Response to Coveys The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Book Report/Review Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Response to Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Introduction The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a 1989 self-help book by Stephen Covey that looks at the various ways in which people can change themselves to become more successful in life. To this end, Covey reveals seven key habits that he argues can make a person become effective and successful in life. The habits cover a number of areas and aspects. The first three habits are aimed at making a person move from dependence to independence. The next three habits deal with interdependence and a person’s ability to work with other people around him or her to guarantee mutual success. The last habit discusses continued improvement of a person in key spheres of influence. Covey argues that these habits can help a person become more successful in life by fundamentally improving him or her. I feel that Covey’s approach was accurate in the way that he emphasized on personal change as the route to success. However, Covey’s focus on personal change makes him miss certain factors that influence success and failure all over the world. Response to Covey’s Seven Habits I think that Covey’s book was accurate in many ways because he approached his arguments with the belief that change starts from within. For a person to succeed in life, it is very important or he or she to change in ways that will allow them to achieve their goals. Covey uses this understanding in his book as he discusses the habits that a person should develop if he or she is to become more effective. I find Covey’s ideas to be particularly useful because I can envision the various ways that I can directly implement them in my life. Each of the habits that Covey sets out covers a crucial aspect of my life. When I combine all of these issues, I can come up with a set of guidelines that may increase my chances of becoming more successful in my endeavours. Responsibility The first habit that Covey points out concerns responsibility. I agree with Covey’s claim that I should become more proactive in my life by taking responsibility for my actions as well as the consequences that ensue. Covey specifically states, “Knowing that we are responsible ... is fundamental to effectiveness” (93). Responsibility takes many shapes and forms. For some people, it concerns the ability to manage and control a significant amount of power, without abusing it or exploiting people around you. For others, responsibility concerns a person’s ability to make wise decisions and deal with any results of his or her actions. I feel that I can relate with both aspects of responsibility as I have borne power over other people in the past and had to make key decisions that affect others and me. As such, I can relate to Covey’s argument that responsibility is a key requirement for a person’s success. I also feel that Covey’s statement on responsibility being fundamental to effectiveness can help me make myself a better person in life. The understanding that I need to take control of my life and actions will help prepare me for many of the situations that I encounter in the future. Envisioning the Future Self The next important habit that Covey discusses concerns beginning with the end in mind. Covey expounds that beginning with the end in mind requires a person to envision a specific destination, allowing them to take a specific direction in their lives. At first glance, I find Covey’s idea to be straightforward. Any person embarking on a journey needs to understand where they are going. They also need to have an idea or expectations of what they will find after they have arrived at their destination. This mental preparation is very important because it shapes the direction of the journey. By envisioning a destination, a traveller is able to plot the route that they will take to reach that destination. Additionally, a person can motivate himself or herself by having various expectations about what they will find at the journey’s end. Accordingly, I strongly agree with Covey’s argument that a person can make himself or herself more effective in life by envisioning the values that he or she wants to represent. This action will allow a person to steer his or her life in the right direction. I also feel that I can apply this principle in my career to achieve a significant amount of success. It is possible for me to envision the sort of professional I want to become in the future in a manner similar to how I imagine the values and principles that I would like to have. By imagining my future self and writing down this idea in a mission statement, I will be giving myself a clear direction to follow in life. This will mean that I will have an understanding of the classes I want to take, employment opportunities that I will capture and the skills that I should develop within myself. Knowing who and what I want to be when I grow up would also make it easier for me to make key decisions in my life, particularly if they are related to my ultimate goals. Even though I agree with Covey’s argument about beginning with the end in mind, I still think his argument had a key flaw in that it failed to consider the possibility of a person’s goals changing over time. If a person begins with the end in mind, then he or she assumes that their imagination of their destination will remain the same all through the journey. This means that the person will fail to consider significant events that will occur in his or her life. A wide number of events can change a person’s life and affect the principles and values that he or she wants to develop and practice. Incidences such as accidents, conflicts, breakups and the emergence of new opportunities can all change the outlook that a person has on life and force them to form a new imagination of what they desire to become. Accordingly, even when beginning with an end in mind, it is necessary for a person to be flexible in their ideas and leave room for change. Prioritization and Management The third habit that Covey