Madame L was sorry to learn this morning that Stephen R. Covey, author of the "7 Habits" book and an inspirational speaker, has died. From the news:
"In a statement sent to employees of a Utah
consulting firm Covey co-founded, his family said the writer and
motivational speaker died at a hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, early
Monday due to complications from a bicycle accident in April.
"'In
his final hours, he was surrounded by his loving wife and each one of
his children and their spouses, just as he always wanted, the family
said.
"Covey was
hospitalized after being knocked unconscious in the bicycle accident on
a steep road in the foothills of Provo, Utah, about 45 miles south of
Salt Lake City."
1 comment:
I generally ignore obituaries, especially ones published in the national news media. Most lifetime contributions to this world could be best described as "fluff." Sorry, but that's the case, myself not excepted.
But this notice is significant, because Steven R. Covey did NOT contribute fluff. Instead, he made ground-breaking contributions towards rationalized thinking in a vast number of domains, including business, science management, and the military. By now billions of human beings have read what he taught, from China to Chicago, from the military to marketing. Among the core principles: HONESTY and PERSONAL INTEGRITY.
I listened to McCovey talk first in 1972, and was stunned at the raw intellect so firmly anchored in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I normally read slowly (a liability that comes from being a physicist), but I have read several of his books - and they grace my office shelves along with books on geophysics, mineral resources, asteroid impact physics, and management. My thinking was forever changed. When I served 5 years as Chief Scientist in the US Geological Survey, Covey's work cored my management style. I hired a management consultant to teach these principles at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory when I inherited a disfunctional operation there. At the core of the disfunction: failures in personal integrity, which led to a collapse of trust and cooperation.
Yes, RIP Steven R. Covey. You contributed substantively to this world while you were here. Would that we could all contribute even a fraction of that.
~~~~~
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