Reality show stories may stretch the truth or overemphasize some facts over others, but no more than the stories we tell about ourselves to ourselves.  Stephen Covey calls this our paradigms, the way we see the world.   Jim Loehr, the author of The Power of Full Engagement, the best Habit 7/Sharpen the Saw book out there, says that we have stories about our work, our families, our health; about what we’re capable of achieving.  In his book, The Power of Story, Dr. Loehr says that editing our dysfunctional stories can transform our business and personal lives. 

 In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  you are asked to shine a light on your stories, the behaviors those paradigms lead to, and the results you’re getting.  And if you don’t like the result, you’ve got to go back to the story first before you’ll be able to sustain any long-term behavior change.  As a starting place to a more balanced, integrated, powerful life, Dr. Covey asks you to assume the following stories: 

1. For the body—assume you’ve had a heart attack; now live accordingly.
2. For the mind—assume the half-life of your profession is two years, now prepare accordingly.
3. For the heart—assume everything you say about another, they can overhear; now speak accordingly.
4. For the spirit—assume you have a one-on-one accounting to your higher power every quarter; now live accordingly.

 And the story will BE reality.  Much more compelling than a reality show…

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

Follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

Together, FranklinCovey and CAJE-Miami will design, develop and disseminate a customized solution for Jewish day schools that integrates existing school curricula and Jewish principles with the world-renowned The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The partnership links Jewish texts and teachings with FranklinCovey’s leadership training to create a Jewish day school culture imbued with Jewish values, character development and leadership skills.

The new initiative, “The Leader in Me: Ensuring Our Jewish Future,” will provide ‘flagship’ Jewish day schools with intensive and extensive training, coaching and implementation strategies for incorporating the principles found in The Leader in Me process.

To launch the partnership, Stephen Covey, recognized as one of Time magazine’s 25 Most Influential Americans and international best-selling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, will give a keynote address at a special launch event sponsored by CAJE-Miami, on March 17 in Miami.

At the event, Stephen Covey will address his vision for bringing The Leader in Me initiative to Jewish day schools. He will also discuss his recent book, The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. In the book, Covey chronicles the process of how extraordinary elementary schools are teaching the same 7 Habits leadership principles which have guided corporate and government boardroom decisions for years. Some of the principles and life skills

“FranklinCovey is thrilled to be partnering with CAJE-Miami because of their vision and leadership as it relates to educating students who attend their Jewish day schools. These principles will arm students in the 21^st Century with the necessary skills to be successful in every area of their lives. We look forward to partnering with them to develop and deliver this process together,” said Sean Covey, Chief Innovation Officer and Education Practice Leader, FranklinCovey.

See vides at www.TheLeaderInMe.org/Videos. Watch Elementary school principals, teachers and students comment to The Leader in Me process.

Dr. Covey is best known for his book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” His books have sold more than 20 million copies in 38 languages and “Forbes” named the 7 Habits book one of the top 10 most influential management books ever written.

“Dr. Covey’s life’s work has been to teach principle-centered leadership and that is a key part of what we do here at the Huntsman School of Business,” Anderson said. “We know the work we will do with him will leave a legacy in the lives of our students.”

  Dr. Covey said, “Because of its deep commitment to the long-term promotion of universal, timeless principles of success in life and business—principles such as integrity, trust and service—I’m absolutely thrilled to associate myself with the Huntsman School. They understand that by instilling in today’s students a principled, new mindset and skill-set—one equal to the complex demands and challenges of today’s new global, economic, societal reality—they will produce generations of leaders who will not only serve and lead their families and communities with greatness.”

To read my article, please go to www.stephencovey.com. By becoming a member of my free online social community, you will be able to access my article and the self-quiz “How Good Are You at Getting Along?”

You will also be able to access an audio track on The Indian Talking Stick, which is one of the most powerful communication tools for building empathic listening and understanding. The power of true understanding and respect comes when people are prepared and willing to really listen to each other. Using Indian Talking Stick principles and skills, I have helped countless numbers of people to listen and successfully create third alternative solutions—ideas or solutions that neither party originally thought of.

I invite you to grow your self-awareness and determine how you can improve yourself when it comes to getting along with others. It is so vital that we communicate with respect and work on ourselves to reach understanding, especially in difficult situations. Our ability to get things done and create trust depends on building respectful relationships not on our ability to dismiss or tear down other people’s point of views. You already know that, yet it’s often difficult to put it into practice. But practice is the key; keep trying. Work on your circle of influence or the things you have control over—and that’s always YOU!

