Covey remarks

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Covey remarks

-- Anonymous, November 04, 1998

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A Reaction to Stephen Covey's Principle Centered Leadership

It seems to me that Mr.Covey clearly distinquishes between his principle centered life and the habits he endorses which I feel should be interdependent. His natural views seem to appose his spiritual, which were coming from a rich private life, constantly educating and obeying his conscience thru private meditation, contemplation, prayer and the study of scriptures or other inspirational literature (pg140).

He suggests nature as one of the best scripting, however he had already stated that marraiges naturally end in divorse. I have a tendency to believe, by certain statements, that he has secularized spirituality, making it more palatable for a broader audience, with a little dab of this and that?

Spiritual is different than the natural. Natural deals with our five sences. Supernatural deals with our spirit. Natural information is gained through our intellect by the five sences, but spiritual laws supersedes the natural. It has authority over the natural. Our intellect also gains information through the spirit. We are a spirit living in a physical body. The spirit of man is the flood light of God. It's our candle. Revelation in God's word produces faith and all the spiritual attributes such as love, joy, peace and temperance, come from making it first place in our lives. There are no natural forces that will overpower it unless they are given permission by our wills to do so.

Can a natural point of view understand spiritual laws and expect to recieve their benifits? We can gain some success through a limited knowledge of the seed plant harvest principle. Even if you dont know why it works, try it anyway. Put it in the ground, water it, and watch the seed grow. Words are our seeds. Acting on it is our faith.

Believing that faith wont work, because you only trust in things you can touch, taste, see or feel brings you only to where you are at. But you are enlarged, by a change of mind, and have the right to believe in more, and demonstrate authority over this physical world, by speaking and acting out hopes that are not at this moment a reality, according to our physical sences. In the spiritual realm they are a reality. This is built on the authority that is able to satisfy the requirement of truth within us, from an honest search for it. From that search we gain significance and purpose which is a hopeful point of view.

The time has come for us to make the quantum leap for excellence which is not a relative term according to the shifting ideas of our societyand human imaginations for the past millennium. Covey states that using the wrong paradigm had crippled entire nations (pg 174). He gives example after example in an endless stream it seems. He breaks the paradigms into four groups pointing out that three are flawed. I agree with it partly in that meaning and spiritual emphasis is a must. We don't need more of the natural, we need something higher.

On page 183, self is the center of Covey's PCL Paradiym. This is a definite world view. He is wise in practical natural management and much of it makes sense. Our country is built on these principles and has been the best county this far, but still we could be alot better. Sometimes the majority is not fully accurate.

There is a wonderful benefit of the empowerment style for self supervision which is both tougher and kinder than a high control styles. For the empowerment style, the desired results and guidelines, accountabilites, and consequences, must be stated because we are flawed naturally from the start.

Covey,s principle centered leadership is like the 3rd level in this model of a city. 1. There are those at ground level, realists accepting things as they are, a dog eat dog and live it my way mentality. If you were to ask one how are you, they might respond, "Ok,I guess" or "I just don't know". 2. Then there are some who live under ground that would say there's just no hope.They are under the circumstances. 3. Some after a time, though care and effort gain knowledge about a bedrock of truth and began to use some of the principals to build a powerful practical tower lifting them high into the fresh air. At times they can even see others, 4. flying high overhead without a care in the world. These also had found that bedrock, but they took picks and shovels and even a broom to clear away the dirt, finding a blueprint engraved on its surface. After thoroughly examining it and mastering the language, they built a landing and launching pad according to the intentions of the designer for a lift off into the wild blue yonder, free. This group had not been perverted by their simple reasoning of natural sences but believed in something bigger than themselves, beyond their wildest imaginations. using their faith like a hammer speaking and acting on the hope of that the blueprint revealed.

-- Anonymous, May 27, 1999


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