Stephen Covey

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Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, management consultant, and internationally bestselling author, widely regarded as one of the most influential thought leaders in personal development and organizational leadership of the late 20th century, best known for his landmark self-help and management framework laid out in *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People*.

Key moments

1932-10-24Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
1957Completed his Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard Business School
1989Published his career-defining work *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People*, which quickly became a global cultural phenomenon
1997Merged his Covey Leadership Center with time management firm Franklin Quest to co-found FranklinCovey, a global organizational training and consulting enterprise
2003Awarded the National Fatherhood Award by the U.S. National Fatherhood Initiative
2004Released *The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness*, the widely anticipated follow-up title expanding his original 7 habits framework for the 21st century workforce
2012-07-16Passed away at age 79 from complications following a bicycle accident

Counter-mainstream design of his core success framework

Covey deliberately pushed back against the post-WWI trend of superficial, short-term trick-focused success content that dominated mid-20th century self-help publishing. His 7-habit system rooted all sustainable achievement in consistent character building, rather than transient personality gimmicks, which allowed the framework to remain relevant decades after its initial release, across wildly different cultural and generational contexts.

Unusually broad cross-domain adoption of his ideas

Unlike most management thought leaders whose work only targets corporate executive audiences, Covey's guidance was framed to apply equally to family life, parenting, education, community organization and personal well-being. This universal framing led to his content being adopted not just by 80% of Fortune 500 firms for staff training, but also by U.S. public school systems, federal government agencies, and even military personnel development programs.

Intergenerational legacy beyond his lifetime

The FranklinCovey organization he co-founded has continued to update and adapt his core principles for modern remote work, youth education and non-profit leadership long after his passing, ensuring his body of work remains actively used by new generations of professionals rather than being remembered only as a late 20th century pop culture curiosity. Multiple U.S. public figures including former president Bill Clinton have publicly cited his frameworks as a regular part of their personal decision-making routines.

Overview

Stephen Covey

birth name	Stephen Richards Covey
birth date	October 24, 1932
death date	July 16, 2012
death place	Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.
birth place	Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
occupation	Author, professional speaker, professor, consultant, management-expert
alma mater	University of Utah (B.S.) Harvard University (M.B.A.) Brigham Young University (D.R.E.)

spouse	Sandra Covey

children	9 (including Sean Covey, Stephen M. R. Covey)

website	http://stephencovey.com

Stephen Richards Covey (October 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) was an American educator, author, businessman, and speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.[1] His other books include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 8th Habit, and The Leader In Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. In 1996, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people.[2] He was a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University (USU) at the time of his death.

Early life and education

Covey was born to Stephen Glenn Covey and Irene Louise Richards Covey in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 24, 1932.[3] Louise was the daughter of Stephen L Richards, an apostle and counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to David O. McKay. Covey was the grandson of Stephen Mack Covey who founded the original Little America Wyoming near Granger, Wyoming. He was athletic as a youth but suffered from a slipped capital femoral epiphysis in junior high school, requiring him to change his focus to academics and a member of the debate team and graduated from high school early.[3]

Covey earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Utah, an MBA from the Harvard Business School (HBS), and a Doctor of Religious Education from Brigham Young University (BYU). He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was awarded ten honorary doctorates.[4]

Philosophical background

Covey was heavily influenced by Peter Drucker and Carl Rogers. Another key influence on his thinking was his study of American self-help books that he did for his doctoral dissertation.[5] A further influence on Covey was his affiliation with the LDS Church. According to Clayton Christensen, The Seven Habits was a secular distillation of Latter-day Saint values.[6]

Books

Covey's book Spiritual Roots of Human Relations was published in 1970 by Deseret Book Company. Reading this book will identify how Covey's later works were a secular development of these earlier ideas.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey's best-known book, has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide since its first publication in 1989. The audio version became the first non-fiction audio-book in U.S. publishing history to sell more than one million copies.[7] Covey argues against what he calls "The Personality Ethic", something he sees as prevalent in many modern self-help books. He promotes what he labels "The Character Ethic": aligning one's values with so-called "universal and timeless" principles. Covey adamantly refuses to conflate principles and values; he sees principles as external natural laws, while values remain internal and subjective. Covey proclaims that values govern people's behavior, but principles ultimately determine the consequences. Covey presents his teachings in a series of habits, manifesting as a progression from dependence via independence to interdependence.

