Stephen Covey was asleep in his hotel room in San Francisco, confident that he had made the proper arrangements for a co-worker to wake him at 6:30 a.m. He wanted to be wide awake for a 6:45 live radio interview to talk about his new book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."
When the phone rang promptly at 6:30, Covey picked it up and barked into the receiver, "Divorced, broke and sloppy." This is a little in-joke among Covey and his co-workers because the three words embody, for Covey, the very antithesis of what he aspires to be.You can probably see the punch line coming here. Somebody at the radio station had goofed. Covey and his greeting were on the air.
Covey doesn't mind telling this little joke on himself. In fact, one gets the impression he's a little relieved to be able to offer up proof that he is not perfect, despite the fact that he has won a reputation as a guru of personal and corporate effectiveness.
At some of America's largest companies - AT&T, Procter and Gamble, DuPont, Quaker Oats - top executives pay big money to hear what Covey has to say. "The New Wizard of Corporate Culture," was the way "Dun's Business Month" summed him up in a 1986 article. Covey is also well-known in LDS circles as a motivational speaker.
With the publication of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," released by Simon and Schuster this fall, Covey now hopes to reach a newer and bigger audience nationwide.
The Brigham Young University adjunct professor also hopes to take his "Seven Habits" to public schools across the country, beginning with pilot projects in Utah, California and Georgia.
"Our mission," he says, with no trace of self-consciousness, "is to influence all of society around principle-centered leadership."
- ALTHOUGH THE BUSINESS SECTIONS of most bookstores are full of personal and business management advice, Covey says that his ideas are unique. Most management books, he says, deal with techniques and skills - what he calls the Personality Ethic. These are the books that teach you to have a positive mental attitude, to effect a "power look," to learn the tricks of influence.
What Covey proposes, instead, is a return to the Character Ethic - not quick fixes, first impressions or manipulative ploys, he says, but performance based on a set of values, carried out by following his "seven habits." (see box).
It doesn't sound particularly earth-shattering, but in a world where ethics are suspect in the highest places, it is apparently an idea whose time has come. To date, the Covey Leadership Center (formerly and less grandly known as Stephen R. Covey and Associates) has been invited to work with over 2,000 companies worldwide, including 250 "Fortune 500" companies.
Fifty of these have signed on for what at Covey they call "high-impact work" - over the course of a year, Covey or his colleagues work in-depth with the companies' top executives.
Willard Jules, total quality manager at Westinghouse's Savannah River Laboratory in South Carolina, took part in Covey's high-impact work. "For me, personally, it's been a major transformation," he reports. "I learned to really value people." He says that as a result of the Covey program, his co-workers have become more self-motivated and now need less supervision.
Depending on the number of executives and the extensiveness of the work, this customized strategic planning can cost a company anywhere from $30,000 to $400,000.
Covey himself can pull in between $17,000 and $22,000 for an afternoon's speech.
- THERE'S NO DENYING that the man is impressive, even if you take a dim view of people who write books telling the rest of us how to live better. His voice is intimate. His gaze is direct.
And even though he speaks in personal effectiveness jargon - P/PC Capability, Quadrant II Lifestyle, Emotional Bank Account - he also has a flair for practical advice and the perfect metaphor.
What the world needs, says Covey, is fewer daytimers and more "mission statements." Covey has written his own personal mission statement - the underlying philosophy and goals of his life - which he carries in his Seven Habits Organizer. He, his wife and their nine children have written a family mission statement, which hangs, a bit tattered by now, in the Covey family room.
What the world needs, says Covey, is fewer managers and more leaders.
"You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two," writes Covey, "if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They're the producers, the problem solvers. They're cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out."
The metaphor continues: "The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.
"The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, `Wrong jungle!' "But how do the busy, efficient producers and managers often respond? `Shut up! We're making progress.' "
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(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Replace old habits with 7 new ones
Habits, says Stephen Covey, are second nature. They're not instincts, they're learned behavior, and that means you can replace them with ones that will serve you better. The seven most effective habits, says Covey, are:
1. Initiative: Effective people literally lead their lives. Instead of saying "It's hopeless," they say, "Let's look at the alternatives." Instead of saying "If only . . ." they say, "I will." Instead of seeing their lives as determined by other people and events beyond their control, they focus their attention on what Covey calls their "circle of influence."
2. Creativity: Effective people "begin with the end in mind" - they envision what they want and how to get it. But first they have to clarify their values and pick their priorities. One way to do this is to write a personal "mission statement." Effective people, says Covey, are principle-centered rather than work-centered or even family-centered.
3. Productivity: Effective people spend more time on what is really important - as opposed to unimportant but urgent. "We react to urgent matters," says Covey. "Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen." Effective people define their roles and establish their goals before they write schedules.
4. Interdependence: Effective people think "win-win." Rather than acting competitively, they focus on mutual benefit. If mutually satisfactory solutions can't be found, they make no deal at all. They establish trust rather than relying on superficial public relations techniques.
5. Empathy: Covey offers a metaphor about a man who goes to the optometrist because he's having trouble with his eyes. After briefly listening to the man's complaint, the eye doctor offers him his own glasses. When the man complains that he can't see, the doctor is incredulous ("They work for me"), then full of advice ("Think positively"), then angry ("Boy, are you ungrateful.") Seek first to really understand the other person before you seek to be understood, says Covey.
6. Synergy: More than just compromise, synergy looks for a third alternative when people have differences. Effective people value the other person's differences.
7. Consistency: "Sharpen the saw regularly," says Covey. Effective people have a balanced, systematic program for physical, mental, emotional and moral self-renewal. Exercise, meditate, learn, eat right, manage your stress and be of service every day, he urges. And get up early. "Mind over mattress," says Covey.