True leadership is moral authority, not formal authority. Leadership is a choice, not a position. The choice is to follow universal timeless principles, which will build trust and respect from the entire organization. Those with formal authority alone will lose this trust and respect.

Stephen Covey

Categorized in : Principles Organization Choices

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

Stephen Covey

motivational inspirational life

To achieve goals you've never achieved before, you need to start doing things you've never done before.

Stephen Covey

change goal needs

Unless you’re continually improving your skills, you’re quickly becoming irrelevant.

Stephen Covey

becoming skills motivational

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Stephen Covey

life-changing inspiring inspirational

While we cannot always choose what happens to us, we can choose our responses.

Stephen Covey

efficiency response effectiveness

The reality is that everybody makes mistakes. The issue isn't whether you will make them, it's what you will do about them. It's whether you will choose the path of humility and courage or the path of ego and pride.

Stephen Covey

humility mistake motivational

Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

Stephen Covey

live-your-life compass clock

Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Stephen Covey

light judging commitment

Don't cheat people of their growth. Empower them to solve problems and generate ideas. Watch them grow!

Stephen Covey

empowering people ideas

Little kindness and courtesies are so important. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

Stephen Covey

family kindness relationship

See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.

Stephen Covey

creative exercise opportunity

If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won't require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external.

Stephen Covey

passion motivation jobs

What you do has far greater impact than what you say.

Stephen Covey

best-leader impact leadership

Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Stephen Covey

choices responsibility people

Listen to your conscience regarding something that you simply know you should do, then start small on it - make a promise and keep it. Then move forward and make a little larger promise and keep it. Eventually you'll discover that your sense of honor will become greater than your moods, and that will give you a level of confidence and excitement that you can move to other areas where you feel you need to make improvements or give service.

Stephen Covey

honor giving moving

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Stephen Covey

wise inspirational life

Prepare your mind and heart before you prepare your speech . What we say may be less important than how we say it.

Stephen Covey

important mind heart

You can't change the fruit without changing the root.

Stephen Covey

cant-change fruit roots

It doesn't really matter how fast you're going if you're heading in the wrong direction.

Stephen Covey

headings inspirational-life matter

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Stephen Covey

courage motivational inspirational