Stephen Covey Quotes

345 Sourced Quotes

If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character.

Stephen Covey
By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered to the task of creating effective useful and peaceful lives.

Stephen Covey
Feedback often tells you more about the person who is giving it than about you.

Stephen Covey
You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy their heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his his resourcefulness.

Stephen Covey
The more involved you are, the more significant your learning will be.

Stephen Covey
We tend to get what we expect - both from ourselves and from others. When we expect more, we tend to get more; when we expect less, we tend to get less.

Stephen Covey
An effective goal focuses primarily on results rather than activity. It identifies where you want to be, and, in the process, helps you determine where you are. It gives you important information on how to get there, and it tells you when you have arrived. It unifies your efforts and energy. It gives meaning and purpose to all you do.

Stephen Covey
Only 20 percent of employees working in large organizations surveyed feel their strengths are in play every day. Thus, eight our of ten employees surveyed feel somewhat miscast in their role.

Stephen Covey
It's like the more you know the more you know you don't know.

Stephen Covey
If you focus on principles, you empower everyone who understands those principles to act without constant monitoring, evaluating, correcting, or controlling.

Stephen Covey
The ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust is the key professional and personal competency of our time.

Stephen Covey
Building and repairing relationships are long-term investments.

Stephen Covey
Being proactive is more than taking initiative. It is recognizing that we are responsible for our own choices and have the freedom to choose based on principles and values rather than on moods or condition. Proactive people are agents of change and choose not to be victims, to be reactive, or to blame others.

Stephen Covey
Contrary to what most people believe, trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don't; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create.

Stephen Covey
If you don't choose to do it in leadership time up front, you do it in crisis management time down the road.

Stephen Covey