7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is an internationally renown book by Stephen Covey. It was recommended to me years ago, when I had the benefit of working with an executive coach. In the book, Covey argues that true success comes from personal growth and fulfilment - which can be obtained by focusing on these 7 Habits:

• Be Proactive

• Begin With the End in Mind

• Put First Things First

• Think Win-Win

• Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

• Synergise

• Sharpen the Saw

It is a book I would recommend reading, but for now I will quickly give an overview of these.

Habit One: Be Proactive This is all about taking responsibility for your life and actions, and focus on what you can control rather than what you can't. It is about making things happen. Getting on the front foot.

Proactive people take the initiative. They take action. They take responsibility for their own challenges, instead of focusing on and worrying about things beyond their control. Habit Two: Begin with the End in Mind This is about defining your goals and purpose in life and work backwards to work out how to achieve these and guide your choices, decisions and priorities. Beginning with the end in mind is thinking about how you want to be thought of. What are your values, your goals in life and how you can achieve them. Have different goals for different aspects of your life - personal and professional. Think about what success looks like, then work out how to go about achieving this. Habit Three: Put First Things First This is the practical execution of habits one and two. Be proactive and determine the most important activities in front of you and execute them accordingly. Don't focus on the easy or the urgent - focus on the most important first. This is about the need to be disciplined and manage your time. Determine important tasks and execute them, and prioritise important tasks over urgent but less important ones.

Habit Four: Think Win Win This Habit is about the need to seek mutually beneficial outcomes in all your interactions. It is about collaboration. Win-Lose - is where someone steamrolls others.

Lose-Win - is where you roll over.

Lose-Lose - where someone makes sure everyone loses if they can't win

Win-Win - is the partnership approach where both parties win. Win win is not a compromise, it is finding the right solution. Habit Five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood This Habit is about the need to listen actively and with empathy, before getting your own views across. Listen with the intent to understand, not to respond. Seeking to understand requires being open-minded and non-judgmental The result is improved communication, deeper relationships, and more effective collaboration. Habit Six: Synergise This Habit is the power of collaboration. It encourages us to look for opportunities to work together to create outcomes greater than the sum of their parts. Recognise and appreciate the unique abilities, experiences, and perspectives of others. Seek to combine people’s different strengths to achieve collaborative success. Look for solutions that go beyond simply compromising between two opposing viewpoints. Habit Seven: Sharpen the Saw This Habit means continually honing our personal development. It is about renewing and recharging our energy. The outcome is a better state of health. It’s easy to get caught up in our work and responsibilities and neglect to prioritize ourselves. Covey posits that we must take the time to “sharpen our saw” to remain effective. This can be through physical, emotional and mental renewal. Know what is best for you.