I attended a short one-day seminar of Franklin Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s good stuff! Essentially, the 7 habits take us through 3 levels of the maturity continuum into becoming highly-effective people.
DEPENDENCE – We are born into this. Depending on others to take care of us. And often, blaming others for undesirable outcome of events.
Habit 1: Be Proactive – Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and subsequent actions) are the primary determining factors for effectiveness in your life. Instead of simply reacting to stimulus, decide on your response to stimulus and take responsibility for your decision and its consequences.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind – Identify and clarify your values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life.
Habit 3: Put First Things First – Plan, prioritize, and execute tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts are aligned with your values, propel you toward your life goals, and enrich your roles and relationships in life.
INDEPENDENCE – We mature into this. We take care of ourselves and make our own decisions. We accept responsibility for both undesirable and desirable outcomes.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win – Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial outcomes 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.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by 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, respect, and positive problem solving.
Habit 6: Synergize – Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork to achieve things that are difficult of impossible to do alone. Get the best performance of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.
INTERDEPENDENCE – We work as a team to achieve things that are difficult or impossible to do alone. We all have important roles. Whether as leaders or followers, others depend on us and we, in turn, depend on them.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw – The story goes that a man was cutting wood with a saw and it was taking much time because the saw was blunt. Taking the time to sharpen the saw resulted in overall time savings. Just as a tool regular maintenance, we too require our own maintenance to rejuvenate our minds, bodies, and souls to create an effective, efficient, and sustainable lifestyle.