http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120716053807-stephen-covey-story-top.jpg
Stephen R. Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," has died.

'7 Habits' author Stephen Covey dead at 79

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 1:45 PM EDT, Mon July 16, 2012

(CNN) -- Author Stephen Covey, whose "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" sold more than 20 million copies, died Monday at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 79.

Covey's family issued a statement, reported by CNN affiliate KSL, saying he died from residual effects of an April bicycle accident.

"In his final hours, he was surrounded by his loving wife and each one (of) his children and their spouses, just as he always wanted," the statement said, according to KSL.

Covey was "one of the world's foremost leadership authorities, organizational experts and thought leaders," according to a biography posted on the website of his 2011 book, "The 3rd Alternative."

Other best-sellers by Covey include "First Things First," "Principle-Centered Leadership," and "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness," according to the biography.

"The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People" has been named one of the most influential management books by several organizations, including Time and Forbes magazines. The audio book is the best-selling nonfiction audio in history, according to the website.

Once named one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans, according to the biography, Covey "made teaching principle-centered living and principle-centered leadership his life's work."

Covey held a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Utah, a master's in business administration from Harvard and a doctorate from Brigham Young University. He also received 10 honorary doctorate degrees, his biography said.

He founded Covey Leadership Center, which in 1997 merged with Franklin Quest to create FranklinCovey Co. The company is a "global consulting and training leader in the areas of strategy execution, leadership, customer loyalty, sales performance, school transformation and individual effectiveness," with 44 offices in 147 countries, according to the website.

In 2010, Covey joined Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business faculty as a tenured full professor, the biography said.

Covey and his wife, Sandra, lived in Provo, Utah. He was a father of nine, a grandfather of 52 and a great-grandfather of two, according to the website.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/16/us/obit-stephen-covey/index.html



Dan

I read Stephen's book. I was able to take a few things from it to improve the way I communicate with others.
It made me a more effective communicator and helped me understand others better. I can't say that about too many books.

It's a good read for those who haven't had a chance yet.

You made your mark on the world Stephen and left somethimng behind for others to improve themselves.

Yeah.  Y'know, when I heard about it, I was all ready to flame the guy out for creating a whole set of corporo-management speak.

But honestly, there's nothing in the book that isn't "common sense", common sense isn't something they teach in school. 

And having flipped through my copy, received from a job some decade-and-a-half ago, I realize that you don't have to believe managementspeak to understand it.  You just have to know your manager's jargon, and adapt your jargon accordingly. 

Scenario #1:
Boss: "Gonna need you to work weekends."
Ineffective Person: "Oh, it's a death march.  Are you nuts?"
Boss: "You're fired"

Scenario #2:
Boss: "They moved the deadline up a week."  (Meaning, he wants you to work weekends, but he thinks he's being polite.)
Average Person: "You know, I'm OK with coming in this weekend, but even if I do come in this weekend, it's not gonna cut it.  Do you want Project X or Project Y to fail first?"
Boss: "Umm..." (thinks for a few seconds) "...Project X, I guess."

Scenario #3:
Boss: "They moved the deadline up a week."
Highly Effective Person: "So which project - Project X or Project Y - did your boss decide that he wants to fail first?"
Boss: "Umm...." (goes away for a few hours) "They moved the schedule back 3 days."

Although I actually learned this in Scott Adams' Way of the Weasel, I point out that in scenario 1, the project is incomplete, you're unemployed, your boss has to spend your boss's boss's money to hire your replacement.  In scenario 2, you put in a weekend, and maybe one of the two projects gets done half-assed.  Only in scenario 3 do you get at least one of those weekend days off, and your boss (and his boss!) get both projects completed.

The moral of the story is that not all business books are evil.  They're just tools.  It's up to you whether you use them for good, evil, or both at the same time.  (Synergy, n: Two wrongs don't make a right, but the three do.)

They're just tools.


That they are.

I had my fill of flimflam men on reading Dale Carnegie when I was twelve.
8-P

I associate business guys who read 7 Habits with Mr. Lumbergh style
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy3rjQGc6lA

Lester Burnham: The 7 Habits of highly effective severance package negotiating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcLvJdrbro

I read Stephen's book. I was able to take a few things from it to improve the way I communicate with others.
It made me a more effective communicator and helped me understand others better. I can't say that about too many books.

