...“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” * John C. Maxwell My leadership philosophy is real simple and straight forward. One value that stands very close to my heart is the one that my Dad has drummed into me: Don’t cheat yourself, you know exactly what you can and can’t do. In order to succeed as a leader, one must know his or her strengths and weakness. Secondly, we have finite amount of time and energy. If we have time to whine and complain about something then we definitely have time and energy to do something about it. In simpler words: Don’t complain, just work harder! Furthermore, look for the best in everyone. If you wait long enough, people will show you their good side, just keep waiting and be patient. But on the other hand, it is a leader’s responsibility to know how long, is long enough. Within the past year and half, I have learned that experience is the most precious thing you can offer someone. So do not be afraid of making mistakes and sharing your experiences. Last but not least, never give up! As Randy Pausch, the author of the book Last Lecture says, “Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over then, even if someone practically had to throw you over, it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.” And in order to be an excellent leader, I believe these concepts are valuable to have in handy. * Don’t cheat yourself- Seek first to understand and then to be understood. * Don’t complain; just...
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...The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness Author(s): Publishers: Edition: ISBN: Reviewed by: Stephen Covey Simon & Schuster 2004 0743206827 Gill McKay, Director, Extensor Limited It is 18 years since Stephen Covey published his seminal work “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, which was a hugely impactful book, selling millions of copies across the globe. In that book, Dr Covey showed us how to become as effective as we possibly could be. In the 8th Habit, he opens up more potential for us all – by moving from “effectiveness to greatness”. The world today is different, with more challenge, ambiguity and complexity and while the 7 Habits form a strong basis upon which to start, it is this next step – the 8th Habit –that will take us to true fulfilment in what Covey describes as the age of the knowledge worker. I learned a lot from his previous books, particularly the 7 Habits, and approached the 8th Habit with real enthusiasm. Unfortunately I found it a much more difficult read which, although it contained some good tips and new and metaphors, did not deliver on its initial perceived promise. The book’s synopsis promises that The 8th Habit is the answer to the yearning for greatness, the organisation's imperative for significance and superior results, and the human’s search for its "voice". I believe there are some handy tips to be found in the book, but it is a much less intuitive read than his previous works. The book is divided into two sections...
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...In 1989, Stephen R. Covey penned The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People(public library), a book that went on to sell millions of copies worldwide and defined a new genre bridging self-improvement, business management, and personal productivity. This week, Covey died at the age of 79. Here's a look back at his legacy with some of the keenest insights from his beloved bestseller. Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do). Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.* People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. Until a person can say deeply and honestly, 'I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,' that person cannot say, 'I choose otherwise.' To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know. It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake. Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. How you treat the one reveals...
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...Personal Responsibility: the key to academic success Individuals that are being personally responsible take ownership of their actions and hold themselves accountable for their performance and the decisions they make. There are many factors that contribute to scholastic achievement, but each student has the power and capability to choose his or her own path that will lead to success or failure. Those students that look within and admit they have control of their accomplishments have a greater chance of reaching their academic goals than an individual that chooses to blame others when they are unsuccessful. Many students coming out of high school not emotionally or morally mature enough to manage the changes in their lives, especially those that live on campus. In addition to the day-to-day tasks, such as getting enough sleep, eating properly and arriving on time for their classes there are relationship issues and other distractions that cause a student to deter from academic studies. Ceplak (2012) repeated a student’s comments stating that the student liked school because of his classmates, socializing and friendships even though he received poor grades. An Individual that copes with his or her new found freedoms and all the distractions of college life are better equipped to do well and earn their Bachelor’s degree. Holding yourself responsible for your conduct and changing your behavior so school work is the primary concern are positive steps toward the personal responsibility...
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...(CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles. Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47. The last lecture by Randy Pausch to the 400 students in Carneige Mellon University mainly focuses on how to live the prosperous life. It specifically talks about the childhood dreams and how to achieve those dreams and become successful in life. Following are the things that I have learned from the lecture. To achieve success in life we need to have dreams; be it a childhood dream or the dreams that we dream when we grow up but we always need to have dreams. And then we should work towards achieving those dreams. And when we work towards achieving those dreams we can never say that those dreams can be achieved at one go. We are going to face lot of failure and obstacles blocking our way. And then when we experience failure and other problems, complaining and wining is never going to solve our problem. Instead we should never think that it's the end of our dream and we should consider those failure as the inspiration to work harder and the we should keep on trying because everything is possible in life. Now to have prosperity in life we need to have the sense of having fun; wherever we are and in whatever situation we are, we should never stop having fun. And then we should study ourselves, whether we are the person with the sense of fun or the person...
