Success Quote by Stephen Covey

Covey is selling a managerial magic trick: see people not as fixed inventory but as unrealized value, and they’ll rise to meet the balance sheet you imagine for them. Coming from a businessman-turned-leadership-guru, the line isn’t just motivational; it’s a soft-power directive. “Treat” is the operative verb. It reframes leadership as behavior-shaping theater: the way you speak to someone, assign work, grant trust, and set expectations becomes a kind of ambient architecture that nudges identity.

The intent is aspirational, but the subtext is quietly disciplinary. “As he can and should be” smuggles in a moral standard (“should”) alongside potential (“can”). It’s not only about believing in people; it’s about defining the person you want them to become, then rewarding movement toward that ideal. In workplace terms, this is the philosophy behind stretch assignments, growth plans, and the managerial habit of narrating someone’s “future self” into existence.

It works rhetorically because it flatters the leader and the led at once. The leader is cast as a catalyst, not a controller; the employee is cast as a work-in-progress, not a problem. The symmetry of the sentence makes it feel like a law of human nature rather than a choice with trade-offs.

Those trade-offs matter. Read generously, it’s an argument for dignity: people aren’t their worst week. Read cynically, it can excuse projection and paternalism, especially when the “should” aligns neatly with corporate needs. Covey’s genius is packaging a complex social dynamic - expectations shape outcomes - as a portable ethic that feels both humane and productive.