Book Report & Stephen R. Essay Example for Free

Book Report Stephen R. Essay Stephen R. Covey is a well-known writer of many self-help books. He is one of the leading writers in this genre of writing. His book, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,’ was published over twenty years ago. Its fifteenth anniversary edition was released in the year 2004 to mark its amazing success. Apart from being a writer, Stephen R. Covey is also a humanist, an academician and a renowned speaker. His clarity of thought and his ability to convey the same to his readers is seen in this book too. This ability if his has also made him a highly influential guru in the field of business management. He has a flair for writing in a style that helps the readers not only understand the intensity and gravity of his ideologies and thought processes, but also helps them apply the same principles and logic to their own lives, sooner or later. This goal of truly helping people attain what they want and need is perfectly achieved in Stephen R. Covey’s books. Stephen R. Covey’s book, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ begins with a quote by David Starr Jordan’ There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living. ’ One of the main reasons the world has loved this book all these years is that Stephen R. Covey has written about the key elements like integrity, honesty and self-management in a very simple, clear and precise manner. A few key points that will remain memorable forever include the fifth habit of highly effective people where he writes the need for people to first develop the ability to understand others before wanting to be understood. According to Covey (1989), â€Å"You dont have much confidence in someone who doesnt diagnose before he or she prescribes. But how often do we diagnose before we prescribe in communication? † (p. 120). Stephen R. Covey touches a different chord with the readers because in this book he also gives a lot of examples from his own life, be it the problems with his son that he was concerned about and the methodology he sought to adopt to help his son out as a devoted father or the fact that his marriage has reached a dead end. Not because his wife and he had fights or difference of opinion. But, due to the reason that they couldn’t love each other anymore and they felt they would never be able t rekindle that same kind of love and affection they felt for each other earlier. When an author of his stature chooses to tell the readers stories of his life to use it effectively as point of reference to better their own, it translates itself into a genuine self-help book. Before introducing the readers to the seven habits, he prepares them mentally by helping them understand that the bottom line is we need to understand our own paradigms and how to make a A Paradigm Shift TM. According to Covey (1998),† A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. † (p. 18). Stephen R. Covey has seamlessly integrated all the seven habits as highly essential and necessary elements. Not a single word seems repetitive or out of place as Stephen C. Covey has given this book a very practical and pragmatic outlook. The book is a beautiful amalgamation of the basic instincts and reaction patterns humans have to every situation in their life and what needs to be done in order to receive the most suitable results either at home or at the workplace. A few principles that I have been able to introduce successfully into my life are Stephen R. Covey’s very first habit of being proactive, the third habit that clearly lists how to prioritize objectives in a given time frame and the sixth habit that refers to synergy. My ability to be more proactive has helped me at my work place and has also allowed better and more optimal utilization of my hours at work. I’ve understood the best way to prioritize my meeting at works and my tasks at home, so I never feel stressed out and at the same time I get a lot more time with my family, friends, my loved ones and myself. Stephen R. Covey’s concept of synergy aids the process of developing and establishing better human rapport and interaction. When you think about a particular situation from another person’s or party’s point of view, you in turn, gain a lot insight to turn it into a win-win situation. Stephen R. Covey’s fourth habit is tough as he asks us to think like a winner to ultimately be a winner. He clearly explains the six paradigms of human interaction and stresses on the importance of integrity, honesty, maturity and special term coined by him called ‘Abundance Mentality. ’ According to Stephen R. Covey (1989)† It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity. † (p. 110). References Covey, R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York, NY: Simon Schuster

