Stephen Covey Quotes

Outsourcing is inevitable, and I don’t think it’s necessarily treating people like things.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

Some habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking.

Light is the greatest disinfectant in nature and also in organizations.

Both times I was in India, I could not get people to listen to each other. I had to literally tell people to listen to each other and tell them that they can’t get creative and find alternate solutions if they don’t listen to each other. There’s a lot of arguing and justifying.

The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.

We need to have business leaders who live by deep, strong principles.

Reactive people… are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

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

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

We become what we repeatedly do.

Want balance in your life? Then sure, get your own act together, but don’t forget four powerful disciplines of execution in your team and organization.

Everyone must be proactive and do all they can to help themselves to stay employed.

Listen with your eyes for feelings.

When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative, it starts to affect our creative juices.

The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history.

A little over 5% of the world’s population produces almost 29% of the world’s goods and services.

Every time I see high-trust cultures, I see a lessening of adversarialism.

How can you possibly reconcile the justice of God with the idea that only through Christ can you be saved? Most of the world lives and dies and never even hears of Christ. There has to be some mechanism set up for all those who have ever lived to have an opportunity to hear of Christ.

In this knowledge-worker age, it’s now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs – so the pressure to do well is really high.

When we value correct principles, we have truth – a knowledge of things as they are.

There is a heavy emphasis in Mormonism on initiative, on responsibility, on a work ethic, and on education. If you take those elements together with a free-enterprise system, you’ve got the chemistry for a lot of industry.

Studies have identified a significant ‚skills gap‘ between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today’s global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.

One of the things that I have admired about India is the spiritualism of the people.

There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

Despite all our gains in technology, product innovation and world markets, most people are not thriving in the organizations they work for.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

Public behavior is merely private character writ large.

My parents were just constantly affirming me in everything that I did. Late at night, I’d wake up and hear my mother talking over my bed, saying, ‚You’re going to do great on this test. You can do anything you want.‘

Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, ‚What can I do? I’m basically a victim.‘

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

The solutions to our problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.

The spirit of America has nurtured responsibility and community unlike any other country.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight… But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

For me, the essence of the great American Dream is spiritual. I believe that our Constitution is inspired and that it is based on principles that are timeless and universal. This is the reason why 95% of all written constitutions throughout the world are modeled after our Constitution.

But with the steady disintegration of the family in modern society over the last century, the role of the school in bridging the gap has become vital!

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

An empowered organisation is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organisational success.

If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

Begin with the end in mind.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.