The author shares that he came across "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey in the early 1990s when he was a central-office administrator in a small school district just outside of Boston. He considers the book foundational as he thinks about leadership. (He is now superintendent in a central Massachusetts district with nine schools and 6,000 students). He could write about Covey's view that leadership is more about being genuine than it is about strategies or Covey's reminder that people, regardless of age and experience, are very tender on the inside. However, two ideas from the book have been pivotal to him: Leaders should devote much of their time to issues that are "important but not urgent" and they should use "empathic listening" in dealing with conflict. Empathic listening helps him deal with parents who make requests of the system that only the superintendent can ultimately resolve. Covey has taught him that working to understand the nature of their concern while trying hard to identify with their position can be of enormous benefit in reducing tension and resolving the issue.