Covey

Being response able goes against any type determinism. The three types of determinism are genetic psychic and environmental. Genetic determinism is “my grandparents did it to me,” psychic is “my parents did it to me,” and environmental is “ (fill in the blank) did it to me.” Determinism is a way to move the blame of oneself; people who believe in determinism believe they have no control over anything. These people confuse liberty and freedom. Liberty is a condition of the environment, while freedom is a condition of the self.

Covey said that all the literature dealt with character ethics or personality ethics separately. Coveys theory deals with both types of ethics at the same time. He uses the iceberg analogy to describe the relation between character and personality. The Small part of the iceberg above the water line is the personality while the character is the large mass hidden under the water. If you just change the personality with you will in time drift away from yourself.

Covey closes his lecture with the story of the mighty battleship Missouri. The story goes that the Missouri is out to see steaming all ahead when they man of the watch sees a light dead ahead. The ship signals to the light in their path to make way and get no response. Then they captain gets on the radio and say this is the Mighty United Stated Battleship Missouri make way. The light replies, “No this is the Lighthouse.” The lighthouse represents a person of strong character. If someone is of strong character they nothing can make them change even the Mighty Missou

Covey’s biggest problem with corporate America is that they there are always a manager of something. You don't manage people, you lead them. The leadership habit is demonstrated by the Jungle story. A group is on safari in a jungle. A man is clearing a path and scouting ahead, when all the sudden he realizes that they are in the wrong jungle. He hollers back “wrong jungle” and is told “shut up, we are making progress.”

The final personality habit Cove