Principle Centerdness

April 15

I am thankful for principle centerdness. These principles include, among others, such things as fairness, integrity, kindness, honesty, and having a service mentality. People are principle centered when they focus their lives around principles and/or values. I believe that this is very similar to Christian principles. When people are not principle centered, their values become distorted and they are not in balance. I am not saying I am always principle centered (I often fail), but I am saying that I think that if I and other people would strive to be so, I/they would be better people and better leaders. It helps me to think of the principle centered principles when I have difficult decisions or directions to take.

Many years ago, I had been offered and taken what I considered my dream job at the time, but in so doing, I was thrust into a leadership role, for which I was sorely prepared. A little later, I was in the middle of a personal crisis about how I should manage when I happened upon the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey at the Atlanta airport. The book made a real impact on me and I changed the way I managed, the way I saw things, the way I saw my employees, and the way I saw my co-workers. So rather than becoming more dictatorial or agressive, I tried to become more empowering of others and tried to involve them in the decision making process and to value them more.

Covey likened principle centerdness to "true north" on a compass. He reasoned that much like a compass, which always points toward the true magnetic north, when we live our lives and manage with principles as our guide and our center we will always be aligned correctly and have a better chance of doing the right thing.  Covey believed that these principles are inherent in all human beings, having been put in us by our Creator. I was a huge fan of Stephen Covey and read most of his books. I was saddened this past year to find out that he had passed away after being hurt in a bicycling accident.

The photo is of a compass, which is the metaphor Stephen Covey used for "true north" or principle centeredness.

compass

compass guide me toward my home

tell me which way i should go

to no more aimlessly roam

point me north and make it so.

© rt tulley