什么铸就了高效领导者

    我第一次遇见史蒂芬•柯维是在2001年，他想见面和我谈谈他的想法。与他握手的感觉很温暖，仿佛被一副你已戴得熨帖无比的棒球手套包裹，之后我们长谈了两小时。史蒂芬先提问题，他问了许多问题。这位大师、当代最有影响力的思想家之一坐在那里，而他却希望向一个比他年轻25岁的人学习。

    会谈中，我趁机问了个自己好奇的问题：“你是如何构思出《高效能人士的七个习惯》（The 7 Habits）这本书的？”

    他答道：“不是我想出来的。”

    我问：“那你的意思是？这本书可是你写的。”

    “没错，书是我写的，但这些规律远在我写之前就有人知道，”他继续说道。“它们更像是自然法则。我所做的工作就是把它们收集起来，总结给读者看。”

    从那时起，我开始理解为什么这本著作产生了如此巨大的影响力。柯维花了超过30年的时间开展研究、实践、教学、提炼观点，最终浓缩成了这本书。他并不想借用这些法则追名逐利，而是希望传授这些法则，让它们为人所理解。在他看来，提出“七个习惯”并不是为了自身的成功，而是一项服务他人的行为。

    所以，当咨询公司FranklinCovey的董事长鲍勃•惠特曼打电话问我能否为《高效能人士的七个习惯》的25周年版本作序时，我首先再次通读了全书。这本书1989年首次发行后不久，我曾有幸拜读此书，而如今重温其中的内容对我而言不啻于一种恩赐。我还想再一次确定：是什么让它成为了经久不衰的经典？我认为有四个因素造就了本书罕见的高度：

    1、柯维为他统一的概念体系构建了一个“用户界面”，通过柯维强大的写作能力，这些概念能够轻易被读者理解。

    2、柯维专注于永恒的法则，而不是单纯的技巧或转瞬即逝的潮流。

    3、柯维写的主要是塑造品格，而不是“赢得成功”——因此能够让读者不仅成为更高效的个体，还能成为更好的领导者。

    4、柯维本身就是一名第五级领导人，谦逊地看待自己的不足，同时决心将自身所学广泛地传播。

    史蒂芬•柯维是一个大师级的组织者。我认为，他对个人效能领域的意义类似于图形用户界面对个人电脑的意义。在苹果（Apple）和微软（Microsoft）之前，几乎没有人能在日常生活中使用电脑。那时的电脑没有易于操作的用户界面——没有鼠标、没有友好的图标、没有屏幕上的窗口，更不用说触摸屏了。但是通过Macintosh和之后的Windows，大多数人们终于可以利用屏幕后面微芯片的力量。与此类似，从本杰明•富兰克林到彼得•德鲁克，个人效能领域积累了数百年来的真知灼见。但它们从未被整合成一个统一的、易于理解的体系。柯维在个人效能领域创造了一个类似Windows的标准操作系统，让它变得易于使用。事实证明，他是一位非常优秀的作家，善于讲短故事、巧妙地利用概念上的文字双关。我不会忘记第1章中那个地铁里的男人管不住尖叫的孩子的故事（和它背后的道理），也忘不了灯塔、错误的丛林，还有金蛋的类比。他的一些概念上的包装起到了极好的效果，不仅描述了他的概念，同时还这些概念的应用具有很好的指导作用。“双赢思维。”“知彼解己。”“以终为始。”“要事第一。”他通过人们的奋斗故事——抚养孩子、建立婚姻、与朋友做生意——来讲授习惯、告诉人们如何培养这些习惯，让这些理念更容易被人理解。

    I first met Stephen Covey in 2001, when he asked for a meeting to talk about ideas. After a warm greeting -- his enveloping handshake feeling like the comfortable leather of a softball glove that you've worn a thousand times -- we settled into a conversation that lasted two hours. Stephen began by asking questions, lots of questions. Here sat a master teacher, one of the most influential thinkers of the day, and he wanted to learn from someone twenty-five years his junior.

    As the conversation opened an opportunity for me to exercise my own curiosity, I began, "How did you come up with the ideas in The 7 Habits?"

    "I didn't," he responded.

    "What do you mean?" I asked. "You wrote the book."

    "Yes, I wrote the book, but the principles were known long before me." He continued, "They are more like natural laws. All I did was put them together, to synthesize them for people."

    That's when I began to understand why this work has had such an impact. Covey had spent more than three decades studying, practicing, teaching, and refining what he ultimately distilled into these pages. He did not seek credit for the principles; he sought to teach the principles, to make them accessible. He saw creating the 7 Habits not primarily as a means to his own success, but as an act of service.

    When Bob Whitman, chief executive of FranklinCovey, called to ask if I would consider writing a foreword for the 25th anniversary edition of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I responded first by rereading the entire book; I'd read it shortly after its initial publication in 1989, and it was a gift to reengage with its message. I also wanted to recalibrate: what makes it an enduring classic? I see four factors that contributed to its rarefied stature:

    1. Covey created a "user interface" organized into a coherent conceptual framework, made highly accessible by Covey's strong writing;

    2. Covey focused on timeless principles, not on mere techniques or momentary fads;

    3. Covey wrote primarily about building character, not about "achieving success" -- and thereby helped people become not just more effective individuals, but better leaders;

    4. Covey himself was a Level 5 teacher, humble about his own shortcomings, yet determined to share widely what he'd learned.

    Stephen Covey was a master synthesizer. I think of what he did for personal effectiveness as analogous to what the graphical user interface did for personal computers. Prior to Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), few people could harness computers to their daily lives; there was no easily accessible user interface -- there were no mouse pointers, friendly icons, or overlapping windows on a screen, let alone a touch screen. But with the Macintosh and then Windows, the mass of people could finally tap the power of the microchip behind the screen. Similarly, there had been hundreds of years of accumulated wisdom about personal effectiveness, from Benjamin Franklin to Peter Drucker, but it was never assembled into one coherent, user-friendly framework. Covey created a standard operating system -- the "Windows" -- for personal effectiveness, and he made it easy to use. He proved to be a very fine writer, a master of short stories and conceptual wordplay. I will never forget the story in Chapter 1 about the man on the subway who could not control his screaming kids (and the point it makes), nor will I ever forget the lighthouse or the wrong jungle or the analogy of the golden eggs. Some of his conceptual wrapping paper worked exceptionally well, being both descriptive of a concept, and at the same time prescriptive in its application. "Win/Win or No Deal." "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood." "Begin with the End in Mind." "Put First Things First." He made the ideas even more accessible by using personal life-struggles and stories -- raising children, building a marriage, dealing with friends -- to teach the habits and build muscle fiber for living them.