...employee/ customer satisfaction, and often profitability. This can only be achieved through concise planning, high efficiency, and a bit of luck. We must begin with a focus; all organizations operate with a goal in mind. It is human nature in that we must have some sort of shiny gold star or an orchestra of applause and accolades to motivate us in order to thrive in our endeavors. How we come to achieve our goals is based on motivations and effectiveness. Stephen Covey’s book, First Things First looks at time management strategies and how one can best achieve effectiveness and therefore succeed in obtaining their goals Covey’s approach to effectiveness works with two very important dynamics in mind illustrated by the clock and the compass. There has to be reasonable amount of resources available as we contend with our aspirations or else one will face stress and frustrations hindering one in their pursuits therefore some self analysis and planning is required. “Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principals, mission, conscious, direction—what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.” (Covey 20) As Covey illustrates with the clock, time is a very important part of our lives. We live by schedules...
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...Simon & Schuster FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1989 AWARDS: In August 2011, Time listed Seven Habits as one of " The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books. NO OF COPIES SOLD: it has sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication. OTHER BOOKS: Covey has written a number of follow-up books: * First Things First * Principle Centered Leadership * The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, a sequel to The Seven Habits published in 2004 * The Leader in Me, a book on using the seven habits for young children, especially in schools, published in 2008. TYPE OF BOOK: self help book PURPOSE OF THE BOOK: In many ways it's a general purpose psychology book, dealing with such things as motivation, organizational skills, and how to deal with stress. THEME: The 7 Habits provide an incremental, sequential, integrated approach to the development of personal effectiveness moving us progressively from dependence (on others) to independence (taking care of ourselves) to interdependence (looking after others and combining strengths to multiply our individual effectiveness). This book's focal point is on an approach to obtain personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Covey emphasizes that if we want to make a change in our lives, we should probably first focus on our personal attitudes and behaviors THE STORY: Be Proactive: Covey states that we are responsible for our own lives; therefore, we possess the initiative to make things happen. He also points...
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...work hard at acquiring these principles, if you learn them well, think about them deeply and teach them to others, they will eventually become internalized. They will lead to fundamental change because they will affect who you are - your character - for the better. Your personality was formed as the result of specific behaviors you internalized as you grew up. These behaviors are not things we need to think about, they represent little success strategies or ways of coping with life that we have found to be helpful. If you take a look at what Seneca said about human character, you will see how acquiring new habits leads to a fundamental change of character. Sow a thought, reap an action Sow action, reap a habit Sow a habit, reap a character Sow a character, reap a destiny. - Seneca [pic] Stephen Covey Stephen Covey was born in 1932. He lives with his wife, Sandra, and their family in Utah; in the Rocky Mountains. Covey achieved international acclaim, and is perhaps best known, for his self-help book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which was first published by Simon & Schuster in 1989 and has sold around 12 million copies word-wide. Covey has a Harvard MBA and has spent most of his career at Brigham Young University, where he was professor of organizational behavior and business management. In addition to his MBA, he also has a doctorate which he completed whilst at...
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...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 how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one. There's no better way to inform and expand you mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature. And, of course, the meat of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/Win Habit 5: Seek...
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...these habits into their life. We have to be committed to ourselves before we can commit to others. I really find this “inside-out” approach inspiring as change starts with oneself. By incorporating these habits in our lives it will make success easier to obtain both personally and professionally and failure a lot easier to swallow as well. But before we make any changes in our lives we first have to focus on our own personal attitudes and behaviors. Habit number one discusses the importance of being proactive. In order to be proactive we have to possess the initiative to make things happen. Being proactive is the ability to respond positively to our circumstances. I have heard so many times the expression, “that’s just the way I am, “to me this is one of the most frustrating things one can say. I just want to tell them “No, that is the way you are choosing to be and there is something you can do about it.” We all have to bypass the negativity and find a way to focus our time and energy on being effective. Covey explains how to focus your energy on our Circle of Influence by working on the things that you can do something about. Mistakes will be made but you have to acknowledge and learn from them. Next, Covey explains how to begin with the end in mind. This is probably my favorite chapter in the book. As I was envisioning my funeral it really brought to light the question, How do I want to be remembered?...
