7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people

Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People helps to gain greater insights into how

to lead and manage one's professional and personal life to be effective in both realms.

These seven habits:

1. Be proactive

2. Begin with the end in mind

3. Put first things first

4. Think win-win

5. First understand, then be understood

6. Synergies

7. Sharpen your saw

These 7 habits move us through the following stages:

Dependence --> Independent --> Interdependent

Although independence is very much encouraged in today’s world, interdependence is the

essential quality in today’s environment that requires teamwork and good leadership.

To become interdependent, one must first become independent; the first 3 habits deal with selfmastery

required for character growth to move from dependence to independence stage.

While habits 4 to 6 concentrate on teamwork, cooperation and communication, they progress one

from independence to interdependence.

The 7th stage is an improvement stage; it highlights the habit of renewal and creates an upward

spiral of growth, i.e. continual improvement in building one’s production capability.

Habit 1: Proactive.

Let us begin with Proactivity as it forms the foundation for the rest of the 6 habits. A proactive

person chooses his response to any situation or person, countering different schools of

determinism, which say response is determined by stimulus.

Highly effective persons make decision to improve their lives through influencing things around

them rather than simply reacting to external force. When faced with a problem, they take

initiative to find solutions rather than just reporting the problem and waiting for others to solve

for them. You can extend your area of influence on concerns which you have indirect control. They are problems caused by others’ behavior, while direct control is for problems caused by your own behavior.

Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind.

Stage 2 is the cultivation of the habit to create a clear vision of direction and destination to help in attaining your goal. Personal mission statement, philosophy, or creed is first developed to help

you to focus on what you want to be and do, thus guiding your daily activities towards your goal.

This habit is called Personal Leadership because leadership is considered to be the first creation

of your vision, and management comes in second and productivity third. Management is doing

things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Habit 3: Put First Things First.

The habit of personal management. By taking full control and staying disciplined, you might still

focus on the wrong task, e.g. the most important stuff but not the most urgent. In today’s world

where there is an ever-increasing commitment and obligation, this habit helps you to prioritise

your activities and eliminate those that are urgent but not as important, using your mission

statement as a guide.

Covey uses Time Management Matrix to manage time and events. The top of the matrix divides

the blocks into things that are Urgent and Not Urgent, and the left side divides the matrix into

Important and Not Important. With that, we are sure to keep these first things first in our lives.

YOU CAN SEE THE IMAGE IN THE attatchement PROVIDED.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win.

This is the habit of Interpersonal Leadership. You must think win-win, as one person’s success

does not necessarily require another’s failure. You should try to seek solutions that are mutually

beneficial to you and the other party. Establishing a win-win agreement helps to create foundation.

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

This is the habit of communication, which is also the most important principal of interpersonal

relation. There are 5 levels of listening, i.e. ignoring, pretending, selective listening, attentive listening and empathic listening, which is also the highest form of listening. It contributes to

effective communication as it lets you get inside other persons’ frame of reference and see the

world the way they do. As you learn to listen deeply to other people, you will discover

tremendous differences in perception Empathic listening involves four developmental stages; mimic content, rephrase content, reflect feeling and lastly, rephrase content and reflect feeling. The key to empathic listening is to genuinely seek the welfare of the individual to whom you are listening, however, it does not mean you have to agree with the other person's views.

And to be understood, you have to present your ideas clearly, specifically, visually and in the

context of the paradigms of your audience

Habit 6: Synergize.

The habit of creative cooperation. Synergy refers to a situation where 1+1≠2 but 1+1=3 or more;

it is a belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. To achieve this habit, one has to

value differences among people and try to build creative solutions/ideas through interactions.

Interaction helps to leverage on individual differences to find a creative way out of conflict

situations.

Stage 7: Sharpen your saw.

The last habit encompasses all the other habits and ensures our engagement in activities of

personal renewal. You will be able to preserve and maintain yourself through seeking balance in

the areas of physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual.

Personal renewal helps you to maintain/increase your effectiveness through striking a balance

between your Production (P) and Production Capability (PC). Production refers to the production

of desired result and production capability refers to the ability to produce successful results.

P is like an output while PC is the best-mix of inputs that will give you the best result of output

given the resources invested. Striking a balance between P and PC not only helps to avoid

negative result like burnout or wastage, but also avoid bad decision-making that reduces your

production capability, as when one attempts to maximize immediate production with no regard to

the production capability, the capability might be lost in the process.