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...For teens, life is not a playground, it's a jungle. And, being the parent of a teenager isn't any walk in the park, either. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, author Sean Covey attempts to provide "a compass to help teens and their parents navigate the problems they encounter daily." How will they deal with peer pressure? Motivation? Success or lack thereof? The life of a teenager is full of tough issues and life-changing decisions. As a parent, you are responsible to help them learn the principles and ethics that will help them to reach their goals and live a successful life. While it's all well and good to tell kids how to live their lives, "teens watch what you do more than they listen to what you say," Covey says. So practice what you preach. Your example can be very influential. Covey himself has done well by following a parent's example. His dad, Stephen Covey, wrote the book The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, which sold over 15 million copies. Sean's a chip off the old block, and no slacker. His own book has rung in a more than respectable 2 million copies sold. Here are his seven habits, and some ideas for helping your teen understand and apply them: Be Proactive Being proactive is the key to unlocking the other habits. Help your teen take control and responsibility for her life. Proactive people understand that they are responsible for their own happiness or unhappiness. They don't blame others for their own actions or feelings. Begin With...
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...MG401: Senior Seminar in Management XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Homework: Week 3 1/29/13 Position Paper on Stephen Covey’s, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Introduction In 1989, Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People started a landmark revolution in how we think about time and life management. In this book, Covey presents seven principles for developing effectiveness in our private and public lives. By developing these habits, one moves from being dependent on other people to being and acting independently. Then we learn how to move to the more advanced state of interdependence and successful Cooperation. As a part of the seven habits, Covey introduced important and powerful techniques of time management under the habit of "Put First Things First." It is necessary to understand (and Practice) all seven habits so that the tools of time management can be learned and practiced in their natural setting. What follows is a basic overview of these ideas presented so you can take better advantage of this tool you hold in your hands. Covey does not claim to invent the seven habits of highly effective people but rather claims to have discovered them and have a simple language for articulating them. Counter Argument Though the term self-help can refer to any case whereby an individual or a group (support group) betters themselves economically, intellectually or emotionally, the connotations of the phrase have come to apply particularly to psychological...
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...Vilma Torres Benjamin Franklin As we know Benjamin Franklin is known to be a very important person in American history. Benjamin Franklin was a successful person that never gave up and always followed his dream. Randy Pausch, author of “The Last Lecture” was also a person who never gave up and wanted to educate others. With this in mind we can see many similarities between Professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture and Benjamin Franklin’s life. The first example is when the professor says that you have to work hard to achieve your dreams. This has a lot in common with Benjamin Franklin because he always had to work hard to get what he wanted. Franklin liked to work long hours and he never complained. The second instance is when the professor says that you have to keep your dream no matter what happens. Benjamin Franklin, at the age of sixteen, wanted to be a printer. He focused on his dream and started to work little by little on his own company. When he started it was not easy. However, he followed his dream until he built his own printing company. The third similarity was when the professor said that brick walls are there not to make you sad but to show you how badly you want something. Benjamin Franklin faced a lot of brick walls when he was trying to discover the electricity. For example, he faced a lot of dangers in attempting to determine whether lightning was electricity or not. However he never got sad, he only worked harder. The fourth example is when the...
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...Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. Pausch delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University (where he was a Professor) on September 18, 2007. In the seminar series, professors were challenged to deliver the message of a lifetime as if it was their last lecture. The irony makes his words that much more poignant. The Last Lecture has become one of the most viewed lectures on the Internet. There is no denying that the context makes the speech memorable, but that quality is enhanced by five timeless presentation techniques exhibited by Randy Pausch. Each of these helps you connect with your audience and help them remember your words into the future: Introduce the elephant in the room, define the scope, conclude strong, show enthusiasm- immerse yourself, get personal. Randy Pausch opens his lecture in the best way possible for this lecture, this audience, and this venue — by relieving stress. Following an easy joke about the title of the lecture series, he introduces the elephant in the room; that is, he spends a minute discussing his pancreatic cancer. Then, he raises the emotion in the room by doing a series of pushups. If he had not opened this way, the audience would have been distracted for the entire lecture, and unable to fully immerse themselves in the powerful lessons to come. From my point of view he made a good start to get the audience attention and gave the audience a reason to listen to his topic. I think the key point over here...
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...As a conclusion, I will criticize myself on the basis of Last Lecture. First thing that I learned from Randy Pausch is the importance of being an imagineer. People have a tendency to stop imagining when they start to think any of their dreams will not come true anyway. But as we saw in the lecture, even though seems like childish and irrelevant, if you try hard you can make it possible. Pausch did his best to accomplish his dreams before he died. It means before we gave up from our dreams, we can do the same too. The other critic point about Last Lecture is, it was a pretty influential speech to encourage people to think about the brick walls in their lives. According to Pausch, these brick walls are there to prevent some people from achieving their goals, and for some people walls are there in order to show them how far they can go for their dreams. Pausch did great to break his walls that he met while he wanted to achieve his zero-gravity dream. So why do not we break our walls in front of us? After the Last Lecture, when I think about my dreams, I realize that I do not have too much of them. Because they are keep getting true. The reason behind this is, instead of long-term, I used to aim short-term achievements. Such as; being successful in high school, being successful is university, earning my own money, getting my driver license and so on. Other thing about my dreams is, they are in a micro level. I have never aimed to be number one rather than being successful in my...
