Stephen Covey quotes

Born
October 24, 1932 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.

Died
July 16, 2012.

Occupation
Author, businessman.

Stephen Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
– Stephen Covey

What is common sense isn’t common practice.
– Stephen Covey

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It’s our way.
– Stephen Covey

Accountability breeds response-ability.
– Stephen Covey

You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.
– Stephen Covey

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

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.
– Stephen Covey

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.
– Stephen Covey

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

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

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

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

We become what we repeatedly do.
– Stephen Covey

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.
– Stephen Covey

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
– Stephen Covey

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.
– Stephen Covey

Trust is central to an economy that works.
– Stephen Covey

Every time you think the problem is ‘out there,’ that very thought is the problem.
– Stephen Covey

The true identity theft is not financial. It’s not in cyberspace. It’s spiritual. It’s been taken.
– Stephen Covey

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

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.
– Stephen Covey

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.
– Stephen Covey

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.
– Stephen Covey

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.
– Stephen Covey

Leadership is a choice, not a position.
– Stephen Covey

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.
– Stephen Covey

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

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.
– Stephen Covey

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.
– Stephen Covey

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.
– Stephen Covey

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

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.
– Stephen Covey

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

The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.
– Stephen Covey