So will you take the self-quiz and commit to improving the way you get along with others? Share your thoughts and how you did or what you will do specifically to improve.

Join my free social learning community at www.stephencovey.com

Author: Stephen R. Covey

With the national unemployment rate in double digits and talk about layoffs and the economic crisis dominating newscasts and dinner tables everywhere, it’s no secret that today’s employees and job-seekers are more stressed, discouraged, and drained than ever.

To help people find work and career fulfillment in these tough economic times, Stephen Covey, author of the best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Jennifer Colosimo, chief learning officer at FranklinCovey, have launched the Great Career iPhone application, which was developed in partnership by FranklinCovey and Signal Patterns based on their new book Great Work, Great Career.

Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes at: http://bit.ly/GreatCareer

The Great Career iPhone app can be used in conjunction with the content in Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo’s book or independently. Its specific activities and functionality include:

• Know Your Strengths – Research-based assessments help users to discover personality, strengths and career interests

• Define Your Contribution – A contribution statement builder helps users specifically define how they can match their strengths, talents and passions to an opportunity that matters to an employer.

• Build Your Village – A unique network-building and -nurturing tool; enables users to take specific actions and track them to build and maintain their most important career relationships

• Find Resources – Helps users identify “hidden resources” that can assist them to overcome specific challenges, or take advantage of promising opportunities, in building their career

• Action Center – Tracks, prioritizes and accomplishes all the necessary tasks to build and maintain a great career

• Ask an Expert – Allows users to submit questions to Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo as well as get answers to frequently asked career questions.

Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes http://bit.ly/GreatCareer

Click here to get the Great Work, Great Career book.

This book re-inspired me and reignited my passion for what I do. I tell people I love my job but after reading this and going through the exercises I have come to realize that I really do LOVE my job. I have my dream job working and plus I work best people in the world. Well of course you do, you might say. You work at FranklinCovey where the people are highly effective, right?

Well I’ll be totally transparent here; we don’t always walk the talk. We try but we don’t always succeed. While reading this book I have come to realize now that we don’t walk the talk because of me. If I had lived by my Contribution Statement (which I have now created by examining my talents, passions, and skills) and if I were a trim tab, I could change the corporate culture. Really, I could make a difference.  I could be the singular irreplaceable one uniquely qualified to make that kind of difference. And even if others didn’t see or feel the shift, I would and I would know and my paradigms are my reality.

The book is divided into 3 parts: Conscience, Cause and Building a Village, each section includes exercises.

The Conscience exercise was a difficult pill to for me to swallow. They ask the question:  What is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

Well…

To my organization I applied a revenue number.

To my customers I applied the responsibility of creating and offering quality products and services that would help them further their mission by improving their lives.

And to my co-workers, my responsibility is to cheer them on, to offer solutions, to give my creative energies.

Wow! This was an eye opening moment for me. My moral compass and conscience told me that I had been a cynic, set up some roadblocks, and withheld my best ideas because of a scarcity mentality.

In this exercise I created a Contribution Statement for myself that applies my talents and passions to course correcting my attitude.  My goal is to be a trim tab.

So take a minute and share, what is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

We would love to hear from you.

Click here to join me for my next post, where I will discuss the more about my experince reading Great Work, Great Career.

 Author:  Annie Oswald

Q: With every working generation, there are changes in what is motivational (e.g., Boomers vs. Gen Xers). As the mix of the generations (and cultures) continues to increase, and new cohorts enter the workforce, what approaches can we use to take advantage of this diversity to build organizational performance?

A: Synergy is celebrating diversity. So, involve people in the question you are asking and let them come up with their recommendations. Initially, start with small groups of three or four people so they are authentic and genuine in their communication and not “politically correct.” Then, let each small group share analyses and recommendations and begin to synergize at a higher level the question you are asking.

The key to this generational question is to be synergistically resolved through deep cooperation and authentic communication. Employ a great deal of empathic listening and restating another person’s point until that person feels understood. This takes a different mind-set and skill set.

How do you use diversity (the mix of generations, cultures etc…) to build organizational performance? I would love to hear from you.

This question and answer with Dr. Covey was featured in the January 2009 issue of Training Magazine.