discusses concerns prioritization and management. His main argument in this section is based on the idea that an effective person needs to “organize and execute around priorities” (Covey 149). Covey is right in his claim that success is determined by a person’s ability to begin with the tasks that matter and the progress to other jobs. Various experiences have shown my how important prioritization is. For instance, every school that I went to during my childhood had timetables that regulated and managed the way that students went through their classes. These timetables focused on core classes such as the languages, which the school deemed fundamental to the students’ success. While time management is just one aspect of prioritization, other areas in life demonstrate how important it is to focus on the important tasks when creating schedules. For instance, I decided to complete my college education before starting my career because doing so would make it easier for me to find employment in a field that I was interested in. Even though I agree with Covey’s ideas on time management and prioritization, I find that his approach to the whole matter is flawed in some ways. Covey explains the issue of time management using a grid that shows how people can divide their activities into quadrants that are determined by value and importance. He bases his system on the assumption that people should focus on the activities that contribute to their success and balance their time in a way that allows them to deal with various issue as they come up and before they turn into crises. This approach is accurate in the way that it accord time to every possible activity that people carry out in their lives. However, Covey’s approach seems to be too business-oriented. It fails to account for other activities in life that contribute to a person’s success even though they are not priorities. I feel that leisurely activities are in some ways quite important to the success of a person. The key to exploiting such activities is striking the right balance between work and play. A good example of such a balance can be seen where a person undertakes a sport as a leisurely activity. Such an activity will help the person in several ways. Firstly, it will help him or her exercise and therefore become healthier. Secondly, the practice of playing the sport could be enjoyable and help the person relieve the stress from other areas of their life. In some cases, the sport could act as a way that a person networks and creates new contacts that can help advance his or her career. Covey places leisurely activities in the fourth quadrant and insists that a person looking to be effective should generally avoid them. However, I feel that a leisurely activity that is capable of providing the aforementioned benefits is important and should be elevated to a higher quadrant. It may not be practical for a person to afford that particular activity all of their time, but he or she should engage in the activity on a regular basis. Think Win/Win I strongly agree with Covey’s ideas on the fourth habit of successful people where he discusses the issue of mutual success. In this part of the book, Covey explains that the fourth habit that effective people have is that of thinking win/win. For Covey, win-win refers to “a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions” (207). Thinking win-win has a multitude of implications for a person. Firstly, it ensures that agreements and solutions with other people benefit all parties. This means that a person is able to avoid having adversarial relationships with others, where he or she alienates them by behaving in a manner that only benefits him or her. The win-win approach can also make a person successful by making it possible for him or her to make friends who will provide assistance and support in the future. I feel that the think win-win habit can help me advance my career in several ways. Firstly, the approach fundamentally involves working with other people to work towards the benefit of all. This would mean that any activities that I carry out with other parties would help my partners and me. The activities would therefore benefit me by providing with the advantages that I initially expected and by helping me make a new contact that may be useful to me in the future. The win-win approach can also help me build a strong reputation within my network of contacts. Most people prefer to deal with individuals who have shown a strong understanding for their companions by being benevolent. Engaging in a win-win approach would help me build a strong reputation for being a good person and this would ultimately contribute to the furthering of my career. Lastly, I strongly believe that the think win-win approach can benefit the entire human race if people applied it in all aspects of life. Many of the world’s current problems are caused by a greed that is seemingly natural and innate in all humans. This greed drives people to consume more and more even when others around them are struggling to survive. The gap between the rich and the poor exemplifies the greed of the human race. In some parts of the world, a litany of excess is the norm, while in other areas; people struggle to eat a meal a day. This disparity and suffering could be eased if people adopted a mentality where they sought to succeed along with their neighbours. For instance, an application of the approach in global politics would see spending on areas such as defence and intelligence decrease as governments focused on issues such as health and education that are mutually beneficial. Seek to Understand First and then to be Understood Covey also argues that highly effective people have a tendency to seek empathic communication. This means that such people normally prefer to achieve a common understanding with those that they deal with. Communication is one of the most important skills in life and Covey seeks to change the way in which people understand it. His key premise within this issue is that most people listen with the aim of replying, when they should be listening with the intention of understanding. There is a fundamental