It's a good read for those who haven't had a chance yet.

You made your mark on the world Stephen and left somethimng behind for others to improve themselves.


You take what you like and leave the rest!!!  good for you.  Some people can't take anything if they don't like the WHOLE thing.  ;)

Lester Burnham: The 7 Habits of highly effective severance package negotiating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcLvJdrbro


The Lonely Island: Dealing with your performance review...

whmCk_3mpDA

...LIKE A BOSS!

The 7 habits:

http://www.carmelitasvalladolid.es/mediapool/63/639852/images/31BIS.JPGhttp://saintemma.org/srcarolyn.jpghttp://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/departments/rgrll/projects/balboaresearch/images/003A.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/09/24/article-0-02C740AF00000578-542_468x438.jpghttp://prints.encore-editions.com/0/500/young-woman-modeling-half-lgth-wearing-nun-s-white-habit-and-praying.jpghttp://www.oshonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mother-superior.jpg]http://famezine.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Sister-John-Mary-features-in-new-documentary-God-is-the-Bigger-Elvis.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gQoa_atqs-E/SWVb0BxdYuI/AAAAAAAAAx8/H1dNnCcneNs/s400/DSC02572.JPG
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Ub7qfH9PjI/T_B8x9uZ3_I/AAAAAAAAFW4/ek03XlImjWI/s1600/Nun.jpg

7 habits.  Habits, get it?  Haw haw haw! Habits!

I show you just how far a man will go for a bad pun!
http://thypolarlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/evil-smiley-face.jpg

You left out a couple of famous ones, Max:

http://40odd.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/nunbluesbrothers.jpg?w=640

http://www.dame-edna.com/danmoyer/nun2.gif

Sally Fields' hat has alot more utility than these cheesy "management expert" books.  Over the years the following books have been handed to me and quickly tossed in the trash bin, untouched:

The Goal
Networking Smart
Topgrading
Who Cut Moved My Cheese
The Goal Revisited
The Fifth Discipline
Six Thinking Hats
Reengineering the Corporation
In Search of Excellence

At my very first job, our Vice President of Operations was out driving drunk one night and wiped out a family of 4; damn near killed his wife too.  (When I went to my job interview which included a dinner at a swanky country club, I assisted his then-hobbled wife up the entry stairs and I was told by somebody "LB, nice move, that got you the job!")  Anyway, as part of his punishment he was sentenced to so many hours of public service.  To comply he started teaching a course "PFD101" (PFD stood for Peter F Drucker).  We were forced to attend his "class".  What a crock.

The problem with any of these books is that maybe the authors had some good ideas, but by the time those books get into the hands of people they are completely mangled and misapplied.  I myself innocently wrote a small management book 20 years ago and was aghast to see what people were doing with its ideas...  I spent more time explaining to people that they did not have a clue about what the book was about than I did showing them how to do it right.  ::)

In one case I listened to one of its "readers" doing everything wrong, completely misusing the concepts and the tools.  I asked him "Where did you get that stupid idea?"  He replied that it was the book which I had written 5 years prior (not knowing I was the author).  When I explained to him that he had it all wrong, he insisted that he was doing things "by the book".  I then instructed him to turn to the second page (which had my name on it as the author) and he was aghast.  Contrary to what my book would have prescribed, I then proceeded to "rip him a new one".  Guy was a dumbass, no book was gonna save him anyway.  ;D

What I took from that experience (and a few other similar incidents) is that in the future, I would not write another management book even if you held a gun to my head.  Handing a book to somebody to make them a great manager is like handing a book to somebody to make them a great basketball player.  Not very likely.  :P

^ Yes...that's why I'm bitter about "how to" books for any area of human relations.  I'm sure those management books have helped good managers become better managers, but I've never seen them improve the mediocre of mediocre managers.  I've also seen management relation schemes help venal managers be more venal.  That's why I posted the scene from "Office Space."  So much of it ends up as "how to push people around without making them feel like they're being pushed around."  Mr. Lumbergh's casual style became popular in the eighties.  It tried to say "we're all peers," even though we're the furthest thing from!