Aristotle
I’ve heard about Seven Habits of Highly Effective People for years. Now that I’ve read it I honestly can’t believe I never made it a priority to read before now. Covey describes the word “habit” as “the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire,” and the book is an honest look at seven habits that can help define not only an effective life but a fulfilled and balanced life. I could never do the book justice by trying to quickly summarize it or even pick out a few key points, but here is an outline of the seven habits:
- Be proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put the first things first
- Thing win/win
- Seek first to understand, then to be understood
- Synergize
The book is filed with fascinating insights on everything from time management to fostering creativity to orchestrating trust within your teams to fostering deeper relationships to active listening to effective coaching to contract negotiation. I felt almost as thought I needed to read it through two lenses – the personal applications and the applications for me as a manager. Both applications have potentially revolutionary outcomes, so I am still in the process of digesting some of the information and creating clear action points.