Kissed by Poverty :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

In 1990 my family and I left Kuwait on our vacation to the United States. This vacation was anything but normal. On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and consequently we were not able to return. We soon found out that our home was in ruins, and everything was lost. I was seven years old when my family and I realized that the United States was to be our new home. The start of our new lives began in St. Louis, Missouri. At this time all I could think about was how my once prominently wealthy family was no more. My father and mother were out of work, my sisters and I couldn't go back to our friends and schools, and our lives had taken a complete twist. I thought about how I would never see my friends again, how I couldn't play soccer after school anymore, and realizing just how the childhood I had was lost. When I started school the next in America, I was shocked. My father advised me that this would be a big challenge, and that only the fit would survive in this volatile wo rld. So I understood what was to come, and would most definitely try my hardest to make my father proud. I took the challenge head on, but honestly I was afraid. Thoughts of failure lurked in the back of my mind. Will the kids accept me? Where will I sit at lunch? What will the teachers think of a kid who does not speak English well? These thoughts made me want to turn around and go back to where I came from. Instead I was amazed by the atmosphere in the American schools, as well as the kindness and understanding of my teachers and peers. They encouraged me to go forward and meet the challenge. Fortunately I came from a family which values education. My father told my sisters and me that "success in America is a choice and it will be achieved only through education." In the following years I watched my two sisters graduate with honors as chemical engineers from two prominent colleges. Seeing their success made me eager to follow in their footsteps. For the most part the nine years I spent in Missouri were happy and joyful. I was molded to be a successful student and friend. I gained the friendship of my peers and the admiration of my teachers, many to whom I still keep a close contact with. Kissed by Poverty :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay In 1990 my family and I left Kuwait on our vacation to the United States. This vacation was anything but normal. On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and consequently we were not able to return. We soon found out that our home was in ruins, and everything was lost. I was seven years old when my family and I realized that the United States was to be our new home. The start of our new lives began in St. Louis, Missouri. At this time all I could think about was how my once prominently wealthy family was no more. My father and mother were out of work, my sisters and I couldn't go back to our friends and schools, and our lives had taken a complete twist. I thought about how I would never see my friends again, how I couldn't play soccer after school anymore, and realizing just how the childhood I had was lost. When I started school the next in America, I was shocked. My father advised me that this would be a big challenge, and that only the fit would survive in this volatile wo rld. So I understood what was to come, and would most definitely try my hardest to make my father proud. I took the challenge head on, but honestly I was afraid. Thoughts of failure lurked in the back of my mind. Will the kids accept me? Where will I sit at lunch? What will the teachers think of a kid who does not speak English well? These thoughts made me want to turn around and go back to where I came from. Instead I was amazed by the atmosphere in the American schools, as well as the kindness and understanding of my teachers and peers. They encouraged me to go forward and meet the challenge. Fortunately I came from a family which values education. My father told my sisters and me that "success in America is a choice and it will be achieved only through education." In the following years I watched my two sisters graduate with honors as chemical engineers from two prominent colleges. Seeing their success made me eager to follow in their footsteps. For the most part the nine years I spent in Missouri were happy and joyful. I was molded to be a successful student and friend. I gained the friendship of my peers and the admiration of my teachers, many to whom I still keep a close contact with.