Join Stephen R. Covey’s  free social learning community at www.stephencovey.com

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.

As I have been contemplating the struggles that all of us go through in life, I am reminded of this powerful quote by Albert E. N. Gray:

“The successful person has the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.”

I invite you to ponder on this idea in your own life. What are the things you know you have to do but are avoiding? If you were to discipline yourself and create a plan for doing those things, would you find positive, even breakthrough rewards?

For me, I know when I have avoided doing something, I have eventually seen that I’ve paid an even higher price by avoidance. For example, when I neglect my health by not eating right, exercising, or getting enough sleep, because I find it hard to stick to a disciplined regiment, I find myself feeling sluggish and not doing my best work. When I finally subordinate my dislikes to the strength of my purpose, things turn around.

I challenge you to contemplate your life and identify something you are avoiding and make a promise to yourself that you will do it. Make a promise and keep it. Subordinate the things you dislike doing to your greater purpose. I am confident that you the more you do this, the more strength you will build-and the more success you will find. What have you been avoiding? What is the end result you would like to see in your life?

Join my free social learning community at www.stephencovey.com

They did this by applying a key principle from Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times: focusing simply on the job real customers want done. Clearly, the App Store is successful because it allows customers to get exactly what they want immediately and in a simple and inexpensive way. As we said in the book, “Simplification reduces uncertainty. You can get more predictable results if you focus on simple, high-value offerings for the customer.”

Is the App Store simple? Absolutely.  Search the catalog for what you want, and buy with one click. 

Is the App Store “high-value”? Absolutely. You get low-cost applications that solve such pesky everyday problems as remembering your schedule, counting calories, and checking the weather, as well as giving you instant access to your favorite music.

We agree with the comment from Domonic on our previous post, who contributed this insight:  “One of the biggest challenges I see is that people are focused more on what they have to offer than really identifying the needs of the market. They are telling the market what it needs instead of listening to clients and letting them identify what the true need is.”  So true.

So many organizations just don’t get it. They are, as Domonic says, focused inwardly on what they have to offer while deluding themselves that they are customer focused. In crazy, unpredictable times, customers are very careful, but they do know a good deal when they see it.

If the App Store can solve one of my problems right now and for 99 cents, I’ll buy. And, it so happens, so will a billion other people. 

So what are you doing to focus more on your customers in these wild times? Is it paying off for you?  We’d love to hear.

Check out videos and tools from the book Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times 

The key to being proactive is remembering that between stimulus and response there is a space. That space represents our choice- how we will choose to respond to any given situation, person, thought or event. Imagine a pause button between stimulus and response-a button you can engage to pause and think about what is the principle-based response to your given situation. Listen to what your conscience tells you. Listen for what is wise and the principle-based thing to do, and then act. Have you done this? I would love to hear how your experiences have changed.

Remember being proactive becomes much more powerful when connected and related to the other habits. The key to the habits is the power of their combined synergy and meaningful purpose.

Join my free social learning community at www.stephencovey.com

• Secure their job.
• Advance in their career.
• Become a highly-valued and respected employee.

“The current economic downturn has affected so many people who have found themselves unemployed or nervous about keeping their job and are in need of career and professional development to find and protect their job. And, many are finding they must recreate themselves to start a new career.  But, even in this difficult time, everyone can be proactive, and I look forward to sharing my knowledge to help them secure their future.”  — Stephen R. Covey

Are you concerned about your job and your role at work? Does there seem to be a major road block on your career path? Have you lost your job and are not sure which direction to go next? Post a comment and tell us your current situation and how and why these webinars would benefit you and on Aug 3 we will choose 50 people to attend for free. So tell us your story…

Click Here for contest details.

More about the webinar series:

These webinars will give you the mindset and skill-set to not only survive these tough times, but to personally thrive in them-and help others to do the same. This is a profound learning opportunity that may just help you to make breakthrough improvements or become the person you’ve always wanted to be. Each webinar stands alone, so you can attend one, two, or all three webinars for maximized learning. Learn more.

Contest ended Aug. 25, 2009.

When Andrew Cherng, co-founder of Panda Express, read Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s, The 8^th Habit, he found something intriguing in the back of the book-a CD with video clip from A.B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Cherng already knew, firsthand, how powerful the 7 Habits could be.  But, could children as young as kindergarten be taught the timeless principles? Andrew and Peggy Cherng decided to visit the school.

