What I learned from Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Dr. Stephen R. Covey came to USU and spoke at the dean’s convocation. As posted on the Huntsman School of Business’s website, “Dr. Covey is the first appointment to one of two Presidential Chairs created by Jon and Karen Huntsman in April 2009. Dr. Covey will serve as a tenured professor in a research capacity in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.” I was so excited when I heard this announcement because I have read several of his books and my dad has used his Franklin Covey planner for decades.

Along with sitting in the front row, holding his famous talking stick, and having my picture taken with him…I learned a lot from this extremely influential man. I will share ten things which made the greatest impression on me:

1. Build your value system on principles that apply in any part of the world, principles which never change.

2. Create a family mission statement and talk about it often.

3. We learn 95 percent of what we teach.

4. Leaders need to embrace the whole person, which is 4-dimensional: the body, mind, heart & spirit.

5. The 8th Habit is to affirm your self-worth and unleash your potential.

6. The current workforce should be entering the Information/Knowledge Worker Age which allows people a voice, to unleash their talent, to serve as part of a complementary team, and to self-manage their work.

7. The best mode of communication is with love, openness, respect and understanding. This means allowing only one person to speak at time, until they feel their thoughts have been completely expressed (hence… the talking stick).

8. The key to getting a job is to be a solution to a problem, not another problem.

9.  We can achieve “moral authority” by keeping our commitments, being transparent and learning to listen.

10. Everyone has 4 basic needs: to live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey left an impression on me and I look forward to learning more from him in my future here at USU.