Lincoln and Johnson vs. the Radicals Essay

The Civil War, which lasted up until 1865, was the bloodiest battle that this Nation had ever faced. Making it even sadder was the fact that this Nation was divided, North against South, and brothers were killing brothers, fathers killing sons. It was indeed a tough time for President Lincoln who was sworn into office in 1861. He needed to end the war and figure out a way to bring peace and rebuild the Nation. In order to end the war he devised a plan to free all slaves in the eye’s of the government, and on the first day of the year in 1863 he announced his â€Å"Emancipation Proclamation,† declaring all slaves owned under the Confederacy to be now free men. The Confederacy was beginning to crumble; Southern cities were destroyed and the Southern economy was in ruins. Lincoln now focused his attention on the idea of Reconstruction, and reuniting those Southern States back into the Union. It would not be easy for Lincoln, however, as he faced far different ideas than his, proposed by the Radical Republicans, led by Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Despite being the Republican nomination for President, Lincoln was far more conservative than those Republicans taking the majority of seats in Congress. In December of 1863, before the war had officially come to a close, Lincoln began to devise his Reconstruction plan, which at the time was considered to be very lenient by those of the Union. His plan was very compassionate toward white southerners, except for major leaders of the Confederacy. He needed those Confederate Army generals and high-ranking officers to take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and verbally accept the Nation’s abolition of slavery. Lincoln’s plan was to institute new state governments in the South, under control of those southerners who had not aided to Confederacy. Lincoln also had the idea of granting voting rights to those freed African Americans who were educated, owned land, or had participated in the fighting for the Union. Under Lincoln’s plan, three southern states (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee) acknowledged the abolition of slavery, formed new Union-loyal governments, and were ready to be readmitted completely into the Union. The Radical Republicans were not pleased to the slightest with Lincoln’s plan. They demanded much harsher penalties for seceding the Union, and they refused to seat the representatives from those three states, reconstructed under Lincoln’s plan. Because they were so displeased with Lincoln’s leniency, they pushed what is known as the Wade-Davis bill through Congress in 1864. This bill instituted a temporary governor, from the North, to each of those 11 Confederate states. When the majority of men residing in those states had pledged their allegiance to the Union, the governor was to hold a â€Å"constitutional convention,† where only men who had never fought against the Union could elect delegates to represent them in Congress. Once this was accomplished, the new state governments had to acknowledge the total abolition of slavery, disenfranchise Confederate leaders, and pay off all of their war debts, mainly owed to England. After all of this, and only after all of this, could those southern states be readmitted into the Union. Dissatisfied with the Radicals bill, Lincoln overrode their authority with a â€Å"pocket veto.† As you would assume, the Radicals were utterly outraged with Lincoln’s actions, and demanded that Lincoln accept some of their ideas proposed by the Wade-Davis Bill. Unfortunately, we will never know how the President would have negotiated terms with those Radical Republicans. On the night of April 14th, 1865, Lincoln was shot from behind while watching a play with his wife, and died early the next morning. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice President, became the Nations new President shortly after the assassination. Johnson, who was originally a democrat, was now faced with the issue of Reconstruction, and like Lincoln, took a more moderate approach. While Congress was out of session in the summer following his launch into Presidency, Johnson quickly began to â€Å"R estore† (as he like to call it) those southern states back into the Union. His plan was very much like the Wade-Davis Bill in which he instituted a temporary governor to those southern states and had the governor allow qualified voters to elect delegates to represent them in Congress. When Congress came back into session in December, they began almost immediately to refuse seats to those elected delegates. Even though Johnson’s intentions were very similar to their Wade-Davis Bill, those Radicals were angered by the fact that most southerners still wished for slavery even though they took an oath against it. Many Confederate generals being voted in as Representatives in Congress also angered the Radicals. So they shot Johnson’s plan down, plain and simple. The Radicals began to gain more and more power in Congress due to several factors. First, Black Codes began to arise in southern states which authorized sate officials to apprehend unemployed blacks for vagrancy, and hire them out to mostly plantation owners in order to pay off their vagranc y fines. This angered many northerners as is basically violated southern states oaths of African American freedom. This caused Congress to pass the first Civil Rights Act, which gave the federal government the right to intervene in state affairs if blacks were not given appropriate rights. Johnson vetoed this bill but was easily overridden by the all-powerful Radical Congress. Next, Congress devised the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It stated that all people born or naturalized in United States territory are considered citizens, and penalties would arise for states that denied the right to vote to any male citizens. It also stated that former Confederate officials were prohibited from holding any state or federal position unless they were pardoned for their treasonous Civil War crimes by two-thirds of Congress. Any state that ratified this 14th Amendment would be readmitted into the Union. Tennessee was the only state to ratify and be readmitted right away. Finally, those ten states that were still outstanding from the Union were divided into five different â€Å"military districts.† A military commander was assigned to each district and was responsible for registering citizens to vote (black males, and those whites who had not bore arms against the Union). Voters had to elect government bodies who would write their new state constitution, and have it passed by Congress. And finally, after all that, the state had to ratify the 14th Amendment. All but Virginia, Texas and Mississippi had reunited with the Union by 1868 and finally by 1870 those last 3 states were reunited only after ratifying 15th Amendment in addition to the 14th one. Alas, the Union was rejoined, blacks now had their freedom and right to vote, and peace was beginning to take presence. When we look at the similarities proposed by Lincoln and Johnson, we see that both men were in favor of leniency for those southern states. Lincoln only felt it was necessary for Confederate leaders to take an oath of loyalty as opposed to the Congressional decision that Confederate leaders needed to be pardoned by two-thirds of Congress (Which would likely never happen as Radicals held so much power in Congress) in order to take part in state or federal legislature. It is clear that Johnson also opposed this idea, and leaned toward Lincoln’s plan, in the way he vetoed Congress vigorously. This similarity in ideas between Lincoln and Johnson is also a major difference between the presidents and Congress’s final decision. Unfortunately for Johnson (and Lincoln), and the rest of the moderate northerners, his veto was no match for Congress. A key similarity between the presidents and Congress though, was the issue of African American rights. The final Congressional plan involved a federal Civil Rights Act and two new Constitutional Amendments, in order to protect the rights of African Americans. Lincoln obviously believed in equality when he delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, and stated that educated, land-owning, or allied blacks should be given the right to vote. And based on Congresses final decision, I would say the majority of people from the south who were qualified to vote on the new state governors were probably African Americans. In conclusion, when comparing the presidential Reconstruction plans, with those actually put into play by Congress, the main difference falls within the idea of leniency vs. anger. The presidents wanted the whole ordeal over and the states rejoined, whereas the Radicals wanted revenge on the South for seceding. As to which ideas would have worked better? It is very hard to say. All that can be said is that eventually, the Radicals gained too much power in Congress for the presidents to handle, and ultimately an all-powerful republican Congress overruled their ideas. Bibliography(EZbib.com) Brinkley, Alan. â€Å"Reconstruction and the New South.† The Unfinished Nation. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York [u.a.: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 369-83. Print. 35b. Radical Reconstruction.† Radical Reconstruction [ushistory.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Time Line of The Civil War, 1865.† Time Line of The Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.

