Monday, December 24, 2012

Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Part 1

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




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. As not all things are within your control, you need to identify those you could exert
changes and focus your effort on them.

Concerns/problems can be classified into 3 areas, namely direct control, indirect control and no control. 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.


to be continued...

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