The 7 Habits of highly effective people

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Independence. Moving from dependence to independence (i.e. self-
mastery):
1. Be Proactive – Talks about the concept of circle of influence
and circle of concern. Work from the centre of your influence
and constantly work to expand it. Don’t sit and wait in a reactive
mode, waiting for problems to happen (circle of concern) before
taking action.

2. Begin with the end in mind – Envision what you want in the
future so you can work and plan towards it.
Understand how people make decisions in their life. To be effective you need to act based on principles and constantly review your mission
statement.
Are you – right now – who you want to be? What do I have to say about myself?
How do you want to be remembered?
Change your life to act and be proactive according to Habit 1.
You are the programmer! Grow and stay humble.

3. Put First things First – Talks about difference between
leadership and management. Leadership in the outside world
begins with personal leadership. Talks about what is important
and what is urgent.
Priority should be given in the following order:
Important and urgent;
Important and not urgent;
Not important and urgent;
Not important and not urgent.
Habit 2 says ‘you’re the programmer!’
Habit 3 says ‘Write the program.
Become a leader!’ keep personal integrity: what you say vs.
what you do.
Interdependence (e.g. working with others).

4. Think Win-Win – Genuine feelings for mutually beneficial
solutions or agreements in your relationships.
Value and respect people by understanding a ‘win’ for all is ultimately a better
long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way. Think win-win isn’t about being nice, nor is it a quick fix technique. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood – Use
empathic listening to genuinely understand a person, which
compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind
to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving. The Habit 5 is greatly embraced in the Greek philosophy represented by 3 words:
Ethos- your personal credibility. It’s the trust that you inspire,
your emotional bank account; Pathos – is the empathic side –
it’s the alignment with the emotional trust of another person
communication.
Logos – is the logic – the reasoning part of the presentation. The
order is important: ethos, pathos, logos – your character, and
your relationships, and then the logic of your presentation.

6. Synergize – Combine the strengths of people through positive
teamwork, so as to achieve goals that no one could have done
alone. Make it a habit of continuous improvement in both the
personal and interpersonal spheres of influence.

7. Sharpen the Saw – Balance and renew your resources, energy
and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle.
It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, good
prayer (meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental
renewal.
It also mentions service to society for spiritual renewal.
Covey explains the ‘Upward Spiral’ model in the sharpening the
saw section.
Through our conscience, along with meaningful and consistent progress, the spiral will result in growth, change, and constant improvement.
In essence, one is always attempting to integrate and master the
principles outlined in the 7 habits at progressively higher levels
at each iteration.
Subsequent development on any habit will render a different experience and you will learn the principles with a deeper understanding.
The Upward Spiral model consists of 3 parts: learn, commit, do.
According to covey, one must be increasingly educating the
conscience to grow and develop on the upward spiral.
The idea of renewal by education will propel one along the path of
personal freedom, security, wisdom and power.

The 8th Habit
8. Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.