7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 habits of highly effective people is a compilation by Stephen Covey of age old natural principles. Examples of natural principles are fairness, integrity, dignity, service, patience, quality and excellence.  According to Covey, anyone who consciously aligns their goals (personal or professional)  to these natural principles is bound to be very successful in life (Mahatma Gandhi is an excellent example of a successful person since he was aligned with natural principles) 

If a farmer wants a good yield at the end of the year, he needs to take appropriate steps throughout the year (e.g. Prepare the land, plant the seed, irrigate the plants, remove the weeds and finally harvest) If a farmer skips any of the steps or tries to compress the process, he is not likely to be successful in getting a good harvest. Similarly, Covey says that in life one has to align goals (personal and professional) to be in line with natural principles to be successful.

Covey defines a ‘Habit’ as an intersection of knowledge, skill and desire. Knowledge refers to theory or the “what to”. Skill refers to the “How to” and Desire refers to “Want to”. In order to make something a habit, we need to have the knowledge, know how to execute and also have the desire to execute.

The 7 Habits are:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek first to Understand then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

       The first three habits are focused on the self (inside) and the next three are focused on the outside (inter-personal relations). The last habit is the habit of rejuvenation or constant learning.

         Why are these habits of effectiveness? They are habits of effectiveness since they are all based on the natural principal of balancing production and the capability of production. Let us look at an organization with employees. Employees are capable of producing work which is beneficial to the organization. However employees also need to be cared for and nurtured,  in order to be able to produce work. If they over-worked and over-loaded by the management, then they lose the ability to produce results for the organization. A delicate balance between production and production capability is required according to Covey (similar to Aesop’s Fable story of the goose that laid the golden eggs).
          I was first introduced to Covey by my then reporting Manager Nathan Mac Donald in the year 2012. I can say for sure that ever since I started reading Covey’s book and making an attempt to follow them, I have seen small incremental improvements. My wish is that I had started when I was in school and college. However, I do believe that it is not late for anyone to start following the 7 habits of highly effective people. In my following posts, I will spend time discussing each of the seven habits.

Reference: 25^th Anniversary Edition “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.

Read the first habit here