The theme at A.B. Combs is leadership. It permeates everything they do and every choice they make. They do not believe that every child will be or should be a CEO. Rather they focus on leadership principles with the 7 Habits as their foundation.

Leadership principles:

• Helping students take responsibility for their lives.
• Working with others more effectively.
• Doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

The 7 Habits:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive You’re in Charge
• Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind Have a Plan
• Habit 3: Put First Things First Work First, Then Play
• Habit 4: Think Win-Win Everyone Can Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Listen Before You Talk
• Habit 6: Synergize Together is Better
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw Balance Feels Best

What would be different in your business if the children of today/your future employees came to you with these principles already firmly established?

“When we recruit leaders, we like to see people who are able to project their passion, who have self-confidence, and who have the right attitude to really face the unknowns and the uncertainties that we all face every day in our personal or career lives. I saw all those traits in the children at A.B. Combs.” – Peggy Cherng.

Andrew and Peggy Cherng decided to sponsor six schools in their community.

Since then Panda Express has committed to sponsoring three additional schools and many other businesses have seen the potential in The Leader in Me and decided to sponsor schools.

We only get one chance to prepare our students for a future that none of us can possibly predict.  What are we going to do with that one chance?

 For more information, go to www.TheLeaderInMe.org or call (800) 272-6839.

 Author: Judy Yauch, FranklinCovey Education Solutions

Stephen M.R. Covey, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, is sharing the power of trust in a 13 city North American speaking tour.

In a recent interview with The Orange County Register Covey addressed the economic worldwide crisis of confidence and how he sees trust as the remedy.

• When leaders ignore or forget their principles, they behave in ways that cause others to lose trust and they loose moral authority, causing social and economic impact. Trust is not a soft social virtue but is a hard-edged economic driver. Financial markets work because of capital and liquidity, but these two elements are not enough. Currently, the government has stepped in to help out with liquidity, but trust cannot be artificially created.
• As the recession continues, the lack of trust feeds on itself, creating a perpetuating downward cycle where distrust and suspicion create more distrust. Scandals and gross trust violations cause suspicion and people are cautious, trying to protect themselves. Distrust produces more distrust in relationships, teams, companies, markets and economies. Transversely, trust can create a virtuous, upward cycle and become the standard. Then, when one behaves outside the norm, the individual must either reform or leave, while the organization continues to become a high-trust culture.
• Recently, a Fortune 500 company who has truly embraced trust experienced a massive reorganization and significant layoffs. However, these layoffs were approached quite differently. They said, “If there ever could be such a thing as a healthy reduction of force, we just experienced it.” They confronted the economic reality, were very transparent, worked out solutions with employees, talked straight, avoided manipulation and treated everyone with such respect that the survivors were more proud of their organization than ever before.
• Covey doesn’t advocate blind trust and indiscriminately trusting anybody and everybody as that is being gullible. He’s not a Pollyanna, but he also doesn’t believe that just because you’ve been disappointed you can’t trust anyone. Some managers don’t trust others because it’s risky. But, there’s a risk in trusting as well as in not trusting. When there’s distrust, it creates more bureaucracy, politics, disengagement, turnover and fraud. In the past, trust may have been seen as a soft, cuddly idea. Today, people see it more clearly.

 Click here to read more articles by Stephen R. Covey 

Author: Debra Lund, Public Relations Director, FranklinCovey

You’re not alone.

I mean, there are still other people in your organization, right?

Tip#2: Embrace Others

Odds are, when you’re working fast and furious, there is probably someone, somewhere in your organization that may have some downtime, or they’re worried about not being aligned with strategic projects. Find them. Grab them. Capitalize on their skills. And have them chip in. People are generally happier when they’re engaged and contributing. Sure, quality might slip a bit and it might take longer for you to get that project done. But there is a huge feeling of relief when you delegate a task to someone and you go back to your office and are able to tackle something else. And there is an even better feeling when they come back to you and the project is finished and better than if you did it yourself.

 In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey outlines the principle of abundance. What this means is that there is always enough work for me and you, and the person in the office down the hall. Don’t be afraid to relinquish a bit of control over your projects. It will only benefit you and the people you bring into your circle. Your projects will get done better than before and you’ll be helping other people become engaged.

