Stephen Covey

So I started reading a lot about behavior change.

You know, I read books by Dale Carnegie, you know, How to Win Friends and Enforce People, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey.

And then I was also reading books on cognitive behavioral therapy, which, you know, was not the average reading for a 15, 16-year-old male.

But that was, you know, that was, you know, in the 90s, and that was sort of where I felt...

Okay.

So you Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter two is begin with the end in mind.

Napoleon Hill, arguably one of the largest thought leaders of our times, constantly talking about begin with the end in mind.

For me, that funeral moment was literally me beginning with the end of my life

Some real ITIL stuff kind of.

Yes, and Covey.

I always do like some good old Covey over here because perspective matters.

You see a six, I see a nine.

I'll never see a six until I look at it from your lens.

You'll never see a nine until you look at it from my lens.

Yeah, the Covey stuff made a big difference in my management stuff.

So you mentioned the next generation of IT leaders need to, we need to start teaching them to speak business before they ever open a terminal.

And that's a great point and goes back again to what do we do with that extra productivity? And you've nailed it in terms of probably one of the least utilized tools at our disposal right now is stepping back and reflecting on the business.

As Stephen Covey said, working on the business, not in the business.

I think it was Stephen Covey.

Was that? Yeah.

Or no, that was, no, Michael Gerber.

Before I discovered your teachings, I was an avid reader of what I call success books.

These are books like Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Successful People or the Success Principles by Jack Canfield.

I know Jerry has mentioned Think and Grow Rich before.

These books tend to break down the principles of what successful people do so that you can apply them to your own life.

Everybody focuses on their own agenda.

And, you know, Stephen Covey in his book, seven habits talked about and the fifth habits listening and he talked about the four autographical autobiographical ways of listening where people are focusing on themselves rather than truly listening to what the other person is saying and experiencing and uh you know i read what's so interesting is that i read the book back in the 80s when it came out 89 i think and just another leadership book right i when i was writing empathy leadership my fifth book that just came out I went back and I read The Fifth Habit again.

And I got all the way to the end and I said, holy crap, this guy got it.

But he didn't know what he was teaching.

Honestly, there's a favorite book of mine, which is The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.

Stephen Covey is the author, and he says something called sharpen the saw.

Are you familiar with that concept?

Yeah.

Are you familiar? This came from decades ago.

In Stephen Covey, he talks about the circles of influence.

It's three circles.

And I use this with with people.