difference in the way that the two activities occur in a person’s mind. While listening to understand, a person should place himself or herself in the speaker’s shoes. Alternatively, listening to reply involves the filtering of the words and ideas through the listener’s own ideas and experiences. I feel that Covey’s idea on empathic communication is quite good because it could help create the sort of understanding that allows people to form helpful and lasting bonds. This idea could also apply in my professional experience by helping me work better with the people around me. This is because an understanding of my companions’ needs and feelings would allow me to work in a mutually beneficial way. Understanding the needs and ideas of the people around me could also help me become more useful to them, because I would be able to come up with solutions that are actually helpful to them. Synergize The sixth habit that Covey explains is synergizing. Covey explains that synergy is a situation where the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (263). The concept of synergy refers to a situation where the cooperation of multiple entities is more beneficial than the addition of their individual input. Synergy requires every entity to come together in a manner that ensures that they complement each other. In my opinion, Covey’s ideas on synergy were accurate. Covey argues that synergy requires people to open themselves up to new ideas, concepts and possibilities. This is something that I can relate to through my college education. College involves cooperation in many ways. The cooperation takes place in classroom discussions, club activities and group assignments. Synergy is an important element in all of these interactions because it is the only way that all parties involved benefit from the activities. For instance, in classroom discussions, people air different views on various issues. For a person to benefit from this interaction, they need to be willing to accommodate the different views that their colleagues convey. This entire process involves synergistic communication. Synergistic cooperation will also apply in different areas of my professional life. Through the progression of my career, I may have to move to different departments and corporations. Every move or transition will involve a new learning experience as I acclimatize myself to the different operations and ideas of the new area. If I engage in synergistic communication, then I will have simplified the process for myself by opening myself up to different ideas and perspectives. Synergy in the workplace would also mean that I value the strengths and abilities of my co-workers and utilize them to the advantage of the whole group, as opposed to having people only work to their individual benefit. Self-Renewal On the seventh habit, Covey makes an incontrovertible claim that involves re-energizing. Within this claim, Covey argues that one of the most important habits of a successful person involves the renewal and maintenance of the most important asset that the person has, themselves. This process involves the mental, spiritual, emotional and physical dimensions, all of which help a person become better at the things that they do. I think that Covey makes a claim that is difficult to argue against when he states that there is a need for people to maintain preserve and enhance themselves. The importance of a person preserving his or her body is mirrored in multiple aspects of society. For instance, medical care is a key concern for people around the world. The existence of religious institutions and the value that people place in them is also evidence of the importance of spiritual wellbeing. I agree with the idea that a person’s success is grounded on the wellbeing of their body in various ways. This wellbeing requires an active effort from the person, in a manner that is similar to the effort that people place in advancing their careers. I think that this habit could help my professionally, by giving me an avenue through which I can deal with the various stresses and problems that I will face in my career. Factors that Covey Seemed to Ignore Even though I agree with most of the habits that Covey discussed, I feel that he failed to consider force majeure in his book. For many people, forces and powers beyond their control determine their success in life. These forces are disruptive and destructive in some cases and helpful in others. For instance, many people living in Sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to become successful in conditions that do not facilitate any form of prosperity. The widespread conflict in the region makes it difficult for people to advance their careers and businesses as they wish. This means that the seven habits that Covey described might still not help people in such conditions succeed. In other parts of the world, force majeure may involve economic instability, serious health complications and natural disasters. Even with the implementation of Covey’s habits, the success of a person could still be impeded by such incidents. Conclusion Stephen Covey’s book addresses the various habits that could help a person become successful in their life. The habits that Covey describes involve aspects such as responsibility, empathic communication and self-renewal. Through these habits, a person could significantly increase the likelihood that they will become successful in their careers and other endeavours. Most of the habits that Covey states are hard to argue against because they apply in many areas of life and help improve a person. One issue that stands out in all of the habits is that a person’s success is mostly dependent on his or her actions. Accordingly, the habits involve improving the self and the way that a person relates and works with others. Even though Covey seemed to overlook some important factors such as force majeure, his book still provides valuable advice about how a person can improve his or her life. Work Cited Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: [powerful Lessons in Personal Change]. Provo, Utah: Covey Leadership Center, 1989. Print. Read More