In my next post I’ll cover Tip #3: Plan or Perish.

Author: Matt Murdoch, FranklinCovey

I liked everything I heard, but some habits and ideas resonated with me more than others. Habit 2, Begin With the End in Mind was a habit that made theoretical sense to me, but it’s application (writing a personal mission statement) just seemed a little too ‘touchy-feely’ to me. It wasn’t that I was against the idea. I mean, ‘if you’re the kind of person that is in to that self-exploratory stuff, that’s great, but that kind of thing just isn’t my style.’ I will be honest, I kind of glossed over Habit 2.

Big mistake.

You see, I loved Habit 3, Put First Things First. After learning all about getting organized and putting the big rocks in the jar first, I went out and got a planning system, filled it with stuff (including a color-coded class-schedule) and proceeded to become dangerously efficient. It wasn’t too long however, before I learned that you can’t put first things first without knowing what your first things are! A planning system without the groundwork of a personal mission statement does lead to greater efficiency, but also greater ineffectiveness. As educator Neal Maxwell said, it’s like ’straightening deck chairs on the Titanic’

So, I began the process of hammering out a first draft of my mission. It has been through several revisions in the last 20 years or so, but has served as an invaluable tool in helping me stay focused on what matters most. It has given me the confidence and power to comfortably say “no” to really good, but unimportant things that would lead me to places I really don’t want to go. I have found Stephen Covey’s statement to be correct, ‘It’s easy to say no when you have a deeper yes burning within’.

Such clarity is critically important in today’s turbulent climate. We frequently work with organizations that have less people, less resources, more confusion, and more noise-they are simply expected to do as much or more with far fewer resources. In order to survive such an environment, we need a compass to help us stay focused and on course in order to make critical decisions and accomplish key priorities. A mission statement is that compass.

So, pay the price. Build your mission. Start now. One day, many years from now, when you are precisely where you want to be, you will be very glad you did.”

You can get started by using FranklinCovey’s Mission Statement Builder tool at: http://franklincovey.com/msb

This tool will help you discover your mission and values but will help you find the right words to put your mission down on paper. Once you build your mission statement please come back and tell us about your experience and share thoughts and insights.

Click here to register for a free webcast I will be conducting on discovering your purpose and writing your mission statement. Your source code is B5W.

Author: James Cathcart, FranklinCovey Consultant

Click here to read more from James Cathcart.

 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

 Q: Is trust really necessary in business today? Can you do business without it?

 A: You absolutely cannot do business without trust. It is not only important, it is absolutely vital. For instance, even transacting with somebody when you are buying gasoline, you trust that you are getting quality fuel; you trust that the prices are within the market; and you trust that your money will be accepted by that person. There are just so many elements to the simplest transaction that require trust. But we are like fish that discover water last and are sometimes unaware of those implicit elements. Trust is the lifeblood of all relationships, of all transactions, and is so foundational and fundamental to everything in life.

 Q: What are evidences of a low-trust environment?

 A: Low-trust environments are filled with hidden agendas, a lot of political games, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, and people bad-mouthing each other behind their backs while sweet-talking them to their faces. With low trust, you get a lot of rules and regulations that take the place of human judgment and creativity; you also see profound disempowerment. People will not be on the same page about what’s important. Ultimately, the culture will become driven by urgency rather than importance because everyone is in it for themselves and for their own agenda.

 Q: What is low trust costing us?

 A: Low trust has a huge tax associated with it. It creates a culture of toxicity, just like you have toxins in your body. Imagine what it costs a body to be full of poison. And that is what a low-trust culture is-it is full of poison. You see people embracing and promulgating what I call the six metastasizing emotional cancers. Metastasize means they send their cancer cells through the body, mind, heart, and spirit of a person. They can also spread through relationships.

The six metastasizing cancers are criticizing, complaining, comparing, competing, contending, and cynicism. By competing, I don’t mean the healthy competition you find in the marketplace or in the basketball arena, but the kind of competition where you are competing for your own internal sense of worth.These emotional cancers are the forces that literally undermine and eventually destroy relationships. However, trust makes all things possible.

 See other blogs by Stephen R. Covey at www.stephencovey.com

Hi! I’m Annie Oswald and I’m the Director of Alternate Distribution Channels at FranklinCovey Co. Alternate Distribution Channels is just a fancy name for getting FranklinCovey audio, book, and video products into the hands of people all over the world.

