Covey's " 7 Habits" Can Help You Become More Effective

Steven Covey's landmark self help book, " The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" has fast become one of the very best works in this crowded field. Covey offers practical and helpful advice. By structuring this advice into a format of seven habits, Covey leaves us with an easy to remember framework to refer back to in our everyday lives.

Covey divides the first six habits into two groups of three each. The first group deals with the personal habits one must first develop in order to become highly effective. The first three habits are as follows.

1) Be proactive. By being proactive, Covey not only means taking the initiative, he also is telling us we need to take responsibility. He contrast 'proactive' with 'reactive' and shows us how we are empowered when we take the responsibility upon ourselves regardless of circumstances.

2) Begin With the End in Mind. Here Covey stresses how important it is to take the time to plan out what our goals are. A little time spent at the beginning can save us much regret later on.

3) Put First Things First. Putting first things first has become a truism, perhaps due to the success of this book and another by Covey that deals with this habit exclusively. Covey illustrates exactly what he means by putting first things first by use of a four quadrant model that deals with time and task management. I've probably made this sound complicated but it is really very simple.

The next three habits address our business and societal interpersonal relationships. Covey contends that these habits should be tackled only after we have mastered our personal habits. The three habits that comprise this section are the following.

4) Think Win/Win. Doctor Covey does not consider Win/Win a technique but a philosophy. As he states," Win/Win is based on the paradigm that there is enough for everybody, that one person's success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others."

5) Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. This, for me, is worth many times the cost of this book. Imagine the heartache we could save ourselves and others by implementing this habit into our lives. Covey reveals techniques the will help us to better achieve this.

6) Synergize Covey considers synergy to be the highest activity of all life. To him, synergy is the pulling together of all life's experiences and integrating the wisdom derived into beneficial action. It is using the creative process most effectively

As for the seventh habit, that is the one the good doctor has labeled Sharpening The Saw . He says that whenever we improve or make a breakthrough in any of these habits it positively effects all of the others. This can leads to a constant and never ending process that Covey calls "The Upward Spiral". This 'upward spiral' is the diametric opposite of the dreaded downward spiral we all are so familiar with. This spiral sounds like it is a lot more fun!

How does all of this work in real life? I tend to think of the seven habits as an ideal. It is a worthy set of habits that can always serve us. We will always be able to advance in that upward spiral; but we can be quite assured the we will not reach complete effectiveness in this life. I recommend this book to anyone that is searching for a very helpful manual to increase their effectiveness.