Stephen Covey biography, quotes and books

Article by: Vincent van Vliet

Last update: December 10, 2025

Stephen Covey (October 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) was (co-)founder of the Franklin Covey Company (a large provider of training and consulting solutions with approximately 3,500 employees). In the last thirty years, Stephen Covey himself provided training services to various leading international organizations. He is also very well known for his research and model: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This article covers his biography, quotes and books.

Who is Stephen Covey? His biography

Stephen Covey was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1932. After growing up in Utah, he studied business administration at the University of Utah, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He then went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. He later earned his doctorate at Brigham Young University, where he further studied human behavior, leadership, and moral development. This combination of business administration, education, and meaning formed the basis for his later work on effective and principle-centered leadership.

Stephen Covey lived with his wife Sandra and their family in Provo, Utah, the city where Brigham Young University is located. He taught there for many years as a professor before achieving international success with his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). Covey and his wife had nine children and dozens of grandchildren; in 2003, he received the National Fatherhood Initiative’s Fatherhood Award in recognition of his commitment to family, education, and responsible parenting.

Stephen Covey gained worldwide fame with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In this book on personal leadership and personal development, he emphasized that every person can grow based on qualities that can be consciously developed and practiced. He made a clear distinction between superficial “tricks” and deeper character traits, such as integrity, responsibility, and proactivity. This philosophy resonated with managers, professionals, and families alike, and grew into one of the most influential approaches to personal leadership.

In addition to his work as a teacher and author, Stephen Covey built an organization around his ideas. He was the founder of the Covey Leadership Center, a training and consulting firm focused on leadership development, personal effectiveness, and productivity. After merging with FranklinQuest, the organization continued under the name FranklinCovey. This company develops and provides programs, workshops, and materials worldwide in the areas of leadership, time management, cultural development, and performance improvement, based on Covey’s principles and models.

Over the years, Stephen Covey became one of the most influential thinkers in the field of leadership and personal effectiveness. He combined academic depth with practical applicability and inspired both organizations and individuals to work and live in a more conscious, purposeful, and value-driven way.

The core of Stephen Covey’s philosophy

Stephen Covey’s philosophy revolves around one clear core idea: true effectiveness starts with character and principles, not tricks. In his work, he makes a sharp distinction between “personality ethics” and “character ethics.” The former is about image, techniques, and quick tips for appearing more successful. The latter is about who someone is: integrity, taking responsibility, honesty, reliability, and doing what is important, even when no one is watching.

Stephen Covey always approaches development from the inside out. First, clarify which values, beliefs, and habits provide direction, and only then work on behavior and results. In his view, effectiveness is not a matter of one big insight, but of a series of conscious choices that grow into solid habits. The well-known seven habits of effective leadership are a concrete example of this: acting proactively, working from a clear purpose, prioritizing important matters, thinking in terms of win-win, understanding first and then being understood, creating synergy, and continuing to invest in personal growth.

A second important element is his vision of maturity: from dependence to independence and then to mutual dependence. Dependence mainly means that you are controlled by others. Independence is about being able to make your own choices and take responsibility for yourself. Mutual dependence goes one step further: working together, connecting interests, seeking win-win situations, and making use of each other’s qualities. According to Covey, it is precisely in this phase that the greatest strength of teams and organizations lies.

Stephen Covey’s ideas are therefore well aligned with modern leadership. Not only focusing on numbers and short-term performance, but also on principles, trust, relationships, and collaboration. His work invites leaders, professionals, and teams to look beyond quick fixes and build a way of working that is both effective and ethical in the long term.

Stephen Covey’s influence on leadership and personal effectiveness

Stephen Covey is regarded worldwide as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of personal leadership and organizational development. His book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold tens of millions of copies, been translated into many languages, and formed the basis for a whole generation of leadership and effectiveness programs. It shifted the conversation about “success” from tricks and techniques to character, principles, and conscious choices.

