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

Name of Student: Institutional Affiliation: Instructor’s Name: Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Executive summery 3 The 7 Habits According to Covey 3 Personal Response 4 Habit 1: Be Proactive 4 The Circle of Influence 6 Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind 6 Habit 3: Put First Things First 7 Habit 4: Think Win/Win 9 Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood 10 Habit 6: Synergize 11 Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw 12 Conclusion 13 Reference 14 Introduction Executive summery With his famous quote “Management is efficiency in the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall”. Many scholars have argued that Stephen covey under his book the seven habits of Highly Effective People have provided proven practice for change. The book has been best selling since its publication back in the year 1990. In his book of 7 habits of highly effective people, Covey uses holistic, well defined and principle centered mode for solving both professional and personal issues. Since he uses principles to presents his ideas, Covey provides the readers with the simplest way of adopting change so as to develop an opportunity and take advantage of what the change brings to an individual or organizational life. It is from the seven habits that I learned as management student that there are things that must come first before others to achieve what I want and that there is order in every aspect of life. I also learned that good leadership in every organization is what makes the organization or an individual to do the right thing at the right time through motivation but not through force. The 7 Habits According to Covey Although the seven habits can be applied across various sectors in life, the habits can be highly applicable to the business management sector. The book provides the best ways of applying the ideas and the way to go about applying them with the following 7 habits: i. Be Proactive ii. Begin with the End in Mind iii. Put First Things First iv. Think Win- Win v. Seek First to Understand, Then Be Understood vi. Synergize vii. Sharpen the Saw According to Stephen Covey, all the 7 habits when broken into three classes namely; independence, interdependence and continuous improvement brings a long term beneficial results to an organization or an aspiring individual in that they are based on principles. Ones learned, the 7 habits become the basis of an individual’s character helping such an individual to develop new ideas and maximize the opportunities that present themselves thus easily solving problems and continuously learn new ideas. Personal Response In the field of management where I belong, I can borrow many ideas from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. First, he has revealed to me that it is very important to master personal change before we start enjoying success outside with the other people. He has put emphasis on personal change and interacting with others by dividing his habits into two. The way his principles drown from the 7 habits on how can influence my career in management field are reflected in this essay. Habit 1: Be Proactive To be proactive is to go beyond taking initiative in life. Being proactive means as humans, we are responsible for our own lives. Hence, human behavior is the function of his decisions but not his condition at any given time. Humans can therefore, subordinate feelings to values. Humans due to this ability have plan and role to make things happen according to wish. According to Stephen Covey, humans have ability to think things through instead of being controlled by instincts completely like other animals. Hence, according to him, to be proactive is to choose response instead of depending on inborn reactions. It is from this definition from Stephen Covey that I leaned that as a career person in the field of management I have a role of controlling my reasoning to meet the expectation of other people such as workers in the field. Stephen Covey in this habit of being proactive argued that we have freedom to decide our personal response to whatever happens to us. This idea can be helpful to me in that I have learned that I have freedom to decide on response instead of following the instincts. It is through this that I can choose to talk to people in the workplace when there are small misunderstandings instead of punishing them in that I have to be responsible of my thoughts as a human. From Stephen Covey’s point of view, individuals who fail to consider their reactions are reactive and habitually blame others on issues that arise. Borrowing from his idea, I can say such people cannot perform their duties well in workplaces because they cannot make decisions when there are conflicts. Blaming other people for example workers in an organization makes them develop defense mechanism whereby they get ready whenever the duties are not performed well in that they will perceive that the reactive person is always a trouble maker. I therefore have to take responsibility within my working environment to correct mistakes and work with people effectively. This is because Stephen Covey stated in the habit of being proactive that proactive people take responsibility for their response. Taking responsibility will enable me to learn from what happened and hence, correct the future mistakes and conflicts within an organization or working environment in general. The Circle of Influence According to Stephen Covey, one of the best ways of becoming proactive is by looking at where we focus our energy and time. We have to develop a circle of concern where important things are given the first priority. With this, I have learned that some things come first before others depending with the importance and hence this has helped me priorities things in management field. I normally use this metaphor in organizational level concerning change. This has helped me to identify essential activities in management by making me focus on what I can do to positively influence my future rather than being discouraged my small challenges. Increasing the circle of influence also enables us to set goals and achieve them through commitment. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind The second habit of the 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is begin with the end in mind meaning to start with a apparent understanding of where you are heading to. To be clearly understood, it means to know the destination of the journey so that you clearly know where you are at the moment and so that you take the correct steps that will head you to the right direction. This is a clear indication that you can be very busy in life working hard only to remain ineffective because the larder leaned against the wrong wall. All these are because there are imaginations and conscience in life according to Stephen Covey. What Covey mined with this second Habit is that we have to plan the future and do budget on how to attain the goals instead of working aimlessly. It is a proper planning based on facts that enable individuals in life to attain goals. Almost all people have imaginations of what they would like to look like in future. However, according to Stephen Covey, imaginations cannot be realistic in most cases and hence individuals must work on conscience to attain goals. This second habit is based on the principle all things are created twice meaning we first imagine and then make it a reality. Planning enables me in the management field to think through what I want to achieve and how I am going to achieve it. It is very important to me as a career person in that it will enable me to attain what is needed by my bosses and can also assist me to correct future mistakes by noticing where I failed and what is needed to be done. Since there are several imaginations of good things in life some of which are fictions, Covey has made me to differentiate between fictions and facts. He has made me realize the importance of knowing what I want to achieve to ensure good planning before I do it. This is applicable in the field of management where I belong in that meeting the people’s expectations requires proper planning. All important projects have to be based on realistic facts to ensure that the organization or the business gets the right thing instead of initiating projects that cannot be attained resulting in losses and waste of time. Habit 3: Put First Things First According to Stephen Covey, independence is the most influential human activity that enables individuals to make decisions on top of conscience, imaginations and self-awareness. In my own observation, this habit is very essential in decision making process concerning business in that after imagination; the person makes decisions basing on independence. I cannot make decisions even if my conscience is clear on the goal if I depend on someone else unlike when I am independent. According to Covey, identification of important things is the first step of doing things so that an individual heads to the right direction. This has helped me to realize that even if I know the destination of where I am heading I must first consider if what I currently have in mind is the most important. In management field, a good planning can only be attained by noting important activities to come first before non-important issues. In my own views, this can be attained by managing time and deciding what to be done on a particular time. I have realized from this habit that effective self management is very essential for the success of any business. We can learn from school how to carry out management but the success depends with the decisions we make. The decisions made according to Covey must be independent so that we make important decisions that must come first within a working environment. I have learned from this habit that the leadership is the one that decides what first things are though it is the management that puts them first on daily basis and hence, I must be the one as a management staff that must be discipline to implement first things within an organization. Discipline is the function of the independent will and hence, I have learned from this third habit the values and ethics learned in school are controlled by my moods towards the values and hence first things like time management depends greatly with my will. I have learned from Covey’s 4-quadrant time management model how to overcome traditional time management as a career person. According to him, some activities like crisis, pressing issues, and deadline driven projects are important issues in an management placed in quadrant one. The most important activities according to Covey that I have also seen applicable to my field of management and are very essential are activities in quadrant two that includes; prevention, recreation, relationship building and new opportunities within the working environment. These are the things that must come first before others such as trivia and pleasure activities within an organization according to Covey. I agree with him that success can be achieved by going for first things first that are very essential to the organization. Habit 4: Think Win/Win According to Covey, habit four falls in the category interdependent Habits meaning working well with others within a working environment to achieve the goals. In business, win/win is the best options unlike in other fields where we can give room for win lose. According to Covey, interpersonal proper leadership that can be effective can only be achieved through thinking win/win. In my own understanding, this habit focus on giving concern to other individuals or group by making decisions that benefits all. As a matter of fact, the solution resulting from this habit is in most cases the unexpected ones. This habit of win/win is all about believing in the third option. It is not whoever’s way but is the best way out that gives the most benefit. This habit will assist me go for the best in business management instead of going for my own best interest. Humans are likely to go for what benefits them most because of nature in that humans are always self-centered. Learning this habit will minimize conflicts within the working environment in that it will enable individuals to go for what benefits all to meet the needs of the business. In my own observation, this habit is the one to be learned and be put in practice because people have been brought up to believe winning is everything. It is the best habit that can enable me to think of others within the working environment before making decisions. This will help me to minimize conflicts with other colleagues in that we will make decisions after considering all options. Mutual learning and influence as well as mutual benefits are obtained from this habit and hence, it leads to good relationships, proper agreements, and good character and good support system because imaginations and conscience are brought together by this habit. This habit by Covey has enabled me to learn that good interpersonal management needs vision, the security and the proactive initiative as well as wisdom and power that comes from principle-centered management. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood According to Stephen Covey, the effective interpersonal communication can be achieved through this principle. It is the habit that is concerned with communicating with other people by developing a good habit of listening to other people’s opinions before giving your thoughts to make decisions. The main cause of conflicts between the management team and the employees in most organizations is the misunderstanding. This is because I most cases the managers treat the employees opinions as useless making them to feel less important within the working environment. Understanding the employees’ ideas will enable them to understand me as a manager in that I will give them room to reason with me and conclude on what to do. Stephen Covey has made me understand with this habit that managers rarely gives room other people to give their opinions and this normally results in unproductively within the working environment. This characteristic is essential within organizations in that it brings managers from various departments to reason together and understood each other to meet the objectives and goals of the organization. Some big companies with many departments can utilize this habit to minimize conflicts arising from various departments. Many issues can be solved when managers from various departments come together to discuss issues and understand each other to attain the goals in the mission and vision statements of the organization. The concepts of time management and proper planning within management fields can best be achieved by reasoning together as suggested by Covey in this habit. Reasoning together to check on important issues is achieved within an organization by understanding each other. Unless individuals reason together from various departments, some of the people will be turned off by time management programs and planners that might make them feel fixed and hence I have learned that we must spent time with our workers or bosses to genuinely understand them before we respond. Habit 6: Synergize The ability to synergize is the sixth habit mentioned by Stephen Covey. Synergy is the corporative interaction f various individuals or groups especially with merged parts of corporation with an aim of acquiring better combined effect. In this habit of working together, Stephen Covey pulls our attention to importance of combine efforts. This is a clear indication that we can achieve more when we work together that when we work individually. As a matter of fact, Covey noted that synergy is difficult to achieve I the western world currently due to the belief of independence that is seen as the core value. In my own opinion, achieving synergy needs a lot of trust and corporation and achieving this can result in better decisions than acting alone. Cooperating with others in the work place can enable us create new ideas that may result in new opportunities within the business environment. Synergy also leads to development of creative solutions to the problems that may arise within the working environment. The diagram created by Stephen Covey has helped me to learn how to corporate with others as well as how to remain active within an organization. It is from this diagram that I realized that high level of corporation and trust is the only way of meeting the synergy effect by the manager. This habit has helped me on realizing the synergy effect as well as how to implement corporation to ensure high productivity within an organization. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw This habit is looking after your-self. What Covey is trying to say here is that we are the greatest asset ourselves as individuals and hence we have to look for a way of taking good care of ourselves. The suggestions of Stephen Covey are that we observe the following four areas in life: the physical that is: nutrition, exercise and stress management, Spiritual: mediation and study, value clarification and commitment, mental: planning, reading, writing, and visualizing, social: empathy, intrinsic security, service and synergy. I have realized from this characteristic that individuals who do not consider the above areas in life tend to be bored in work places. Such individuals cannot be productive I the workplaces because they operate like machines. In my own opinion, such individuals just work to satisfy the managers by being present at work. Covey, argued that we are the instruments of ourselves and hence I realized from this seventh habit that performance are influenced by good health that can be achieved through maintenance of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional being. Conclusion The book the seven Habits of Highly Effective people is one of the best books that can enable one learn how to achieve career goals in that Covey has offered the importance along with the ways of achieving the best in life. All the seven habits are essential and all of them must be applied by career people in that they can work well when all habits are combined in that they depend with each other. Good management skills can be acquired from the seven habits by Stephen Covey. Reference Covey, S.R. (2004). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Free Press. Read More