The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People
An Overview
led by
William P. (Bud) Werner
North Jersey ASQ Section 304
December 18, 2013
Sequence of Events
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Provide information re: The Seven Habits
of Highly People and its impact.
Define terms used in the title
Provide an overview of the concepts of
The Seven Habits of Highly People.
Provide an overview of The Seven Habits
of Highly People.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People
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Constructed based on Dr. Covey’s Ph. D. thesis on
effectiveness.
Published in 1989 and sold 25 million copies now in 38
languages. In his #1 bestseller, Stephen R. Covey
presented a framework for personal effectiveness.
In August 2011, Time listed Seven Habits as one of "The
25 Most Influential Business Management Books".
Covey does not claim to have invented the 7 habits, but
rather to have discovered them and to have found a
simple language for articulating them.
Deming’s 14 Points and The Seven
Habits
They are integrated, interdependent, holistic, and
sequential.
They build, one upon the other, providing a
practical, cohesive basis for successful
interpersonal relationships and for
organizational effectiveness
Habits

Patterns of behaviors that involve three
overlapping components:
• Knowledge
• Desire
• Skill
 Habits are learned, not inherited.
 We can make or break our habits.
Knowledge
Habits
Skills
Desire
Ken Keyes
We are not responsible for the
programming we received as children.
As adults, we are 100% responsible for
correcting it.
Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit.
What a person is!
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People focuses on
 building character and competence in
our personal lives and
 building strong interpersonal
relationships.
Covey
A cardinal principle of Total Quality
escapes too many managers: you
cannot continuously improve
interdependent systems and processes
until you progressively perfect
interdependent, interpersonal
relationships.
Trustworthiness
Character (exhibits integrity, maturity, and an
Abundance Mentality)
+
Competence (has knowledge, skills, and ability in
a given area)
=
Trustworthiness
W-3
Stephen R. Covey
You cannot think efficiency with
people.
You think effectiveness with people
and efficiency with things.
Effectiveness
Production
Desired Results
P/PC Balance
Production Capability
Assets
FP-08
P/PC Balance
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Production
• The desired results produced
 Production Capability
• Maintaining, preserving, and enhancing the
resources that produce the desired results
Note: the most important resource available to any
organization is the relationships among its people,
including internal and external stakeholders
P/PC Balance

Effective People maintain a balance between
achieving desired results (Productivity) and
enhancing the assets that allow them to
produce the results. (Production Capability)
 Physical/financial assets are “programs.”
People are the “programmers” and are
infinitely more valuable than other kinds of
assets.
Peter F. Drucker
There is nothing so useless as doing
efficiently that which should not be
done at all.
7
Sharpen
the Saw
Interdependence
Seek First to
Understand,
Then to be
Understood
5
Synergize
Public
Victory
6
Think Win-Win
4
Independence
3
1
Be Proactive
Put First
Things First
Private
Victory
2
Begin with
the End in Mind
Dependence
1-14
Habit 1: Be Proactive
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Take Responsibility. You have choices.
Work on expanding your Circle of Influence
Don’t blame others; apologize for mistakes
Use Proactive Language
Choose your responses based on your values
Be a light, not a judge; be a model not a critic
Change starts from within, and highly effective
people make the decision to improve their lives
through the things that they can influence rather
than by simply reacting to external forces.
I am what I am today because of
the choices I made yesterday.
Viktor Frankl
We who lived in concentration camps can
remember the men who walked throughout the
huts comforting others, giving away their last
piece of bread. They may have been few in
number, but they offer sufficient proof that
everything can be taken away from a man but
one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to
choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Man’s Search for Meaning
Law of the Harvest
You cannot talk yourself out of
things you behaved yourself into.
Stephen R. Covey
Habit 2: Begin with the End in
Mind
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Develop a principle-centered personal mission
statement. Extend the mission statement into
long-term goals based on personal principles
Live out of your imagination of what can be,
not out of your memory of what once was.
Consider the desired results before beginning.
Clarify values before setting goals.
Create mentally first, then physically.
Self-discover and clarify your deeply important
character values and life goals. Envision the ideal
characteristics for each of your various roles and
relationships in life.
The end represents the purpose of your life.
Until you can say what that purpose is, with
assurance, then you just cannot direct your life in
the manner that would bring you the greatest
satisfaction.