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...Robert B. Burnish The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch The Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling publication co-authored by Randy Pausch, a lecturer of computer research, human-computer interaction, and conceive at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal. The publication was born out of a lecture Pausch provided in September 2007, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. (Dann, 14-19) The publication has often been in evaluation with Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, a publication on courses the scribe wise from his staining school professor. When inquired about his information of the publication, Pausch answered that he had not ever read that publication, and commented that he "didn’t understand there was a dying-professor part at the bookstore” with his usual sardonic wit. Speculation that the publication would be turned into a video was turned down by Pausch himself. Pausch consigned his "Last Lecture", titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007. This converse was modeled after an ongoing sequence of addresses where peak academics are inquired to believe profoundly about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk," i.e., "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" (Dann, 14-19) A month before giving the address, Pausch had obtained a prognosis that the pancreatic cancer, with which...
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...The Last Lecture: The last lecture is a series of lectures that have been established by Carnegie Mello University for the retiring professors to talk about their insights into the life. In this lecture, professor of computer science Randy Pausch was enforced to deliver a very literal last lecture after facing a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. This lecture was entitled as "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Randy start his lecture in a professional way to inspire the audience, he told them about his cancer and that the doctors informed him he has few months to live. But he was very optimistic and wanted to approve to everyone that he is in a good shape by doing push-ups. Randy introduced the idea of “elephant in the room” in a slide he presented of his CAT scan with arrows pointing to the ten identified tumors. As he told the audience that “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” Three topics his lecture was about; first, his childhood dreams and how he achieved them. Second, enabling the others achieve their dreams. Third, the lessons he learned in his life. First, he talked about his childhood dreams. being in zero gravity, playing in NFL, being an author in world book encyclopedia, being captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals and being a Disney land imageneer. The first dream he achieved by working with his students to win competition announced by NASA by providing the best proposal, he was determined to have the experience...
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...Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals with quotes that have been circulating around the web since his stunning lecture that touched so many people. It gave them courage to live a better life by treating others better and never give up on their dreams. The quotes I think applied to my life are as followed: “It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.” I have read something like this in the book “The Secret” and I try to do in my life. Karma is a powerful force in the universe that many people do not think about. But when a person is thinking good things in their mind it seems to come out in our expressions and attitude to other person, which makes them happy to. Then in turn it comes back to that person like a circle, if you give the universe good thoughts and actions it returns it back to you. “If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, “tell the truth”. If I got three more words, I'd add: “All the time”. This is something I truly believe in. If you tell someone a lie when you mess up and they catch you, that person...
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...Sarah E. Al-Falahy BSA-2B MWF 7:40-8:40am “Your life doesn’t just ‘happen.’ Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.”—Stephen Covey Life is full of wonders and complexities. Every day we live adds twist and color to our existence. In the lyrics of Francis Magalona’s song entitled Kaleidoscope World, “Every color, every hue, is represented by me and you…” which somewhat relates to why people uniquely responds to certain circumstances. Though unique, I believe that there are ways that may actually work and be effective for all. One of those ways is contained in what my Management teacher assigned us to read, Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” The book is really about knowing and nurturing the fundamental truths in your life and making them accessible to you at all times to the point where it’s easy to draw solutions to problems from them, making you a much more effective person in all aspects of life. Habit 1: Be Proactive (Principles of Personal Vision) There’s a lot of things that are happening everyday and minority of it concerns us. Based on...
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...The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, Simon & Schuster, 1989, ISBN 0-67170863-5 1 The Seven Habits From “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic” by Stephen R. Covey, Simon and Schuster, 1989 1. 2. BE PROACTIVE: Between stimulus and response in human beings lies the power to choose. Productivity, then, means that we are solely responsible for what happens in our lives. No fair blaming anyone or anything else. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND: Imagine your funeral and listen to what you would like the eulogist to say about you. This should reveal exactly what matters most to you in your life. Use this frame of reference to make all your day-to-day decisions so that you are working toward your most meaningful 2 life goals. The Seven Habits From “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic” by Stephen R. Covey, Simon and Schuster, 1989 3. 4. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST. 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. THINK WIN/WIN. Agreements or solutions among people can be mutually beneficial if all parties cooperate and begin with a belief in the “third alternative”: a better way that hasn’t been thought of 3 yet. The Seven Habits ...
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