The Leader in Me process is based upon Stephen Covey’s bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey’s recent book, The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time, chronicles the process – how extraordinary elementary schools are teaching the same 7 Habits leadership principles which have guided corporate and government boardroom decisions for years.

“The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history,” said Stephen Covey. “Studies have identified a significant ‘skills gap’ between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today’s global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.”

Click here to read entire press release

Click here to watch videos of Elementary school principals, teachers and students talk on The Leader in Me process.

 Covey suggested the following to parents in the article:

•  Parents can help their children be successful by affirming their children’s worth and potential in a way that inspires them to feel it is so. Children don’t derive their sense of self from being compared with other people. True success comes from character and not just from being rich and famous.

•  A family mission statement is vital and should deal with the four parts of life – - mind, body, heart and spirit. It should also focus serving others, whether it’s working at a food bank or helping friends who come from dysfunctional families.

• Parents should not compare their children with other children. Too many parents don’t love their children unconditionally and they are focused on the success of money, recognition and achievement rather than on character and contribution.

• Good grades in school are the byproduct of living by correct principles and becoming one’s own personal leader.

• Parents should have their kids teach them what they’re learning in school. They should be excited and enthusiastic so kids start to feel, ‘Wow, my parents are really learning. I’m their teacher. I’m a good student.’ Teens tend to be resistant at first, but if parents start slowly with their favorite subject, they will become top students. But it takes time, which a lot of parents don’t give.

• Parents can help children deal with stress by saying no to things that aren’t urgent. They can listen to their children with true intimacy and let them express themselves fully, without judgment, advice or prying, which will remove a lot of stress from their lives.

Watching TV and computer use should be limited. Every child can watch TV for one hour a day, or seven hours a week but rarely on school nights. Children should use computers for their homework, but not extensively for games.

This is timely advice for parents and for anyone who wishes to make a difference in the life of a child.  To see Covey’s interview with USA Weekend, click here.

Click here to read more articles by Stephen R. Covey

 Author: Debra Lund, Public Relations Director, FranklinCovey

In writing this week about Barack Obama we’re not trying to capitalize on his popularity (although we love Ben and Jerry’s new ice-cream flavor “Yes PeCan”).

But the new President of the United States undeniably seems to know something about greatness.

Somehow he has earned the loyalty of a lot of people. During his campaign 10,000 young people crowded into a Washington, D.C., rally and gladly tossed $15 into a pot to sign up as volunteers. Greeters with laptops took their e-mail addresses. This scene was repeated hundreds of times across the U.S.

After the election Obama’s change.gov Web site was wildly popular, streaming video of actual transition meetings, asking visitors for their opinions, and encouraging them to sign up for service projects. Millions visited and got involved.

Clearly, something new is going on here.

It might have to do with the power of synergy.

Obama fits no mold. His background is a model of diversity—his mother was from Kansas, his father from Kenya. He grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. He has brothers, sisters, and cousins of many races living on all continents. Obama is the product of a remarkable cross-cultural synergy.

He is not about stale arguments, old wars, and worn-out biases. He appears to transcend all that.

Of course, time will tell. It always does.

But you can sense that we might be entering an era of the “Third Alternative,” what Dr. Stephen R. Covey has always called the greatest human achievement. The Third Alternative bypasses “my way” or “your way” in solving problems—it’s all about our way, a new way, a better way no one ever thought of before.

We suddenly face a drastically changed world with challenges no one has ever seen, so it’s going to need solutions no one has ever seen. President Obama has asked the world to send him great ideas for solving the problems we face together.

Why not take a minute and send us your great ideas—your “Third Alternatives”? Let’s all join the conversation!

Hello to thousands of our friends worldwide on the new FranklinCovey blog.

What is this blog about? Well, our FranklinCovey mission is to enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere.

It sounds pretty ambitious to help everybody become great. It sort of depends on how you define the word “great.” Maybe you feel a little weary just reading our mission statement-I know I do. Sometimes just getting up in the morning is a “great” accomplishment.

But at FranklinCovey it’s a mission we deeply believe in.

This is what we mean by our mission: We’d like to help you and everybody else live a great life.

What could be a more energizing mission than that?

That’s why we’ve started this blog.

We’re going to discover among ourselves what it means to live a great life-how you personally can live a great life-and how together we can help other people live a great life.

When you come to this blog you’ll be blown away by the ideas for living not just a pleasant life, a secure life, a nice life-but a truly great life.

Sometimes we’ll talk about people who have made a great impact on the world, famous people, the kind of people we usually call “great.”

But just as often we’ll talk about people who look deceptively ordinary but are actually incredibly great. People who have chosen greatness in the circle they live in, no matter how small that circle.

People like you.

And that’s why we’re inviting you to send us your own stories of greatness . . . stories about great people you know. Stories about people who have transcended the boundaries of the everyday, who have made unique contributions, who have made a compelling difference.

And together we’ll discover what such people are made of.

Send your stories to blog@franklincovey.com