Covey tells teens how to lead

OREM — Teenagers can show leadership by being the first in their families to stop a bad habit or tendency, Stephen Covey said Tuesday during a speech at Utah Valley State College.

Teenagers also can be leaders by reaching out to classmates who don't seem to have a lot of self-confidence, he said.

Covey, a co-founder and vice chairman of Franklin Covey and author of the best-selling, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," spoke at a UVSC leadership conference.

About 4,000 people attended, mostly students from 90 high schools throughout the state and as far away as Kane County.

Everyone is born a leader and is destined for greatness, Covey said in an hourlong event that weaved his motivational speaking with short movies and an overhead presentation of his leadership theories.

"I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine," Covey said.

Covey distinguished the difference between leadership positions, such as management, and moral leadership, which is the essence of true leadership.

Moral leadership is a choice. An example is Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to independence from British rule in 1947.

"What position did he hold?" Covey said. "No position."

Instead, Gandhi was a visionary, which was another of Covey's points: Events in the world happen twice; first, in the mind when people envision them, and second, when they actually occur.

Leaders use their bodies, minds, hearts and spirits, which produce dedication, passion, love and conscience.

"It comes inside-out when you exercise influence in these four ways," Covey said.

Messages in society leave people with a sense that they cannot accomplish their dreams because their success is always judged in relation to other people's, and most human love is conditional, Covey said.

Covey encouraged people to ignore society and focus on greatness, without forgetting about other people.

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