Social and Ethical Values of Teamwork and Diversity the...

Social and Ethical Values of Teamwork and Diversity: The Benefits of Diverse Teams Organizational development between diverse teams gives the MNC the opportunity to enter new markets and develop new products, in ways that they would not have been able to if they did not have a diverse, multicultural perspective. The benefits to individuals and society are profound. There are ethical implications for being a good corporate sponsor: by this I mean that there is a potential for a win-win situation that benefits both parties, when a substantial goal can be agreed upon and realized. Sometimes, entering a new market with team players from that region gives them a perspective that they would not considered. A good example of this is†¦show more content†¦This vehicle would probably have never been built in the US because of the myopic view of the world and the product solution that we would have developed. Ford, GM and Chrysler all use European and Asian based engineering entiti es to develop global products (Ford in Germany, England, Brazil, Japan and Australia; GM in Germany, Japan and Australia; Chrysler in Italy). Both Ford and GM are now in China, designing vehicles, Ford just built an Indian factory. Ideas germinate from different perspectives, and surely smaller, efficient power trains from Europe and Asia are part of that equation. These are real world examples of the need for products that are designed and built around the world, yet tailored for local markets by making the best talent available to collaborate on products, that, when built, will satisfy the needs of customers on a global basis. What theories or models address these specific needs of social and ethical values from a teamwork or diversity perspective? One could say that globalization after WWII accelerated the need for incorporating local needs into new products and services. Knowledge Wharton reports that having a strategic partner in Latin America is crucial to success. In fact, it could be argued that to address one of the largest Spanish bloc speaking markets in the world (South America) requires an understanding of local cultures, as they all do not speak the same Spanish, but do have similarities in their needs. ForShow MoreRelated Managing Diversity and Ethics in the Workplace - 12979 Words   |  12 Pages MGT450: Leadership Practices Team Leadership Professor Kathleen Dove July 20, 2012 Managing Diversity and Ethics in the Workplace Introduction There steps leaders and managers can take to effectively manage diversity and ethics concerns. 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