The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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Summary of Stephen R. Covey's

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

In his #1
bestseller, Stephen R. Covey presented a framework for personal
effectiveness. The following is a summary of the first part of his
book, concluding with a list of the seven habits.

Inside-Out: The Change Starts from Within

While working
on his doctorate in the 1970's, Stephen R. Covey reviewed 200 years of
literature on success. He noticed that since the 1920's, success
writings have focused on solutions to specific problems. In some cases
such tactical advice may have been effective, but only for immediate
issues and not for the long-term, underlying ones. The success
literature of the last half of the 20th century largely attributed
success to personality traits, skills, techniques, maintaining a
positive attitude, etc. This philosophy can be referred to as the Personality Ethic.

However,
during the 150 years or so that preceded that period, the literature on
success was more character oriented. It emphasized the deeper
principles and foundations of success. This philosophy is known as the Character Ethic, under which success is attributed more to underlying characteristics such as integrity, courage, justice, patience, etc.

The elements
of the Character Ethic are primary traits while those of the
Personality Ethic are secondary.
While secondary traits may help one to play the game to succeed in some
specific circumstances, for long-term success both are necessary.
One's character is what is most visible in long-term relationships.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What you are shouts so loudly in my
ears I cannot hear what you say."

To illustrate
the difference between primary and secondary traits, Covey offers the
following example. Suppose you are in Chicago and are using a map to
find a particular destination in the city. You may have excellent
secondary skills in map reading and navigation, but will never find
your destination if you are using a map of Detroit. In this example,
getting the right map is a necessary primary element before your
secondary skills can be used effectively.

The problem
with relying on the Personality Ethic is that unless the basic
underlying paradigms are right, simply changing outward behavior is not
effective. We see the world based on our perspective, which can have a
dramatic impact on the way we perceive things. For example, many
experiments have been conducted in which two groups of people are shown
two different drawings. One group is shown, for instance, a drawing of
a young, beautiful woman and the other group is shown a drawing of an
old, frail woman. After the initial exposure to the pictures, both
groups are shown one picture of a more abstract drawing. This drawing
actually contains the elements of both the young and the old woman.
Almost invariably, everybody in the group that was first shown the
young woman sees a young woman in the abstract drawing, and those who
were shown the old woman see an old woman. Each group was convinced
that it had objectively evaluated the drawing. The point is that we see
things not as they are, but as we are conditioned to see them. Once we
understand the importance of our past conditioning, we can experience a
paradigm shift in the way we see things. To make large changes in our
lives, we must work on the basic paradigms through which we see the
world.

The Character
Ethic assumes that there are some absolute principles that exist in all
human beings. Some examples of such principles are fairness, honesty,
integrity, human dignity, quality, potential, and growth. Principles
contrast with practices in that practices are for specific situations
whereas principles have universal application.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
presents an "inside-out" approach to effectiveness that is centered on
principles and character. Inside-out means that the change starts
within oneself. For many people, this approach represents a paradigm
shift away from the Personality Ethic and toward the Character Ethic.

The Seven Habits - An Overview

Our character is
a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our
lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows
us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it,
and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:

1. Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us.
   
   
   
2. Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves.
   
   
   
3. Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.
   

Much of the
success literature today tends to value independence, encouraging
people to become liberated and do their own thing. The reality is that
we are interdependent, and the independent model is not optimal for use
in an interdependent environment that requires leaders and team players.

To make the
choice to become interdependent, one first must be independent, since
dependent people have not yet developed the character for
interdependence. Therefore, the first three habits focus on
self-mastery, that is, achieving the private victories required to move
from dependence to independence. The first three habits are:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive
  
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
  
• Habit 3: Put First Things First
  

Habits 4, 5, and 6 then address interdependence:

• Habit 4: Think Win/Win
  
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
  
• Habit 6: Synergize
  

Finally, the
seventh habit is one of renewal and continual improvement, that is, of
building one's personal production capability. To be effective, one
must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving
one's capability to produce. Covey illustrates this point with the
fable of the goose and the golden egg.

In the fable,
a poor farmer's goose began laying a solid gold egg every day, and the
farmer soon became rich. He also became greedy and figured that the
goose must have many golden eggs within her. In order to obtain all of
the eggs immediately, he killed the goose. Upon cutting it open he
discovered that it was not full of golden eggs. The lesson is that if
one attempts to maximize immediate production with no regard to the
production capability, the capability will be lost. Effectiveness is a
function of both production and the capacity to produce.

The need for
balance between production and production capability applies to
physical, financial, and human assets. For example, in an organization
the person in charge of a particular machine may increase the machine's
immediate production by postponing scheduled maintenance. As a result
of the increased output, this person may be rewarded with a promotion.
However, the increased immediate output comes at the expense of future
production since more maintenance will have to be performed on the
machine later. The person who inherits the mess may even be blamed for
the inevitable downtime and high maintenance expense.

