Executive Book Summary of The 7 Habits of Highly effective People By Stephen Covey Summary- There are no shortcuts to personal improvement and this is not a quick-fix book. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, focuses on Private Victories of improving interpersonal paradigms and Public Victories of positive interaction and influence of extrapersonal relationships. Covey utilizes his experiences as a father, husband, professor and consultant to guide the reader into deep self-reflection about their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Once the reader has evaluated their paradigms and past habits, Covey provides a model through application suggestions to bring about positive change in each reader all while identifying the many qualities of an effective leader. HOw effective are you? How often do you love, respect and accept all parts of yourself unconditionally? How often are you 100% honest and truthful with yourself and others? How often do you tackle life issues with openness, resilience and reflection? Stephen Covey has influenced millions of people by helping them change their perspective or paradigm. Covey emphasizes that you are in control of yourself and your interactions with others and many of our problems stem from our outlooks which influence our behaviours. There are a lot of skills that can help us improve our behaviours like learning effective communication, however, skills will not change our character which influence our habits that influence our behaviours. To change our character, we need to contemplate how we interact with ourselves, loved ones, co-workers, friends and strangers. The 7 Habits focus on character development areas that are dependant on the reader (personal projections, attitudes, etc) and then a focus on the interdependent areas of the reader (relationships). All the habits fit together just like a puzzle. However, Covey insists that the dependant (internal) character development must be done before any effective character change can happen in the interdependent (external). Since leadership is highly interdependent, leaders must first make the dependant character changes to be effective leaders. Content Habit 1 & 2 HABIT 3 & 4 HABIT 5 & 6 HABIT 7 Leadership Critical Analysis REFERENCES PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 4 PAGE 5 PAGE 5 PAGE 5 PAGE 5 PRivate Victories Habit #1 - Be proactive Proactivity is the concept that each individual has the choice to choose how they are affected by their environment, people, even their own beliefs and attitudes. When you are proactive you choose your response through empowerment, however, when you are reactive, you let the situation have power over you. Page 79 Responsibility is a major aspect of proactivity. “Look at the word responsibility - the ability to choose your response” (p. 78). Proactive people do not blame their circumstance or condition for their behaviour, they understand that their behaviour is a product of their choices. Language is a key element to how we can produce choices that reflect proactivity. Reactive Language Proactive Language They make me so mad. I can’t do that. I have to. I control my own feelings. I choose to. I want to. APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS Experience Sharing Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, was able to choose freedom during his time at the death camps through his decision that his capture would not affect him. “For a full day, listen to your language and to the language of the people around you. How often do you use reactive phrases like “I can’t,” or “I have to”? Habit #2 - Begin with the end in mind Personal Leadership and Management- Leadership determines what the right things are and management is how to accomplish those things. To be effective, the person needs to understand their mission first then they need to know how they want to achieve their goals. Each person has one or more principles at their center that influence our decisions and therefore habits. Security, Wisdom, Power and Guidance as life support factors are interdependent and need to have a balance (which is a choice). These centers include the 10 principles that can be a combination that account for the reason behind our choices however this creates a rollercoaster effect. Ideally, individuals want to create one clear center “from which we derive a high degree of security, guidance, wisdom and power, empowering proactivity” p. 128. Reflect upon what our motivation are and our strategies to achieve those goals through visualization of your roles and deciding which roles take priority. APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS “One of the major problems that arises when people work to become more effective in life is that they don’t think broadly enough.” p. 143 Record your ideal character, contributions and achievements for your family, friends, work and community to understand what you want to achieve in the end. Habit #3 - Put First Things First 4 Generations of Time Management- In order to be effective personally and externally in our relationships, there needs to be an analysis of the tasks that we perform and their relevance to our mission statement. The tasks urgency and importance dictates how we live our lives. If nothing is urgent or important we are living a lazy life, however if every task is urgent and important, we live stressed burnt out lives. It is important to utilize the Time Management Matrix, to choose how those tasks affect our choices and how we can effectively delegate to other people. Effective Scheduling helps reach personal goals and manage tasks that you can assign to others, demonstrating effective leadership. Gofer Delegation focuses on replicating the managers methods. These managers think and act like producers. Stewardship Delegation involves up front, clear understanding and commitment of expectation for Desired Results, Guidelines, Resources, Accountability, and Consequences. These managers are focused on the result. “Trust is the highest form of human motivation” p. 187 APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS “Identify a Quadrant 2 activity you know has been neglected in your life - one that if done well, would have a significant