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...Be proactive Habit 2- Begin with the end in mind Habit 3- Put first things first Time quadrants The Public Victory Habit 5- Seek first to understand then to be understood Habit 6- Synergy Habit 7 - Sharpen the saw Habit 8 – Finding your voice Quotes that support the habits The ABC of using the habits Reading Recommendations Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People® ( Remember Covey’s habits are protected intellectual property) 1 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Habit 1: Be Proactive Take responsibility for your life. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Define your mission and goals in life. Habit 3: Put First Things First Prioritise, and do the most important things first. Habit 4: Think Win-Win Have an everyone-can-win attitude. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Listen to people sincerely. Habit 6: Synergize Work together to achieve more. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw Renew yourself regularly. Habit 8: Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. To deal with people in a way that will communicate to them their worth and potential so clearly they will come to see it in themselves. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People® ( Remember Covey’s habits are protected intellectual property) 2 Defining a habit and explaining how the habits can help us. WHAT EXACTLY ARE HABITS? Habits are things we do repeatedly. But most of the time we are hardly aware that...
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...in a horse race, the first horse may earn a $50,000 purse and the second horse may earn a $25,000 purse. The first horse gets twice as much money as the second horse, not because it ran twice as far or twice as fast. It was only a "nose ahead" of the competition. So it is with our daily results. We need not run twice as fast or put in twice the effort to significantly increase our daily success. We only need to be a "nose ahead" of where we already are. We are all productive in our days. We would not survive the demands of this world if we were not. The real challenge is how much more productive can we become? And, a lot of our time management has to do with more of what we are not doing rather than what we are doing. Sometimes our mistakes and omissions will keep us from running at a full pace. Here are the Top Five Time Management Mistakes we should all avoid to help us to increase our daily success both on and off the job, in less time and with less stress. 1. Start your day without a plan of action. You will begin your day by responding to the loudest voice (the squeaky wheel gets the grease) and spend it in a defensive mode, responding to other people's and events' demands. The tail will wag the dog. If there is a void of leadership in your time management life, someone will fill that void, not that others are bad people, but others will take all of your time if you let them. You will have worked hard but may not have done enough of right things. Time Management is...
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...habits constantly express our character and produce our effectiveness or our in effectiveness. In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” I identify here seven habits shared by all truly effective people. Fortunately, for those of us not born effective (no one is), these habits can be learned. Furthermore, the collective experience of the ages shows us that acquiring them will give you the character to succeed. Some years ago, I decided to read all the success literature published in the United States since its beginning in 1776 - hundreds of books, articles, and essays on self-improvement and popular psychology. I noticed a startling thing: Almost all the writings that helped build our country in its first 150 years or so identified character as the foundation of success. The literature of what we might call “The Character Ethic” helped Americans cultivate integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is a prime example. Compared with the early success literature, the writings of the last 50 years seem superficial to me - filled with social image consciousness, techniques, and quick fixes. There, the solutions derive not from the Character Ethic, but the Personality Ethic: Success is a function of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, of skills that lubricate the process of human interaction. I don’t say these...
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...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 what I understood, the idea is don’t spend your time focusing on events that you can’t control; instead, focus on what you can control. The thought made me think about my future under the BSA program. After...
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...7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book Summary Before going into the actual 7 habits, the author Steve Covey goes into few important concepts. Character Ethic (good) There are basic principles of effective living and people can only experience true success and enduring happines as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character. Personality Ethic (not so good) It is manipulative, deceptive, encouraging people to use techniques to get other people to like them. Personality ethic is illusory and deceptive and trying to get high quality results with its techniques and quick fixes – not effective at all. Paradigm The book talks a lot about paradigm shifts and I remember having to look it up in the dictionary to find the true meaning of it; paradigm meaning: model, theory, perception, assumption, the way we see world. Conditioning affects our perceptions/paradigms (old/young lady drawing example in the book worth checking out). We see the world not as it is but as ‘we are’ through our paradigms. Different people can have different views and still both be correct. The more aware we are of our basic paradigms the more we can examine/test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions getting a larger picture and far more objective view. Paradigm shifts move us from one way of seeing the world to another. They influence our relationship with others. Not all are good. If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives we...
