are centered towards work, friends, money, family, etc. At such circumstances, when individuals are not guided by principles, they lose real power. The strength tends to be related to other people and unreliable circumstances. To become one’s own master, it is important to rely on the correct principles. This leads to be rooted to the principles and develop one’s own path and remain persistent and committed. It also leads to control of an individual’s complete life, which includes individual’s belongings and relations. This leads to become stable and not threatened by the ideas and opinions of other individuals. Covey mentions that “an organization is guided not by correct principles; it leads the organization to become devoid of no real power”. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that alternative centre like profit centered, supplier centered, employee centered, proprietor centered, customer centered, program, policy centered, competition centered, image centered and technology centered does occur in the organization. When the organization is centered on right and ethical principles, it is not easily threatened by other outside situations, and control becomes easy. It leads to healthy competition. Covey insists to align life with correct principles to become principle-centered. Four key principles levels that are to be followed are personal, interpersonal, organizational and managerial. Each level has a corresponding key principle one will need to center on. They are trustworthiness at the personal level, trust at the interpersonal level, empowerment at the managerial level, alignment at the organizational level. Principle centered leaders are very effective and possess traits of continuous learners, service-orientation, radiate positive energy, belief in other people, balanced lives; they visualize life as adventure, synergistic and self renewal. Personality is usually given high importance, but it constitutes only secondary to greatness which consists of nobility. Goodness of character is very important. To develop the character and achieve greatness, it is important to cultivate the following three traits – integrity, maturity, and abundance mentality. It is important to be emotionally strong, grown-up and mature to maintain the capability to be able to build up and draw from your inside strength, instead of draing from the post, authority, qualifications, rank or affiliations. By abundance mentality, it is necessary to consider that there is abundance out there for each person. This “abundance mentality” flows out of a profound sense of personal worthiness and security. To become a principally centered individual, both personally and in organization, takes some time. It needs to be believed that there exist no short cuts to become a principally centered leader. The primary reality is that individuals or persons who practice principle-centered theory never rely on quick solutions so as to get things done quickly; instead, they go behind the “law of the farm”. The “law of the farm” indicates that an individual or persons do not have the capacity to speed up the normal speed of life for as to suit one’s own requirement. It is very important to learn to wait tolerantly, just similar to the cultivator who waits patiently for the seeds to rise and for plants to produce. In principle-centered, the power is generally based on faith, respect and reputation, and not on “fear” or “coercion”. There are ten instruments which could be used to increase honor, and ultimately the “power”, as a leader. They are persuasion, patience, gentleness, teachableness, acceptance, kindness, openness, compassion confrontation, consistency and integrity. This Principle-centeredness theory can be applied to both the professional life of an individual and the personal life of an individual. In order to keep the individual relationships strong, it is necessary and important to apply the listed principle-based practices -- retain a long-term perspective, re-script your marriage and family life, reconsider your roles, reset your goals, realign family systems, refine three vital skills: time management, communication and problem-solving, regain internal security, and develop a family mission statement. The genuine role of the leader is to empower the employees under his control. The leader is not expected to control and to compel his decisions over the employees. A leader must cheer and support his staff and urge them to become the best employees. This will lead to bring out their total potential. Therefore, by such treatment the employees become interested to work and thereby increase good relationship with the manager and the organization. To attain such attitude of the employee, it is important to embody trust and faith in them. Four basic management paradigms listed by covey are the scientific management paradigm, human relations paradigm, human resource paradigm, principle-centered leadership (PCL) Paradigm. The principle-centered leadership paradigm visualizes people in their completeness as “economic, social, psychological and spiritual beings”. These individuals are in state of identifying the actual meaning of their lives, and they also wish to make some meaningful difference. The application of this paradigm leads to lofty causes and noble purposes. This leads to shift in the center of power from an individual towards the organization, as well as to real empowerment of the employees. The principle-centered leadership paradigm has nine components – people, self, style, skills, shared vision and principles, structures, systems, strategy and streams. The four characteristics of the principle-centered leadership paradigm are – holistic, ecological, developmental and proactive people, not inanimate things, plants and animals. Once the management of the employees is done by inspiring them and constructing an ambiance of trust with them, it is important to make sure that their measures and decisions are in line with the organization's goals and mission. As the perspective and values change, it should commensurate with the constitution. It is important to make sure the organization and the goals are always up-to-date. The organizational goals and the sense of stewardship are revealed through the universal mission statement. The universal mission statement aspires to bring out the “core value” of the organization in one short line. “Universal mission statement” provides complete meaning, direction towards goal, and consistency to every other thing. The universal mission statement is required to be short, precise and simple. It must also be comprehensive, by including all the ideas. A person must be able to see organization's vision through it. The universal mission statement needs to be simple, so that employees can remember and memorize it. It should be directive of the organizational goals and not differ from it. Therefore, the principle – centered leadership will lead to long-term effectiveness of any organization. This could be attained by employee’s improvement and commitment. If employees are committed to personal quality, innovation and continuous improvement, they are more likely to contribute their maximum potential to organizational quality objectives and goals. Read More