Principle-Centered Leadership
Interestingly, author Stephen R. Covey begins his book by listing what his brother John calls the "seven habits of ineffective people" - as anti-goals to avoid, "don't do this to be successful," one assumes. The 7 are: "Be reactive: doubt yourself and blame others"; "Work without any clear end in mind"; "Do the urgent thing first"; "Think win/lose"; "Seek first to be understood"; "If you can't win, compromise"; "Fear change and put off improvement." As a rule, the above-mentioned ill-advised approaches are simply bad habits that can be broken, the author assures readers, if they are willing to "escape the pull of the past" and "recreate" their personal and In order to end habits that lead to ineffectiveness and slothfulness, and to break away from the tendency to apply short-cuts rather than long-term solutions, Covey uses the metaphor of the farm: "I must prepare the ground, put in the seed, cultivate it," and so on, until it's time to harvest what you worked hard to create. What won't work, Covey insists, are "manipulative strategies and tactics" to get
Rather than focus on urgent matters only, and being "driven by crisis," one should focus on the "highly important" and disciplined parts of life. " He painstakingly points out the difference between "principles" and "values," and writes that a compass is better than a map in today's business world for (again, back to his style of lists) the following reasons: A) A compass indicates what direction to go, no matter the terrain; B) a map becomes obsolete at territory changes, and inaccurate maps frustrate navigation; C) there are "uncharted waters" in the world of executive leadership, and the only guide, truly, is a compass; D) to create "freeways in the wilderness," one needs a compass; E) a map provides "description," but a compass provides "vision and direction" and "leadership. Life is an adventure (that sounds like an ad for the U. " As a reader can clearly see in reading this book, what Covey is doing is dividing values into categories, and giving them a number. One thing Covey does very well in this book is use metaphors with powerful imagery. Chapter 2 is a helpful series of pages (pp. Habit #4 ("Think win/win") is the author's "abundance mentality" - when a person gets into the groove on this endowment, he or she goes from "scarcity" of profit, power, and recognition to "an abundance mentality through feelings of self-worth" and a desire for "mutual benefit. That is a powerful image for a business person: are you just wetting a line and waiting for action - or are you proactively adjusting to the changing waters (of business or fishing)' Is this a good book, a worthwhile book' Yes. And the 7th Habit ("Sharpen the Saw") urges "continuous improvement or self-renewal" - this parallels Bob Dylan's line, "He not busy being born, is busy dying," which is to say, stagnation leads to break downs, and growth leads to healing and strengthening one's life and position in life. This is the time when a person - who has discerned there's a substantial difference of opinion on an issue - says, "Let's go for a synergistic win/win" - let's listen to each other, let's never bad-mouth one another, and let's build a teamwork answer to the question. The principal-centered leadership theme that Covey presents is practiced on four levels: 1) personal ("my relationship with myself"); 2) interpersonal ("my relationships and interactions with others"); 3) managerial ("my responsibility to get a job done with others"); and 4) organizational ("my need to organize, recruit, train, and compensate people, build teams, solve problems, and create aligned structure, strategy and systems"). Regular physical exercise is also part of the daily life of the PCP - "this provides endurance" - and also intellectual exercise is important ("problem solving, reading, writing, visualizing"). The PCP is constantly seeking more knowledge, new skills and is making promises to himself that, once kept, allows him to move on to the next level, and to make another promise to himself at that level. we want done; "Rhetoric and good intentions aside, if there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success," he advises (page 17). " "Seek first to understand, then to be understood," is Habit #5.
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Acceptance Essays
