The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a personal development book written by Stephen Covey. A fairly long read, this book covers in some depth 7 habits that Covey articulates to be important for the development of an individual from dependence on other to interdependence. In addition to the writing, the book also includes several exercises for people who are looking for ways to implement the habits in their own lives.
The 7 habits are:
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand … Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw
I liked the ideas presented in the book, and the order in which they were presented. The first habit, Be Proactive, is essentially you do not control what happens to you, but everything that you are you control; you may not control the universe, but you can control how you respond to the state the universe is in. The second habit, Begin with the End in Mind, is making sure that you are doing the right things (it doesn’t matter that you’re getting stuff done unless you’re getting the right stuff done. Your employer isn’t going to pay you for doing somebody else’s work if it involves neglecting your own). That being said, once you know what should be done, the third habit, Put First Things First, looks at how to accomplish everything that should be accomplished. These three habits are described as moving from a state of dependence to independence. That is, they are presented as how to better live life as an individual.
The next three habits deal with moving from independence to interdependence. In other words, they examine how to better deal with other people. The first of these three habits, Think Win/Win, states that when making decisions, both parties involved should win, or no deal can be made. It is a difficult thing to do, I agree, but there are obvious benefits to be had by eliminating a losing party from social transactions. The next habit, Seek First to Understand … Then to be Understood, deals with communicating with other people. Evidently, it deals the ancient wisdom that you should listen to others before saying your own piece (and it’s important to differentiate between listening and hearing here–simply waiting for someone to finish their piece before starting your own completely overlooks what this chapter has to offer). The last habit, Synergize, looks at how working together can have emergent benefits. In other words, it is an examination of how multiple parties working together can produce something that is greater than simply the sum of its parts.
The last habit, Sharpen the Saw, simply looks at how to maintain one’s health, habits, etc. It is an attempt to keep everything together by bringing back the big picture in times when focus may be elsewhere.
I personally thought that this book has quite a bit to offer, and I thought the presented tools can be quite useful. I have yet to seriously explore many of them, but I intend to do so soon. Hopefully I will update when I start to explore this book in more detail.