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...The video "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Karen Bradley is about the habits and paradigms of effective people. She defines effective people as people that get the same desired results over and over again; in other words, they are consistent. In order to be effective, one must practice the seven habits she mentions: being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seeking first to understand and then be understood, synergizing, and sharpening the saw. Bradley goes through each of these habits describing what the habit entails and what the common mindset is about that habit or a lack of habit. Many of these habits can help one manage their stress. For example, if one begins with the end in mind, according to Bradley, they can live life by design and not be default. This...
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... 2/2/2014 | I was inspired by Stephen R. Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The 7 Habits have encouraged me to rethink how I was looking at the world and it has changed how I plan to move forward in my life. Covey defines a habit as the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the what to do and why, skill is the how to do, and desire is the motivation or want to do, “In order to make something a habit in our lives, we have to have all three”, (Covey 55). Covey describes the Maturity Continuum which moves us progressively from dependence to independence to interdependence. The 7 Habits are tools which provide an approach to the development of personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Part 1 The first three habits focus on transitioning from dependence to independence, the mastery of self. Each of us begins life as an infant. We are completely dependent upon others to care for us. “They gradually, over the ensuing months and years, we become more independent- physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially-until eventually we can essentially take care of ourselves, becoming inner-directed and self-reliant”, (Covey 57), it is in our nature to transition to independence. Wikipedia.org summarizes The 7 Habits in correlation to each phase, beginning with self-mastery. Habit 1: Be Proactive describes how to take initiative in life by understanding how our decisions are determining factors for effectiveness in your life. Covey encourages...
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...and change in our life. This habit can let us to practice the other six habits more clearly and correctly. We should maintain among the areas that I have mentioned. From this habit, I learned to balance and renew my resources, energy, and health to create sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. Habit 4 : Think Win/Win Win/win situation is better than win/lose or lose/win situation. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. We should seek agreement and relationships that are mutually beneficial. From this habit, I should have the three vital character which are integrity, maturity and abundance mentality will approach conflicts with a win-win attitude. Habit 5: Seek first to Understand, then be understood This is the habit of communication. Effective listening is very important. We should not only focus about the words being said, we should know the true meaning entirely. We should put ourselves in the perspective of the other person. From this habit, I learned to use empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which makes them to respond the listening and take an open mind to be influenced by me. Habit 6: Synergize Synergize is a habit of creative cooperation. Two is better than one. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. Synergize let us to gain our ideas, strengths to make us become stronger and let us get a new insight....
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...How to Manage Your Time Tisha Wingate ITT Technical Institute How to Manage Your Time During a person’s life, the need to prioritize their time at one point or another is a necessity. Having deadlines with work, children’s after-school activities, family life and/or illnesses, and going back to school; all of these situations call for a better scheduling of time. This paper will be focusing on managing time to go back to school for most adults using Stephen Covey’s articles about time management. As adults, having a set routine to get through the day is very helpful. However, when adding college into the mix, everything can feel out of kilter and overwhelming. If a day-to-day or a monthly calendar/schedule was at a person’s fingertips, and it was setup to show all aspects of their life’s responsibilities, much of the stress could disappear. Stephen Covey was a world-renowned author of time management in today’s world. During his life, he wrote numerous articles and books that covered how to schedule a person’s time to assist in making the most of every minute in their life count properly. His book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, if one follows will help turn completely disorganized and overwhelmed people into a fully-functional-know- what-I-am-doing organized and on-top-of-each-situation person. Starting with the most important habit, Be Proactive, which means to be prepared for the unseen and being able to adjust to what life throws at a person....
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...situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results. Habit 1: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice. Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The...
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