impact either personally or professionally” p. 188. Public Victories Habit #4 - think Win/win 6 Paradigms of Human Interaction Win/Win There is not a ‘best’ option because different situations call for Win/Lose different approaches, however no matter who you are, once you Lose/Win interact with someone you are in a position of leadership and Lose/Lose effective leaders Think Win/Win. Similar to Servant Leadership, Win Win/Win leaders have the perspective that when you win, they win. No Deal The Five Dimensions of Win/Win principles begins with the character traits integrity, maturity and abundance mentality. These character traits script our proactivity to include conceptuality. “From the foundation of character, we build and maintain Win/Win Relationships” through trust develop by credibility from our continuous behaviours (Emotional Bank Accounts) p. 233. Once Win/Win Relationship are developed, Agreements can then come into the interaction. The elements of Stewardship Delegation (Desired Results, Guidelines, Resources, Accountability, and Consequences) also are the key elements to Win/Win Agreements to make effective partnerships. APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS Select a specific relationship that you would like to develop a Win/Win Agreement. Examine both sides of the relationship including perspectives and an mutually beneficial solutions. Habit #5 - Seek First to understand, then to be understood The key to interpersonal relationships is effective communication. We often are more interested in solving the problem of others during communication or sharing our own experiences to truly understand their situation. Perspective - Your optometrist wouldn’t recommend their prescription for your eyesight problems. There are various degrees of listening; ignoring, selective, and attentive, however, to practice Empathetic Listening there is an understanding from the speaker’s frame of reference. To be effective, listen for feelings, behaviours, and emotions. Take into account all of the known variables to ensure that there is common understanding. Diagnosing before you prescribe your solutions is important in order for the solution to be effective. If you are trying to work together in a marriage, job, family, and community, it is crucial to take into consideration perspectives. Facts or paradigms differ from person to person with many factors influencing our perspective like age, gender, race, trauma, and centers . “As you learn to listen deeply to other people, you will discover tremendous differences in perception” p. 265. Habit 5 is something you can practice right now. You can put aside your autobiography and genuinely seek to understand (p. 269). APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS Next time you catch yourself evaluating, prescribing or presenting your ideas before you truly understand, stop and acknowledge your actions and apologize. Habit #6 - Synergize “When you communicate synergistically, you are simply opening your mind and heart and expressions to new possibilities, alternatives and options” p. 275. Synergy is the ability to understand that others have different ideas, skills and perspectives that can improve our concepts and practice. Synergy in the Classroom Synergy in Business When the educator and the learners work together because their is a mutual understanding and agency in the transformation of knowledge. To replace boredom and compliance with idea sharing and innovation of practices. When the change is not hierarchically imposed put developed through understanding. Trust and cooperation are the key elements to collaborative communication through valuing the difference in other people. Buddhism calls synergy “the middle way”, it is not a compromise, it is a higher way when there is an understanding and action to meet others’ needs. APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS “Make a list of people that you interact with that irritate you. Do they represent different views that could lead to synergy if you had greater intrinsic security and valued the difference? Habit #7 - Sharpen the Saw The 4 Dimensions of Renewal promote effective people to support themselves in continuous development of their Physical, Mental, Social/Emotional and Spiritual needs. This habit is closely intertwined with proactivity since you need to be aware and choose your behaviours in order to develop ourselves further. Effective people Commit, Do and Learn, over and over again. “There is no shortcut to developing our habits. The law of harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow, never more, never less” (p. 318). Perspective - To effectively cut down a tree, you will need to stop and sharpen the saw. APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS Commit to writing down specific “sharpen the saw” activities in all four dimensions every week, to do them, and then evaluate your performance. Leadership Connections Throughout The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there are many connections to leadership approaches that are outlined in Northouse’s Leadership: Theory and practice such as Behavioural Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership, and Situational Leadership. The theme of this book is that through an effective foundation of personal character and intrapersonal relationships, including management and leadership, people can flourish and great things can be accomplished for leaders and followers. Critical Analysis This is a very applicable book that is a resources that should be reviewed after personal changes, dilemmas, or on a periodic basis. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a practical read for all demographics and roles within society. There is a very systematic flow that is practical and grows the reader’s understanding for themselves and their choices. This is paired with Application Suggestions that appear after each habit which includes practical ways for the reader to engage and apply the material. Overall, readers can learn deeply about themselves and are offered insight into how to make positive changes. References Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. New York: Free Press. Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