The 8th Habit

Covey's 2004 book

Other projects

Academia

Covey was a professor at the Marriott School of Management at BYU for several years, helping to establish the Master of Organizational Behavior program, which has since been merged into the MBA program. While at BYU, Covey served as an assistant to the university president.[9]

During the late part of his life, Covey returned to academia as a professor at the Huntsman School of Business at USU, holding the Huntsman Presidential Chair.[10]

Education

Covey developed his 2008 book The Leader in Me into several education-related projects. On April 20, 2010, he made his first post to an education blog entitled "Our Children and the Crisis in Education" which appears on the Huffington Post news and blog-aggregation website. FranklinCovey also established a Web site dedicated exclusively to The Leader in Me concept,

Personal

Family

Covey lived with his wife, Sandra Merrill Covey, and their family in Provo, Utah, home to BYU, where Covey taught prior to the publication of his best-selling book. Parents of nine children and grandparents of fifty-five, Stephen Covey received the Fatherhood Award from the National Fatherhood Initiative in 2003.

Covey's grandson, Britain, played college football at his alma mater, University of Utah, and signed as an undrafted free agent to the Philadelphia Eagles following the 2022 NFL draft.

Religion

Covey was a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a two-year mission in England for the Church.[13] Beginning in July 1962, Covey served as the first president of the church's Irish Mission.[14] Starting in 1973, Covey served for a time as a mission representative of the

Injuries and death

In April 2012, Covey was riding a bike in Rock Canyon Park in Provo, Utah, when he lost control and fell. He was wearing a helmet but according to his daughter, the helmet slipped and his head hit the pavement. She said Covey "went down a hill too fast and flipped forward on the bike. It was a pretty big goose egg on the top of his head." Covey also suffered cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung.

Covey died from complications resulting from the bike accident at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on July 16, 2012, at the age of 79.[18][19]

Honors and awards

The Thomas More College Medallion for continuing service to humanity[20]
The National Entrepreneur of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership[20]
The 1994 International Entrepreneur of the Year Award[20]
One of Time Magazine's 25 most influential Americans of 1996[20]
The Sikh's 1998 International Man of Peace Award[20]

Works

Spiritual Roots of Human Relations (1970) (ISBN 0-87579-705-9)
How to Succeed with People (1971) ISBN 0875796818
The Divine Center (1982) (ISBN 1-59038-404-0)
Marriage and Family: Gospel Insights (1983) co-authored with Truman G Madsen
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989, 2004) (ISBN 0-671-70863-5)
Principle Centered Leadership (1989) (ISBN 0-671-79280-6)
First Things First (1994), co-authored with Roger and Rebecca Merrill (ISBN 0-684-80203-1)
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families : building a beautiful family culture in a turbulent world (1997) (ISBN 0-307-44008-7)
Quest: The Spiritual Path to Success (Editor) (1997) with Thomas Moore, Mark Victor Hansen, David Whyte, Bernie Siegel, Gabrielle Roth and Marianne Williamson. Simon & Schuster AudioBook ISBN 978-0-671-57484-0
Living the 7 Habits (2000) (ISBN 0-684-85716-2)
6 Events: The Restoration Model for Solving Life's Problems (2004) (ISBN 1-57345-187-8)
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

External links

References

7 Habits of Highly Effective People www.quickmba.com, retrieved 2020-06-09^
Erin Hong and Blaze Bullock. Stephen Covey's achievements DeseretNews.com, retrieved 2018-12-09^
Lena M. Harper. The Highly Effective Person Marriott Alumni Magazine, Brigham Young University, Summer 2012, retrieved August 11, 2012