Following The Practicums Of Stephen M. Covey

An instructional leader, I would inspire trust throughout my school’s organization by following the practicums of Stephen M. Covey detailing how trust is the driving force in a relationship between leadership and its organization. In Covey’s work, focus is discussed as to how it relates to a business. A school, in comparison, can also be seen as a business due to its utilization and need of stakeholders, employees and clients. Covey states that trust can be defined as character and competence. In order to gain the optimal level of success in any business or school for that matter is for leadership to possess and demonstrate a high level of confidence (trust) that can be divided into five waves or levels of trust. These five waves of trust consist of: self trust- establishing credibility, relationship trust- consistent behavior of the leader, organizational trust- alignment between leaders

Convey states that relationship trust is about consistent and reliable behavior of the leader. In the school setting, it is vital that school leadership facilitates relationship trust with all of its personal (teachers, students and stakeholders) to ensure that the ultimate goal is achieved. Covey asks leaders to view each effort to build and maintain trust to be thought of as a “trust account” where each relationship built is unique and requires its own system of deposits and withdrawals. Covey references 13 behaviors of a high trust leader that serve as checks and balances each trust-seeking leader should possess. The comparison to checks and balances reminds the leader that one behavior is no greater than the other and each behavior must be used in such a way that the opposite behavior of trust, distrust, is not constructed. Behaviors are categorized into three main classifications, character, competence and a mix of competence and character reflecting the definition of