While this is not the latest book on management, it is certainly one of the best.

Steven Covey’s classic book on management, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ remains one of my personal favourites. It captures the 7 elements that anyone looking to be successful should understand. They are simple to understand and apply. And they get results.

Here is a summary of each Habit that I use to refresh myself regularly.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Nothing happens until someone does something! Make that someone YOU!

What is ‘Proactivity’?

Proactivity is more than merely taking initiative, it implies that we are responsible for our own lives. That our decisions control our outcomes, and that our conditions only play a limited role. Highly proactive people recognize this fact and do not blame circumstances for the way things are.

Reactive people are too influenced by their social environment. 

Proactive people can control that impulse and choose how to react, often changing or influencing their social environment for the better

We demonstrate our worth to others and the World by being proactive about:

• Self Control
• Watching what we say and do
• Making and Keeping Commitments
• NOT making commitments we cannot or will not keep
• Being truthful in a kind way
• Holding true to our values

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Start with an understanding of your destination. To know where you want to go, you need to know where you are.

It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy — very busy — without being very effective.

Are you living ‘By Design or Default’

All things are created twice, but the first creation might not be by conscious design. 

If you are not living by your designs, you are living by someone else’s! 

You are living according to scripts handed to you by other family, associates, and circumstance. By teachers or community leaders or your religion

If you live by your own design, you are proactive about what you think and do and you find the truth.   With that design, you can define and design the outcome.  What will be the ‘end’ you have in mind.

Habit 1 says, “You are the creator.” 

Habit 2 is the first creation.

Your first creation is ‘You’… and you are what you do!

So be principled in what you do. 

You, at the end of your life. Will the sum of your actions and their impact. So have principled actions. 

Principles are deep, fundamental truths, classic truths and generic common factors.

They are guides to live by and heuristics to use when making decisions.

Habit 3: Putting First Things First

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least – Goethe

You’ve got to love Johan Wolfgang von Goethe…

What is Important is rarely ‘Urgent’

What is Urgent is rarely ‘Important’

Use this 4 quadrant map for ‘Important’ and ‘Urgent’ when deciding what to do.

Quadrant 1 – Work here makes you feel stressed or panicked and you are likely to experience burnout!

Quadrant 2 – Work here can make a positive difference in your life. By planning ahead you will have more control, balance, and vision in your life. This is Proactive Work.

Quadrant 3 – Work here and you may get the rush of ticking things off your ‘todo’ list but they are the things worth doing!

Quadrant 4 – Non-important and non-urgent work is just wasted time.

Quadrant 2 is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-range planning, exercising, preventive maintenance, preparation — all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they aren’t urgent.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win 

There must be a way to approach business so that everyone wins…If you begin by thinking ‘Win-Win’ then the deal will be easier to find.

If there is no ‘Win-Win’ then it is probably better not to do the deal!

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

Many people are well-trained to speak and to write well, but few are trained in the art of listening. Covey tells us that empathetic listening is something that is seldom practiced and because of this, a barrier is created between individuals.

There is no more powerful lever in personal interaction than to look to genuinely understand another person’s position. By seeking to understand someone fully we achieve 3 things. We:

• Build Rapport – as we are creating an environment where the other person feels listened to
• Build Trust – a person who is listened to and who feels fully understood will feel a level of trust towards the listener
• Build understanding – We know where we need to focus to achieve the outcome we both want

Habit 6: Synergy (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Synergy is the outcome is greater than the sum of its parts. 

The problem is that life experiences teach us that synergy isn’t possible and that life is a ‘Zero Sum’ game.

If we take the risk that the other person may also want to look for an outcome that is greater than there is Synergy to be found and that the parts can be greater than the sum, it may just happen. 

And sometimes Synergy comes from the smallest things. But a synergistic end (Habit 2) starts with understanding (Habit 5) and then a proactive (Habit 1) commitment to finding the best possible ‘win-win’ (Habit 4) outcome based on what is important (Habit 3).

Sometimes there are tremendous consequences that come from the little things…. I am tempted to think…there are no little things. – Bruce Barton

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Renewal

You must recognise that in life there are cycles. Cycles of activity and growth and cycles of rest and renewal.

You must be at your best to get the best from life so ensure you take time to renew.

Self-care is critical to being a top performer. That means care for the body, mind and spirit.

• Sleepwell
• Eat well
• Nurture your relationships with family and friends
• Nourish your spirit, no matter how you want to achieve that 
• Sharpen the saw before you cut the tree

‘Put on your own oxygen mask before you help others’

Other points of note:

The Social Mirror

We often fool ourselves by viewing ourselves as “reflection in the crazy mirror room at the carnival.” We have over or under-inflated opinions of who we are and what we can do. 

These are projections, not reflections. The better we know ourselves and how others see us the more we can influence things for the common good.

Between Stimulus and Response

Events will make us react! We will be triggered by the actions and comments of others and the World in which we operate.  But there is a gap between that ‘ Stimulus’ and your ‘Response’. In ‘Mans search for Meaning’ Victor Frankl points out…

“Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.”

So take a beat and think about how you will choose to respond.

Remember this when considering how you can be more effective…