Seven Habits for Personal Effectiveness
Improving Productivity, Creativity and Proactivity in Business
Covey has taken the corporate world by storm, through his ideas on how to optimise the way people operate, and ultimately, improve personal effectiveness. The seven habits are a simple set of rules for life, which can be applied to any area where there is potential for improvement. These rules are now widely acknowledged to be standard practice as the blueprint for personal effectiveness.
The following constitutes a brief overview of the habits which Covey advocates:
Proactivity
People need to control the environment, rather than have it control them. This means exercising self determination and choice. People are in a position to grant themselves the power to decide how to respond to conditions and circumstances, by proactively undertaking positive steps to reclaim situations.
Begin With the End in Mind
Personal leadership, which involves leading towards established aims. Develop the habit of concentrating on relevant activities. This forms the foundation of avoiding distractions and becoming more productive and successful.
Put First Things First
Personal management, organising and implementing activities in line with personal aims. Personal leadership is the first, or mental creation; personal management is the second, or physical creation.
Think Win-Win
Interpersonal leadership leads to achievements that are largely dependent on co-operation with others. A win-win attitude is based on the assumption that there’s plenty for everyone, and that success follows a co-operative approach more naturally than the confrontation of win-or-lose.
Seek First to Understand and Then to be Understood
Open and constructive communication is extremely powerful. Finding the problem before proposing the cure can be simple and effective, and essential for developing and maintaining positive relationships.
Synergise for Productivity
Harness the power of creative co-operation. The principle here is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is really a positive challenge to see the good, and the potential, in the contributions of others.
Sharpen the Saw
Self renewal, which surrounds all the other habits, enabling and encouraging them to happen and grow. Think of it as being in four parts: the spiritual, mental, physical and social/emotional, which all need feeding and developing.
Covey suggests that by applying these basic tenets to the way people operate in their day-to-day lives, there is great potential to harness personal effectiveness and improve the environment, processes, and the way in which people tackle basic problems in everyday living. The rules can be applied to any situation, providing a foundation for improved effectiveness.
Reference: Covey, S. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon and Schuster ltd., 2004.
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