STEPHEN R.

COVEY

7
THE HABBITS OF HIGHLY
EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
POWERFUL LESSONS IN
PERSONAL CHANGE
 About author
• Dr Stephen Covey is a hugely influential management
guru, whose book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective
People, became a blueprint for personal development
when it was published in 1990.
• Stephen Covey, as well as being a renowned writer,
speaker, academic and humanist, has also built a huge
training and consultancy products and services business
- Franklin Covey which has a global reach, and has at one
time or another consulted with and provided training
services to most of the world's leading corporations.
 THE SEVEN HABITS:
OVERVIEW
• Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits
have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of
knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to
know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how
to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.
• The Seven Habits move us through the following
stages:
• Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born,
relying upon others to take care of us.

Independence: the paradigm under which we can make

our own decisions and take care of ourselves.

Interdependence: the paradigm under which we

cooperate to achieve something that cannot be
achieved independently.
• Much of the success literature today tends to value
independence, encouraging people to become liberated and do
their own thing. The reality is that we are interdependent, and
the independent model is not optimal for use in an
interdependent environment that requires leaders and team
players.
• To make the choice to become interdependent, one first must
be independent, since dependent people have not yet
developed the character for interdependence. Therefore, the
first three habits focus on self-mastery, that is, achieving the
private victories required to move from dependence to
independence. The first three habits
 HABIT-1
• BE PROACTIVE
• This is the ability to control one's
environment, rather than have it control you,
as is so often the case. Self determination,
choice, and the power to decide response to
stimulus, conditions and circumstances
 HABIT-2
• BEGIN WITH END OF MIND
• Covey calls this the habit of personal
leadership - leading oneself that is, towards
what you consider your aims. By developing
the habit of concentrating on relevant
activities you will build a platform to avoid
distractions and become more productive and
successful.
 HABIT-3
• PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST
• Covey calls this the habit of personal
management. This is about organizing and
implementing activities in line with the aims
established in habit 2. Covey says that habit 2
is the first, or mental creation; habit 3 is the
second, or physical creation
 HABIT-4
• THINK WIN/WIN
• Covey calls this the habit of interpersonal
leadership, necessary because achievements
are largely dependent on co-operative efforts
with others. He says that win-win is based on
the assumption that there is plenty for
everyone, and that success follows a co-
operative approach more naturally than the
confrontation of win-or-lose
 HABIT-5
• SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE
UNDERSTOOD.
• One of the great maxims of the modern age. This is
Covey's habit of communication, and it's extremely
powerful. Covey helps to explain this in his simple
analogy 'diagnose before you prescribe'. Simple and
effective, and essential for developing and
maintaining positive relationships in all aspects of
life. (See the associated sections on Empathy,
Transactional Analysis, and the Johari Window.)
 HABIT-6
• SYNERGIZE
• Covey says this is the habit of creative co-
operation - the principle that the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts, which
implicitly lays down the challenge to see the
good and potential in the other person's
contribution.
 HABIT-7
• SARPEN THE SAW
• This is the habit of self renewal, says Covey,
and it necessarily surrounds all the other
habits, enabling and encouraging them to
happen and grow. Covey interprets the self
into four parts: the spiritual, mental, physical
and the social/emotional, which all need
feeding and developing
 COCLUSION

“There is no excellence in all this world

Which can be separated from right living”