Customer
loyalty also is an asset to which the production and production
capability balance applies. A restaurant may have a reputation for
serving great food, but the owner may decide to cut costs and lower the
quality of the food. Immediately, profits will soar, but soon the
restaurant's reputation will be tarnished, the customer's trust will be
lost, and profits will decline.

This does not
mean that only production capacity is important. If one builds capacity
but never uses it, there will be no production. There is a balance
between building production capacity and actually producing. Finding
the right tradeoff is central to one's effectiveness.

The above has been an introduction and overview of the 7 Habits. The following introduces the first habit in Covey's framework.

FROM DEPENDENCE TO INDEPENDENCE


Habit 1: Be Proactive

A
unique ability that sets humans apart from animals is self-awareness
and the ability to choose how we respond to any stimulus. While
conditioning can have a strong impact on our lives, we are not
determined by it. There are three widely accepted theories of
determinism: genetic, psychic, and environmental. Genetic determinism
says that our nature is coded into our DNA, and that our personality
traits are inherited from our grandparents. Psychic determinism says
that our upbringing determines our personal tendencies, and that
emotional pain that we felt at a young age is remembered and affects
the way we behave today. Environmental determinism states that factors
in our present environment are responsible for our situation, such as
relatives, the national economy, etc. These theories of determinism
each assume a model in which the stimulus determines the response.

Viktor Frankl
was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany.
While in the death camps, Frankl realized that he alone had the power
to determine his response to the horror of the situation. He exercised
the only freedom he had in that environment by envisioning himself
teaching students after his release. He became an inspiration for
others around him. He realized that in the middle of the
stimulus-response model, humans have the freedom to choose.

Animals do
not have this independent will. They respond to a stimulus like a
computer responds to its program. They are not aware of their
programming and do not have the ability to change it. The model of
determinism was developed based on experiments with animals and
neurotic people. Such a model neglects our ability to choose how we
will respond to stimuli.

We can choose
to be reactive to our environment. For example, if the weather is good,
we will be happy. If the weather is bad, we will be unhappy. If people
treat us well, we will feel well; if they don't, we will feel bad and
become defensive. We also can choose to be proactive and not let our
situation determine how we will feel. Reactive behavior can be a
self-fulfilling prophecy. By accepting that there is nothing we can do
about our situation, we in fact become passive and do nothing.

The first habit of highly effective people is proactivity.
Proactive people are driven by values that are independent of the
weather or how people treat them. Ghandi said, "They cannot take away
our self respect if we do not give it to them." Our response to what
happened to us affects us more than what actually happened. We can
choose to use difficult situations to build our character and develop
the ability to better handle such situations in the future.

Proactive
people use their resourcefulness and initiative to find solutions
rather than just reporting problems and waiting for other people to
solve them.

Being
proactive means assessing the situation and developing a positive
response for it. Organizations can be proactive rather than be at the
mercy of their environment. For example, a company operating in an
industry that is experiencing a downturn can develop a plan to cut
costs and actually use the downturn to increase market share.

Once we
decide to be proactive, exactly where we focus our efforts becomes
important. There are many concerns in our lives, but we do not always
have control over them. One can draw a circle that represents areas of
concern, and a smaller circle within the first that represents areas of
control. Proactive people focus their efforts on the things over which
they have influence, and in the process often expand their area of
influence. Reactive people often focus their efforts on areas of
concern over which they have no control. Their complaining and negative
energy tend to shrink their circle of influence.

In our area
of concern, we may have direct control, indirect control, or no control
at all. We have direct control over problems caused by our own
behavior. We can solve these problems by changing our habits. We have
indirect control over problems related to other people's behavior. We
can solve these problems by using various methods of human influence,
such as empathy, confrontation, example, and persuasion. Many people
have only a few basic methods such as fight or flight. For problems
over which we have no control, first we must recognize that we have no
control, and then gracefully accept that fact and make the best of the
situation.

SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN HABITS

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Change starts
from within, and highly effective people make the decision to improve
their lives through the things that they can influence rather than by
simply reacting to external forces.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Develop a
principle-centered personal mission statement. Extend the mission
statement into long-term goals based on personal principles.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Spend time
doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper
balance between production and building production capacity. Identify
the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Seek
agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases
where a "win/win" deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that
agreeing to make "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing
an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among
employees and avoid inadvertantly rewarding win/lose behavior.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

First seek to
understand the other person, and only then try to be understood.
Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of
interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what
the other person has said through the lens of one's own experience.
Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person,
listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.

Habit 6: Synergize

Through
trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to
create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through
mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find
a better solution than would have been obtained through either person's
own solution.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Take time out
from production to build production capacity through personal renewal
of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions.
Maintain a balance among these dimensions.