Through the Covey Leadership Center, later FranklinCovey, his ideas have grown from book to practice. Organizations in a wide range of sectors—from government and healthcare to industry, education, and business services—still use programs based on the seven habits. These training courses focus on personal leadership, team development, cultural change, and strategic implementation, with the common thread that effectiveness begins with personal ownership and principle-centered action.

Stephen Covey’s impact extends beyond the business world. With initiatives such as The Leader in Me, his ideas have also found their way into schools and educational programs. There, children and young people are familiarized at an early age with themes such as proactive behavior, taking responsibility, collaboration, empathic listening, and working with a clear purpose. His work thus forms a bridge between personal development, education, and professional leadership.

Even years after his death, Stephen Covey’s ideas remain relevant. In a context of high work pressure, digitization, constant stimuli, and increasing attention to meaning, his principles offer guidance. The emphasis on priorities, balance, mutual respect, and structural self-renewal ties in with issues surrounding burnout, sustainable employability, and value-driven organization. This makes Stephen Covey not just an author from the past, but a lasting reference for leaders, professionals, and organizations that want to work and live in a principled and future-proof way.

Famous Quotes by Stephen Covey

“There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.”
“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.”
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
“The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.”
“Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.”
“Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves – who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.”
“The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.”
“But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.”
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

Books and articles by Stephen Covey et al.

2018. Design Your Personal Mission: Begin with the End in Mind. Business Contact.
2016. Primary Greatness: The 12 Levers of Success. Simon and Schuster.
2014, 1998. The 7 habits of highly effective families. St. Martin’s Press.
2014, 2008. The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child At a Time. Simon and Schuster.
2014. The Leader in Me: How Schools Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. Simon and Schuster.
2013, 2004. The 8th habit: From effectiveness to greatness. Simon and Schuster.
2012. The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems. Simon and Schuster.
2009. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Network Marketing Professionals. ISBN 978-1-933057-78-1.
2006. The speed of trust: The one thing that changes everything. Simon and Schuster.
2006. Servant-leadership and community leadership in the 21st century. The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 2(1), 103-109.
2006. Servant leadership. Leadership Excellence, 23(12), 5-6.
2006. The ultimate question: Driving good profits and true growth. Harvard Business School Press.
2006. Leading in the knowledge worker age. The leader of the future, 2, 215-226.
2004. 6 Events: The Restoration Model for Solving Life’s Problems. ISBN 1-57345-187-8.
2004. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Free Press.
2000. Living the Seven Habits. ISBN 0-684-85716-2.
1999. Living the 7 habits: stories of courage and inspiration. Simon and Schuster.
1998. Servant-leadership from the inside out. Insights on leadership: Service, stewardship, spirit, and servant leadership.
1998. The ideal community. In Community of the Future (pp. 49-58).
1997. The habits of effective organizations. Leader to leader, 1997(3), 22-28.
1996. Three roles of the leader in the new paradigm. The leader of the future, 149-160.
1995. First things first. Simon and Schuster.
1994. First things first. EXECUTIVE EXCELLENCE, 11, 3-3.
1992. The seven habits of highly effective people. Journal of Et Nursing, 19(3), 103.
1991. The taproot of trust. Executive Excellence, 8(12), 3-4.
1990. Principle Centered Leadership. Simon and Schuster.
1989. The seven habits of highly effective leaders. Simon & Schuster, New York. Coviello, Decio, Nicola Persico, and Andrea Ichino,(2014). Time Allocation and Task juggling. The American Economic Review, 104(2), 609-23.
1982. The Divine Center. Bookcraft Pubs.
1973. Spiritual roots of human relations. Deseret Book Co.
1971. How to succeed with people. Shadow Mountain.
1970. Spiritual Roots of Human Relations. ISBN 0-87579-705-9.

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Original publication date: 12/16/2013 | Last update: 12/10/2025

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Article by:

Vincent van Vliet

Vincent van Vliet is co-founder and responsible for the content and release management. Together with the team Vincent sets the strategy and manages the content planning, go-to-market, customer experience and corporate development aspects of the company.