Stephen Covey tells executives to get a life
Sales and Marketing Management Jan99; Page 34
By Michele Marchetti

and

You can have it all
Sales and Marketing Management Jan99; Page 6
By Geoffrey Brewer

Management Guru Stephen Covey is featured in this month's issue of Sales and Marketing Management. The coverage includes a feature interview ("Stephen Covey tells executives to get a life") and the Publisher's comments ("You can have it all").

Geoffrey Brewer, the publisher, says that he is skeptical of management gurus in general, but that Covey needs no skepticism. Covey has had a profound impact on American Life, according to Brewer, especially when you hear executives talking about building empathetic relationships with customers or see hard-charging executives changing schedules to make their children's soccer games.

Covey says that you can have it all, in Brewer's view. You can be both successful in business and in family. And he says that having a full life at home will make a businessman more successful. Work and family actually enrich each other, says Covey.

Covey was interviewed by Michele Marchetti before a media luncheon at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel, at which he was the featured speaker. Instead of cutting short the interview when it came time to speak to the gathering, Covey found a room and finished the interview; an example, says Marchetti, that Covey practices what he preaches.

Covey's message, according to Marchetti, is that Managers can't skimp on their family lives to find success at the office. Full family lives improve productivity - and sales - at work.

Covey seems like a model executive and a model father. He has nine children and 28 grandchidren while serving as co-chairman of Franklin Covey Company ($547 million 1998 FYE sales). He is also the author of six books, including his latest, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families."

In the interview, Covey says that managers must first decide what matters most, setting out a mission statement that reflects this and that will guide decisions. The principles behind being a good parent and a good manager are the same, but the practices are different.

Covey also says that he doesn't believe in bosses, but rather in servants. Servants, he says, help others. Managers that are servants negotiate with their workers over the work that should be done and the quality of life at work, and then let the workers judge themselves. Then they provide the support necessary to make those things happen.

He also says that those companies that are not able to sort through work and family issues and empower their workers, will see declines in productivity.