Steven Covey’s the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This article discusses Steven Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and explores the seven habits that can enhance leadership skills. The habits include being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first.

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Steven Covey’s the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
A good number of business leaders and entrepreneurs are found to feed themselves a
steady diet of information and books as a source of constant motivation and continues
improvement to enhance the quality of both their personal as well as professional life. Inspired
by them, I also engage myself in reading business books and magazines along with other
sources. Amongst some of the effective books that have the potential to enhance the leadership
skills of an individual, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as per my opinion is a
mention worthy one. In this book the author, Steven Covey has presented the seven habits of
successful leaders and categorized the same into three parts namely, independence,
interdependence and continuous improvement. The first three habits, namely, be proactive,
beginning with the end in mind and put the first things first, surround moving from dependence
to independence. The next three habits, namely, think win-win, seek first to understand, then to
be understood and synergize talks about interdependence (Covey, 2015). The final habit,
Sharpen the saw, demonstrates continuous improvement.
I consider the habits mentioned in the book as tools for ensuring personal as well as
professional success. In the following paragraphs I will discuss about the seven habits mentioned
in the book and how it has strengthen by interpersonal skills to be an efficient business leader in
future.
Habit 1: Be proactive
This habit indicates towards the tendency of an individual to take responsibility for one’s
action and to select the response to adverse situation positively (Gayathri, 2019). The author in
his book introduced the story of Vitor Frankl, a holocaust survivor and a psychiatrist. The story

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taught me no matter what happened to us, we can always choose to respond. I learned to focus
on things that I have control over. I understand that, once I develop the efficiency to control
things that I can, I will be able to achieve success and happiness.
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind
This habit encouraged me to look forward in life and identify my specific goals which I
want to accomplish in my professional as well as personal life. The author wants us to ask a
series of questions like, “who you want to be? What do I have to say about myself? How do you
want to be remembered” to ourselves in order to gain a detailed understanding of our goals.
After going through the concept of this habit, my personal and professional goals become clear
and specific for me. I belief, setting specific goals will help me to achieve the same in my life
time.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
When one put first things first, he or she spends his/her time and energy on factors that
will help him/her to reach the goal in life. Through this section, the author has introduced
motivating stories that made me to actively get engaged in productive tasks. For instance, I
started to make a work schedule in order to prioritize my tasks and ensure that all the tasks are
completed within the given deadline.
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
This habit is focused on genuinely believing that all the parties involve posses the
potential to attain success (Covey, 2017). The win/win approach enables partnership along with
creativity between parties. In case everyone assumes the same goal and strive for recieving

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benefits from working toward the goal, the likeliness of achieving the goal gets enhanced
towards a great extent.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Previously, I used to possess a “I must win” attitude which often lead to dissatisfaction,
severe argument and depression. However, including this habit in my character enables me to
think from the perspective of my opponent as well. It is crucial to develop positive feelings about
the opponents and develop the sense that understanding the opponent’s concept and perspective
is equally important. This has the potentiality to lead to long term success.
Habit 6: Synergize
Synergizing enables an individual to use his/her strengths for creating a highly powerful
as well as effective strategy. This habit showed me the benefit of working together and helped
me to enhance the production of my team .
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Finally, when it comes to the habit o sharpening the Saw, it includes renewing as well as
improving oneself. This can be done with the help of sleep, exercising, prayer, mediation,
scripture study and meditation. This habit helped me to develop several other beneficial habits of
personal growth and self improvement.

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Reference List
Covey, S. R. (2015). The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader-4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned
Leadership Teacher of our Time. Mango Media Inc..
Covey, S. R. (2017). Book Review: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; Powerful
Lessons in Personal Change.
Gayathri, H. (2019). 8 th HABIT From Effectiveness to Greatness By Stephen R.
Covey. SDMIMD Journal of Management, 10(1), 65-69.