It’s been six years since Covey’s ““The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’’ hit the best-seller lists and stayed on, for an awesome 270 weeks. The book sold more than 12 million copies around the world, dispensing such advice as ““begin with the end in mind’’ and ““think win-win.’’ Meanwhile, Covey, 64, has been crisscrossing the country, training employees from Microsoft to the White House in the 7 Habits. In 1996, the Covey Leadership Center had revenues of $100 million. This spring he announced a merger with Franklin Quest, the time-management company best known for its planners; they’re launching 121 Franklin Covey 7 Habits Stores nationwide that will sell self-improvement books, audiotapes and videotapes.
So how does a guy this busy make it to every one of his son’s basketball games? He simply ““makes it a priority,’’ and that, he says, is one of the secrets to a successful family life. The management guru who urged you to ““put first things first’’ now wants you to know that he never meant work should come first. ““Effective Families’’ reprises the original seven habits and is filled with anecdotes about how the 7 Habits were put to work in the Covey household. Such as the time when Covey was on a long-distance business call and his 14-year-old son, David, ““started lathering peanut butter on my head. I didn’t object because I was completely controlled by that call. So then he put some jam on it, then he put a piece of bread on top of that,’’ he says. Rather than get angry, Covey says, he focused on habit number 4: ““Think win-win.’’ By keeping his cool, Covey managed to conduct his business while maintaining his son’s affection.
A stunt like that would make almost any parent blow his top. But Covey may have more patience than most. He’s definitely had more practice. He and his wife, Sandra, have raised nine children. Their closeness has taught them ““the value of each other,’’ he says. ““We’ve had problems, but they don’t persist because we keep coming back to the principles.''
What Covey’s platitudes fail to address, though, are the complexities. He makes a bottom-line assumption that when both parents work, mothers and fathers will contribute equally to the raising of children. But anyone who has engaged in any sort of bickering over laundry, cooking, cleaning and whose turn it is to put the baby to sleep knows that such partnerships are difficult to achieve. And what if your spouse or partner has no interest in the 7 Habits at all? ““Don’t worry about it,’’ Covey says. ““Focus on your own circle of influence. Be a good example. Be a light, not a critic. Little by little, the other person will feel your sincerity and integrity.''
It’s unfortunate that the success of Covey’s first 7 Habits (and the use of that name for the stores) has him locked into the same formula for families. Of all the things that you might want your family to be, is ““highly effective’’ really one of them? As applied to families, the most dynamic and unpredictable entities in the world, what do maxims like ““Be proactive’’ really mean? And try selling such habits as ““Seek First to Understand . . . Then to Be Understood’’ to your 13-year-old.
But the 7 Habits are just guidelines; reminders of simple maxims that we often forget. What Covey is really selling is his relentless optimism, the idea that there’s a belief system out there that will fix all your problems and that happiness is just a matter of keying into the right one. And according to Covey, it’s never too early to get with his program. The new book has lesson plans for children and teenagers, and the Franklin Covey stores even market brightly colored organizers for kids. One asks ““What do you want to do?’’ and gives the sample answer: ““I want a B+ in Math this term.’’ In Covey’s world, it doesn’t matter that you haven’t lost all your baby teeth yet–you can still have control over your life.
Retail: 121 stores from Hong Kong to Mexico sell daily planners and cards with motivational mantras
Multimedia: 12 million books in print in 28 languages, plus videos, audio-tapes and CD-ROMs
Training: 3,000 schools and nine communities across the U.S. have signed up for 7 Habits programs
