Principle-Centered Leadership

Written by Stephen R. Covey

Narrated by Stephen R. Covey

From the author that brought you the New York Times bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People comes a foundational guide to leadership.

How do individuals and organizations survive and thrive amid tremendous change?

Why are efforts to improve organizations failing despite the millions of dollars in time, capital, and human effort being spent on them?

How do we unleash creativity, talent, and energy within ourselves—and others—in the midst of pressure?

Is it realistic to believe that balance among personal, family, and professional life is possible?

Stephen R. Covey demonstrates that the answer to these and other dilemmas is principle-centered leadership, a long-term, inside-out approach to developing people and organizations. The key to dealing with the challenges that face us today is to develop a principle-centered core within both ourselves and our organizations. Dr. Covey offers insights and guidelines that can help you apply these principles both at work and at home—leading not just to a new understanding of how to increase quality and productivity, but also to a new appreciation of the importance of building personal and professional relationships. The result is a more balanced, more rewarding, and more effective life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781442350984

Stephen R. Covey

Recognized as one of Time magazine’s twenty-five most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) was an internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant, and author. His books have sold more than twenty-five million copies in thirty-eight languages, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was named the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century. After receiving an MBA from Harvard and a doctorate degree from Brigham Young University, he became the cofounder and vice chairman of FranklinCovey, a leading global training firm.

Reviews for Principle-Centered Leadership

[jaden_39 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Weak effort. Not cohesive, rehash of common leadership principles. Big disappointment. I loved 7 Habits and Spiritual Roots of Human Development. This one fell far short of the bar.

[mohammedkb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The theme of Principle-Centred Leadership is to become a leader by centering oneself on principles, values, and natural laws rather than on external centers such as family, money, possessions, enemies, work, etc. On this basis, Covey emphasizes that a man’s security comes from inside principles rather than from outside factors.

Covey dives into the nature of human beings and capitalizes on its capabilities to transform the team and the organization. He stresses the necessity of achieving the Private Victory on the individual level to achieve the Public Victory, which is the concept around which his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are built around.

Stephen Covey considers mission statement the essential recipe for success in any leadership endeavor. He urges individuals and organizations to develop mission statements that will guide people and align systems and procedures to achieve its goals.

PCL (Principle-Centred Leadership) requires hard work and diligent efforts to give its fruits. Covey stresses the need to ‘obey’ and respect natural laws in order to succeed. He adopts the Law of the Farm as a metaphor to successful leadership; you can’t reap the crop before you seed, water, cultivate…

PCL enforces tapping people’s potentials and creativity rather than using them only as resources and assets. Involving people in creating a mission statement is necessary to get buy-in, else, you’re running the risk of losing talented people to somewhere else.

Although ideas and concepts of the book could’ve been organized more properly, it taps on invaluable concept that must be applied in all arenas. I recommend the book to starters and to versed leaders. I also recommend reading Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” before reading this book as it draws its concepts from those Habits.

[markdeo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good to have in tandem with "The 7 habits of highly effective people."Provides tremendous insight on human nature. Provides a great foundation for Management and how to utilize your people effectively. I highly recommend Stephen Covey's books.