Habit 3: Put first things first
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To manage our lives effectively, we must keep our
mission in mind.
Understand what's important as well as urgent,
and maintain a balance between what we produce
each day and our ability to produce in the future.
Think of the former as putting out fires and the
latter as personal development.
Emotional Bank Account
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Metaphor for the amount of trust that exist in a
relationship. It suggests that every interaction
with another human being can be classified as a
deposit or a withdrawal.
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Deposits build and repair trust in relationships.
Withdrawals lessen trust in relationships.
Time Management Matrix
NOT
IMPORTANT
IMPORTANT
URGENT
I Crises
Pressing problems
Deadline-driven
projects, meetings
preparations
Needless interruptions
Unnecessary reports
Unimportant meetings
phone calls, mail
Other people’s issues
III
NOT URGENT
T
Preparation
II
Prevention
Values clarification
Planning
Relationship building
Needed relaxation
Empowerment
Trivia, busywork
Some phone calls
Time wasters
“Escape” activities
Irrelevant mail
Excessive TV
IV
H3-01
Habit 4:
Think Win-Win
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Seek mutual benefit – not compromise
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When working interdependently, always Think
win-win. Or accept No Deal!
Win-lose and Lose-win are both “lose” in the long
run.
Balance courage with consideration.
The Abundance Mentality sees many options; the
Scarcity Mentality thinks in either/or dichotomies.
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Abundance vs. Scarcity Mindsets*
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abundance mentality or abundance mindset
• a concept in which a person believes there are enough resources
and success to share with others.
• Can celebrate the success of others rather than feel threatened by it.
• Arises from having a high self-worth and security (see Habits 1, 2,
and 3), and leads to the sharing of profits, recognition and
responsibility
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scarcity mentality or scarcity mindset (i.e., destructive
and unnecessary competition),
• founded on the idea that, if someone else wins or is successful in a
situation, that means you lose; not considering the possibility of all
parties winning (in some way or another) in a given situation.
*Covey coined the terms
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand,
Then to be Understood
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Most people listen not with the intent to understand,
but with the intent to reply. Dialog of the deaf!
 Our tendencies are almost entirely autobiographical.
We probe, advise, interpret, and evaluate.
 Diagnose before prescribing.
 The key to influence is to first be influenced.
 First seek to understand the other person, and only
then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this
habit as the most important principle of interpersonal
relations.
Emotional Bank Account
Metaphor for the amount of trust that exist
in a relationship.
It suggests that every interaction with
another human being can be classified as a
deposit or a withdrawal.
Emotional Bank Account
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Deposits which build and repair trust in
relationships include kindness, keeping
promises, honoring expectations, being
loyal to the absent, and making apologies.
Withdrawals damage and lessen trust in
relationships.
Emotional Bank Account
Deposits
• Kindness,
Courtesies
• Keeping Promises
• Clear Expectations
• Loyalty to the
Absent
• Apologies
Withdrawals
• Un-kindnesses,
Discourtesies
• Breaking Promises
• Unclear Expectations
• Disloyalty, Duplicity
• Pride, Conceit, Arrogance
Habit 6: Synergize
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Look at differences as potential strengths.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Seek the Third Alternative.
Unity means being complementary.
Value Differences.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
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The greatest assets to constantly preserve, enhance,
and cultivate are our own capabilities.
Sharpening the saw means personal PC.
Establish a self-renewal program in four areas:
Physical, Mental, Social/Emotional, and Spiritual.
Continuous improvement is the only way to avoid
atrophy.
7
Sharpen
the Saw
Interdependence
Seek First to
Understand,
Then to be
Understood
5
Synergize
Public
Victory
6
Think Win-Win
4
Independence
3
1
Be Proactive
Put First
Things First
Private
Victory
2
Begin with
the End in Mind
Dependence
1-14
Situation to Consider
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You are at your 80th birthday party and
“significant” individuals from all
elements/roles of your life are there.
 How would you like them to describe you and
your influence on them?
Note: We cannot go back and have a new
“beginning.” But we can start today to have a
different “ending.”
Old Native American Saying
When you were born, you cried and
the world rejoiced.
Live your life in such a manner that
when you die the world cries, and
you rejoice.