7 Habits of Stephen Covey and Morality

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The 7 Habits of Stephen Covey (STEPHEN COVEY SEVEN 7 HABITS BOOKS: Click ON ME) obviously stand out from most of the ideas spawned by the pop-psych/management literature of the past thirty-five years in that they recognize moral/ethical principles, the constituents of "character," not simply as important, but as pivotal to all lasting success. Yet there must nevertheless be a distinction made here between "values" and "principles." By this I mean that not all morals are "eternal principles" as such -- in fact many moral values definitely go against the spirit of Stephen Covey and his Seven Habits.

Covey's ideas can bear a little more scrutiny, then, than the cursory reading that a lot of reviewers seem to have given his books. Certainly some people react to the 7 habits philosophy by suggesting that Covey tries in his habits series to slip in some Mormonism, as it were. But, on closer inspection, I am not sure that this is entirely true...

Stephen Covey is on record, for example, as recommending as "essential reading" books like the Qur'an and Hindu scriptures: this is hardly your typical Mormon! Also, although Mormonism itself is certainly ambiguous (to put it mildly) on this point, there is hardly a sense that Covey would consider the accumulation of riches to be immoral! So there is definitely a sense that the covey 7 habits books are trying to pare down morality to universally-held moral principles, things like respect, restraint, forgiveness, fair-play, justice, keeping promises, kindness, openness and honesty. There is never any suggestion that other, more locally specific moral values should make the list, pro-life, for example, or even premarital chastity. In general, then, it is fair to say that Stephen Covey is presenting a way of life that most people could swallow.

Covey, in fact, comes close to being paradoxical on this point, in fact, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective PeopleSTEPHEN COVEY SEVEN 7 HABITS BOOKS: Click ON ME. It seems clear that he recognizes that people will not buy into an imposed, top-down, set of principles, such as those imposed by many large institutions or organizations: on the contrary, people cannot be expected to buy into a culture if they do not feel any sense of participation in that culture. This, however, presents, at least theoretically, a problem when one tries to impose the Principles laid out in the Seven Habits as being sacrosanct: if people feel that these principles are being imposed on them by an author such as Covey, the response may well be negative. A solution, then, may be to stick to those principles in his book that everyone can agree upon. The problem lies in the fact that many reviewers, I suspect, balk at even the slightest whiff of "moralizing." This seems to me to be a faultline in Stephen Covey's approach -- perhaps his principle "seek to understand" the people with whom one is in communication with needs to be followed a bit more closely by Covey himself: otherwise, to the great detriment, I suggest, of the world (OK, so maybe i am going a bit over the top here!), The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People will end up left on the shelf, and with it its author Stephen Covey.

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