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From:Stephen R. Covey , Free Press ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#9947 |
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 A book that will change the world if every leader reads it, 2008-08-14
Many people would agree that what the world lacks is leadership and not resources. Mr. Covey has perfectly laid out what many academic papers and powerful speeches have lacked - substance, and practical steps.
This is an amazing attempt to significantly address the root cause of the problems of this world - the undersupply of quality leadership with principles. As the book stresses, it is imperative that political, business and organizational leaders understand and embrace fairness, commonsense, quality, ethical and dedicated leadership to drive positive political, economic, and social change across the world. This books shows how World citizens can be empowered and how the vast natural resources of the planet can be most effectively deployed. This was obviously a very inspiring book. The only problem is that I don't know how many leaders would dare to read it? (Nwankama W Nwankama)
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 An Interesting Model of Leadership, 2008-06-14
I approached Stephen Covey's Principle-Centered Leadership not long after having read his famous The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Given the very high benchmark, I was a bit disappointed by the chaotic structure and repeating content. However, the key insights of Dr. Covey's teachings on leadership sum up to quite an interesting model of leadership within organizations.
The key notion of the book is that leadership, in the same way as life in general, should be governed by principles. Dr. Covey describes four levels of leadership and corresponding four key principles that should be followed by effective leaders and organizations.
Personal level. The means to becoming an effective leader on the personal level is following the principle of trustworthiness. In order to be trustworthy, you need to show character and develop competence.
Interpersonal level. Leading people, which happens on the interpersonal level, can only be successful if it is based on the principle of trust. This in turn requires that both sides of the relationship are trustworthy (showing character and competence).
Managerial level. On the managerial level, a leader can obtain best results by following the principle of empowerment. People should supervise themselves - as a manager, you should become a source of help rather than a supervisor.
Dr. Covey lists six conditions of empowerment:
1. Character
2. Skills
3. Win-win agreement
4. Self-supervision
5. Helpful structure and systems
6. Accountability
Organizational level. In the design of leadership-centered organizations, one should focus on the principle of alignment. Great organizations should be aligned on the correct principles, values, strategy, style, structure and systems.
This might be a potentially interesting read to anyone who has not read 7 Habits before. Otherwise, I would recommend only a scanning and selective read of this book to anyone interested in the topic.
 Quality author, disappointing content, 2008-03-29
Covey's follow up to his best seller does not quite merit the high regard his first work attained. Many of the topics are merely restated common themes found among even average business degrees giving the impression Covey may have been seeking to benefit off his first significant success rather than provide any fresh ideas.
I have always held to the belief that a single concept derived from a book, even if only discovered amid a single sentence, justifies the value of the book if the concept is new and profound. I did not find such a new concept among the entire book, and thus unless new to business leadership and management theory, I would not recommend this book.
Leadership, 2008-02-08
This book is great for anyone looking to reign in their strategy for leading other's, as well as yourself. Good as a supplemental reading for secondary education.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
A Must Read for All Leaders and Future Leaders, 2008-02-02
This book is truly amazing. I first read this book in college and worked hard at applying Mr. Covey's concepts. After learning to internalize and integrate these concepts into my life I became a more focused person, learned to put my highest priorities first, and learned to become a more principle-centered "leader".
I will share one of the many key concepts that I took away from reading his book. This concept is called the "Law of the Farm." In a natural system, such as a farm, there are no shortcuts. In the spring you must plant the seed; throughout the summer you must water and cultivate the plants; then during the fall you can harvest the crops because of all the hard work you invested. You cannot trick or shortcut this natural system by doing everything last minute or you would not get the same returns. This concept holds true throughout all aspects of life (family, relationships, education, business, dieting, etc.). In the short run, these gimmicky quick fix solutions may appear to work, but in the long run these shortcut solutions simply don't work. My summary of this concept does not do the analogy justice, thus I encourage you to read the book to get a more complete explanation of this natural law.
Stephan Covey is one of my favorite authors and I recommend this book to anyone looking to become a better "leader" in any of your multiple roles (manager, spouse, parent, student, community member, etc.).
Because this book had such a profound impact on me when I was a college student, I now give this book as a gift to all my relatives who are graduating from high school and are about to attend college. My hope is that this book will help provide them guidance as they learn to become our principle-centered leaders of tomorrow.
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