Stephen M.R. Covey
Stephen M. R. Covey is co-founder and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. A sought-after and compelling keynote speaker and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, he speaks to audiences around the world. He is the author of The SPEED of Trust, a groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting book that challenges our age-old assumption that trust is merely a soft, social virtue and instead demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged, economic driver—a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing. He advocates that nothing is as fast as the speed of trust and that the ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust with all stakeholders is the critical leadership competency of the new global economy. Covey passionately delivers that message and is dedicated to enabling individuals and organizations to reap the dividends of high trust. Audiences and organizations alike resonate with his informed, practical approach to real-time issues that affect their immediate and long-term performance.
He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Covey personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. A Harvard MBA, he joined Covey Leadership Center as a Client Developer and later became National Sales Manager and then President & CEO. Under Covey’s direction, the company grew rapidly and profitably, achieving Inc. 500 status. As President & CEO, he nearly doubled revenues to over $110 million while increasing profits by 12 times. During that period, both customer and employee trust reached new highs and the company expanded throughout the world into over 40 countries. This greatly increased the value of the brand and company. The company was valued at only $2.4 million when Covey was named CEO, and, within three years, he grew shareholder value to $160 million in a merger he orchestrated with then Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey.
Over the years, Covey has gained considerable respect and influence with executives and leaders of Fortune 500 companies as well as with mid- and small-sized private sector and public sector organizations he’s consulted. Clients recognize his unique perspective on real-world organizational issues based on his practical experience as a former CEO.
Covey currently serves on the board/advisory board of several entities, including the Human Performance Institute—the leader in energy management technology—where he serves as Advisory Board Chairman.
Covey resides with his wife and children in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains.
“The first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.”
“The process of building trust is an interesting one, but it begins with yourself, with what I call self trust, and with your own credibility, your own trustworthiness. If you think about it, it's hard to establish trust with others if you can't trust yourself.”
“Trust is equal parts character and competence... You can look at any leadership failure, and it's always a failure of one or the other.”
“Above all, success in business requires two things: a winning competitive strategy, and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both. I submit that while high trust won't necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one. ”
“We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviour.”