The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press) by Steven Covey is one of the most celebrated books which presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway in this book for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity—principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
The book talks about following 7 habits attributed to highly effective people:
- Be proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put first things first
- Think win/win
- Seek first to understand then be understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the saw
Highlights:
- Be proactive: Proactive people recognize they have responsibility — or “response-ability,” which is defined as the ability to choose how you will respond to a given stimulus or situation. In order to be proactive, we must focus on the Circle of Influence that lies within our Circle of Concern— in other words, we must work on the things we can do something about. In order to be proactive, one needs to start replacing reactive language with proactive language and to convert reactive tasks into proactive ones.
- Begin with the end in mind: Start with a clear destination in mind. We can use our imagination to develop a vision of what we want to become and use our conscience to decide what values will guide us. Before we can start setting and achieving goals, we must be able to identify our values. This process may involve some rescripting to be able to assert our own personal values. It is crucial to break down different roles in your life — whether professional, personal, or community — and list three to five goals you want to achieve for each.
- Put first things first: We must have the discipline to prioritize our day-to-day actions based on what is most important, not what is most urgent. In order to maintain the discipline and the focus to stay on track toward our goals, we need to have the willpower to do something when we don’t want to do it. We need to act according to our values rather than our desires or impulses at any given moment. All activities can be categorized based on two factors: Urgent and important. This gives the Eisenhower Matrix which can be a starting point to chalk out schedule and action plan.
- Think win/win: In order to establish effective interdependent relationships, we must commit to creating Win-Win situations that are mutually beneficial and satisfying to each party. To go for Win-Win, you not only have to be nice, you have to be courageous. To achieve Win-Win, keep the focus on results, not methods; on problems, not people. The spirit of Win-Win can’t survive in an environment of competition. As an organization, we need to align our reward system with our goals and values and have the systems in place to support Win-Win.
- Seek first to understand then be understood: Before we can offer advice, suggest solutions, or effectively interact with another person in any way, we must seek to deeply understand them and their perspective through empathic listening. You have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of character that inspires openness and trust. If we start practicing emphatic listening, empathic listening, we see dramatic results in improved communication. It is important to root communication in empathy.
- Synergize: By understanding and valuing the differences in another person’s perspective, we have the opportunity to create synergy, which allows us to uncover new possibilities through openness and creativity. Synergy allows us to create new alternatives and open new possibilities. It allows us as a group to collectively agree to ditch the old scripts and write new ones. The real essence of synergy is valuing the differences — the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people. We seek first to understand, and then we find strength and utility in those different perspectives in order to create new possibilities and Win-Win results.
- Sharpen the saw: To be effective, we must devote the time to renewing ourselves physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. Continuous renewal allows us to synergistically increase our ability to practice each habit. Renewal is the process that empowers us to move along an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. There are four dimensions of our nature- Physical, Spiritual, Mental and Social-Emotional: and each must be given a renewed lease of life regularly. You should make a list of activities that would help you renew yourself along each of these four dimensions.
References: https://blog.hubspot.com/
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