 Today I’m excited to announce a great new audio from FranklinCovey that we are creating. This is like an Advance Reader’s review but for audio. The audio is Dr. Stephen R. Covey and Stephen M. R. Covey Present A Conversation.

 This audio program features two generations, a unique combination of father and son bestselling authors, discussing and sharing some humorous and always profound professional and personal experiences.

I think that as a listener you will be transported. You may even  feel like a fly on the wall listening in to this personal meeting between two great business leaders, authors, speakers, and intellectual minds, I know I did. I listened as they made the case that there is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world.

From their insights I learned more about the importance of trust in creating building and maintaining effective relationships in all aspects of life: our homes, our families, each other, our companies and ourselves.

Trust is the one thing which, if removed will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

 On the other hand, if nurtured, trust has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet it is the least understood, the most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

Trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year.

I have to admit I’m not an avid business audio listener (I shouldn’t admit that publicly-business audios are my business) but I loved this.

 Check our store in a few weeks for more details.

 Author: Annie Oswald

The headlines are a bit depressing, aren’t they?

At FranklinCovey we think the opposite.  The headlines are fascinating. 

Dr. Stephen R. Covey says, “We’ve never had such opportunity as we do today.”  In Maurna Desmond’s interview with Dr. Covey (Fortune, Dec. 19), he observes that this is the chance, the opening, the break people have been looking for.

When companies close their doors, competitors can jump in and go crazy. When you’re let go, you’re free to change everything in your life.

It’s not a time to mope but a time to get creative. “People are too much a product of their conditions, and not of their decisions,” Dr. Covey says. There are two sides to losing a job, only one of them negative.   The positive side is that you’re suddenly free to create your own future.

Just look at Steve Demeter of San Francisco, who used to work on ATMs for a big bank. When he got interested in programming applications for the iPhone, he created Trism, a game he sold on the Internet for $5 per download and made $250,000 profit in two months.

At 29, Steve is a millionaire.

Have you heard stories like this? Do you have any stories you could share with us? Maybe it’s your own story. We’d like to hear from you about people who are choosing to succeed instead of fail in an economic downturn. 

While there’s a lot of pain associated with the economic crisis, we are much more interested in the possibilities for change.  What do you think, share your comments and stories with us?

Author: Breck England

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!

In an interview I recently had with Dr. Stephen R. Covey for the FranklinCovey Client Facilitation Academy, I asked him a series of questions provided by our client facilitators that included challenges they are facing as they teach in their organizations to issues some may be struggling with when living the principles of effectiveness. In some cases, as the interviewer, I took the liberty of asking for further clarity or a “deeper dive” on topics that might be of interest. Those additional questions are italicized. Here are a few of the responses.

Q – Thomas Sibert of the Naval Support Activity asked :
“Early in the 7 Habits Signature Program, the idea of “principles” is introduced. It has worked for me to ask participants what principles of government the United States is based on. They quickly come to the Declaration of Independence and the statement “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Do you find this example consistent with your definition of a principle?”

A – Dr. Covey’s response:
“Definitely yes, but that is only the beginning because it took over 120 years for women to get the right to vote and over 80 years before we had the Emancipation Proclamation. So to enculturate and institutionalize these principles is the real challenge today.”

Please refresh us on the definition of principles vs values.

“To expand, a principle is a natural law like gravity. It’s different than a value. Values are subjective; principles are objective. Gravity… if you drop something, gravity controls. If I don’t tell you the truth, you won’t trust me-that’s a natural law. If I tell you the truth consistently and try to live it and apologize when I don’t and try to get back on track, then I’m living a natural law-repentance, making improvements, showing change.”

Q – Mark Allman with MEADWESTVACO asked:
“Of all of the items that you have worked with people on to help them in both their private and professional lives, if you could only share one thing with people, what in your opinion would impact them the most.”

A – Dr. Covey’s response:
“Educate and obey their conscience. Educate their conscience by studying the scriptures or the material that inspires them the most, until it becomes part of your conscience. Then obey it. Little by little, as you obey it, you will get more education and then you obey that. More and more light will come.
To read the interview in its entirety please clicks the link below to access the Academy archives or to learn how to become a certified FranklinCovey facilitator.
http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/facilitation

Author: Scott Miller, General Manager Global Client Facilitator Services, FranklinCovey