Alicia Gomes-Figueira Covey chapters 11, 12, 13 Assignment 10

After reading Covey Chapter 11, 12, and 13 and watching the video’s, the one thing that stood out for me and got my interest was the way that Covey tells us (the readers) about the Third Alternative to leadership. Covey starts off by explaining the concept of the path finding of a shared vision, values and a strategic plan. In chapter 11, he says that the first alternative role of leadership would be to announce vision, values and strategy to our team/organization/business without any real involvement on their part. The second alternative would be to get excessive involvement and get bogged down in paralysis by analysis and committee, have extensive off-sites and endless discussions, almost working on the assumption that you don’t need to execute strategy or empower. The third alternative would be to not only reasonably involve people in the process of developing the vision, mission and strategy but also recognize that if you build a strong enough culture of trust, and are personally trustworthy yourself, the power of identification is equal to the power of involvement. From my personal experience of being a student leader at UHH and Haw CC, I had the chance to experience in developing a vision and mission statement for my organization. In 2004-2005, I was in the combined UHH-Haw CC Student Activities Council where we put on activities for the students of both campuses. Our activities consist of Ho’olaulea, Earth Day, Valentines giveaway, Open Mic nite, Dances and so forth. As a group of student leaders, we sat down and came up with ideas on what our vision was for the academic year and we had to look at who we served our credibility as an organization and do a budget for each event. As we came up with ideas for events, we had to think back to our vision and mission statement to see if we were following it and living up to our vision. We had to create an environment in which we all could work with each other because we all were from different cultures and backgrounds.
In chapter 12 Covey says that the next three alternatives are important to goals and system for results. The first alternative would be to believe that personal modeling of an individual is sufficient to keep an organization on the path of healthy growth. The second alternative would be to believe that by continuously communicating the vision and strategy you’ve carefully and intentionally developed. The third alternative would be to (1) use both personal moral authority and formal authority to create systems that will formalize or institutionalize your strategy and the principles embodied in your shared vision and values, (2) create cascading goals throughout the organization that are aligned with your shared vision, values and strategic priorities, and (3) adjust and align yourselves to regular feedback you receive from the marketplace and organization on how well you are meeting needs and delivering value. In my leadership position in SAC (Student Activities Council) we always encourage feedback from the students, other council members, friends and our advisor so that we know if the event was a success, what we needed to work on next time such as advertising, more food and prizes. This was a way that we knew if we were living up to our mission statement, vision and goals. Each event had certain goals that we wanted to accomplish and being in an organization like SAC communication was a big way we kept SAC going and our events being a success.
In chapter 13 Covey says that the next three alternatives for empowering voice and releasing passion and talent are the first alternative is trying to get results by controlling people. The second alternative would be to set them loose, to abandon them. The third alternative is both tougher and kinder; it’s directed autonomy through win-win agreements around cascading line of sight goals and accountability for results. In SAC (Student Activities Council) we knew that we had to be accountable for our actions and if students came to us with questions like “how come we spent x amount of money on a certain event”? or What is SAC about? We had to be able to answer these questions and more and be honest and gain their trust so that we have a good standing relationship with students as well we with faculty, staff and administration.
All in all, Covey opened my eyes to what I knew already as a student leader but sometimes we need to be reminded of what’s important as a leader and in an organization. Our mission Statement, vision and goals are very important to a company/ organization or business and its how people know about your company/ organization or business and how you establish certain credibility with other companies and people and make your business a success and communication is a top priority in order to do this. In my paper, I will look to see if these women in leadership positions follow what Covey had said in these chapters and apply it to my paper as well as my own leadership style. I was truly inspired by these three chapters.