Stephen R. Covey, born on October 24, 1932, was an influential American author, educator, and motivational speaker. Best known for his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Covey’s work had a profound impact on personal and professional development. He advocated for a principle-centered approach to life, emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility, integrity, and continuous growth. Covey’s timeless teachings, such as prioritizing important tasks, seeking win-win solutions, and seeking to understand before being understood, resonated with millions of readers worldwide. His ideas on effective leadership, time management, and interpersonal relationships continue to guide individuals on their path to success. Stephen R. Covey’s legacy as a thought leader and his commitment to empowering individuals to live purposeful and fulfilling lives remain enduring and inspiring.
To judge individuals before understanding them is a form of human rejection and feeds upon itself.
Stephen R. Covey
We see the world, not as it is, but as we are-or, as we are conditioned to see it.
Stephen R. Covey
Win-win agreements are tremendously liberating. But as the product of isolated techniques, they won’t hold up. Even if you set them up in the beginning, there is no way to maintain them without personal integrity and a relationship of trust.
Stephen R. Covey
To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. Donald A. Adams It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; all that matters is where you are going. You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.
Stephen R. Covey
Any time you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.
Stephen R. Covey
An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.
Stephen R. Covey
Before I can walk in another person’s shoes, I must first remove my own.
Stephen R. Covey
By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered in the task of creating effective, useful, and peaceful lives-for ourselves, and for our posterity.
Stephen R. Covey
Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.
Stephen R. Covey
By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the center that puts all other centers in perspective.
Stephen R. Covey
By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.
Stephen R. Covey
All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.
Stephen R. Covey
Any time you wrap your emotional life around the weaknesses of another person, you empower those weaknesses to control you.
Stephen R. Covey
The greatest risk is the risk of riskless living.
Stephen R. Covey
In win-win performance agreements, consequences become the natural or logical result of performance rather than a reward or punishment arbitrarily handed out by the person in charge.
Stephen R. Covey
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
Stephen R. Covey
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
Stephen R. Covey
Principles are the territory. Values are maps. When we value correct principles, have truth- a knowledge of things as they are.
Stephen R. Covey
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen R. Covey
Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values.
Stephen R. Covey
Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality.
Stephen R. Covey
Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
Stephen R. Covey
The place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our circle of influence, our own character.
Stephen R. Covey
Synergy: The combined effect of individuals in collaboration that exceeds the sum of their individual effects.
Stephen R. Covey
One of the best parts of being a family is that you can encourage one another. You can believe in one another. You can affirm one another.
Stephen R. Covey
Really seeking to understand another person is probably one of the most important deposits you can make, and it is the key to every other deposit.
Stephen R. Covey
The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are.
Stephen R. Covey
