The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People By Stephen R Covey – A Review

The 7 Habits Approach

Discuss about the Approach of Stephen R Covey Book.

It is seen that in his book Stephen R Covey established a specific approach on being efficient in workplace by achieving the targets set by the management of the business organization. In this regard, Covey stated that effectiveness of the employees in the workplace is the balance of achieving the desirable results along with caring for the things which produced those results. Covey somehow explained this matter with an example of the goose that used to lay golden eggs. Covey added that effectiveness in the workplace can be explained in terms of P/Pc ratio where P stands for getting results which are desired and PC stands for caring for the things that generates the results. The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey was published in the year of 1989 and became a best seller of that time as more than 25 million copies of the book got sold after the first time it was published. The book became so famous that an audio file or audio format of a book was published too. It was seen that in the book, Covey stresses on the character ethics and where he tried to align the values of the employees with timeless and universal principles. In his book, covey refused to conflate the values and principles as he sees those principles as external natural laws and on the other hand the values remain subjective and internal. As stated by Covey (2014), he further added that the principles determine the consequences and on the other hand the values actually govern the behavior of the people. In the book, Covey revealed his teachings in a series of habits and manifested as a progression from dependence through independence to interdependence. In the contemporary business world, Covey’s work is not only used for the work place environment, but also within homes. Whether it is regarding improving the relationship with co-workers or supervisors or having effective social relationships, Covey’s approach has helped his readers to a great extent. I think these approaches have more or less survived a long period of time and most of them had remained extremely relevant as a concrete foundation within the sphere of interpersonal communication in the contemporary world.

Before reflecting on my own life experiences on the backdrop of the book, it is necessary to look at the approach of Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In my opinion, this book has centered on an individual’s professional and personal habits as it is the habits that help us to build our character. There may be some good or some bad habits. Even if most of us are unaware of the impact of these habits in our daily life, but it can be said that sometimes these habits can turn into a specific and unchangeable feature of an individual’s character. In the book, Covey introduced the concept of paradigm shift and helped his target readers to get to know the various existing perspectives. He introduced 7 habits in a proper series and each chapter of the book is dedicated to one such habit. It is seen that the first three habits surrounds a shift from dependence to independence which can be looked at as self mastery. Being proactive, beginning with an end in the back of the mind and putting first things first are these habits mentioned by Covey. Being proactive, stresses on the concept of circle of concern and of the circle of influence; in this regard I think that employees should work from the center of the influence and incessantly work on expanding it. In my opinion, the employees should work together to expand the overall productivity of the organization. As stated by Covey (2014), one should not sit back and wait in a imprudent mode and waiting for issues to take place before taking any necessary steps. By the habit Begin with the end in mind, Covey tried to explain that it is necessary to realize how individuals take decisions in real life situation and to become effective an individual will be needing to act on the basis of the principles and should continuously review their mission statement. By the habit Put first things first, Covey tried to explain that there is a difference in between management and leadership as leadership begins with personal leadership and personal vision. As stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016) he firther added that priority in the workplace should be given in the following order;

1. Important and urgent
2. Important and not urgent
3. Not important and Urgent
4. Not important and not Urgent

Habits for Independence

In his book, the next three habits mentioned by Covey are related to interdependence and those three habits are Think Win-win, Seek first to understand, and then to be understood; and the last one habit under this assessment will be the ability to Synergize. In this section by the habit Think Win-win, Covey stated that individuals in the workplace must respect and value people by understanding the fact that ‘winning’ for all should be the ultimate long term resolution for the workforce of the company. As stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016), thinking about winning is not all about being nice but it can be seen as a character based code for collaboration and human interaction.  Seek first to understand, and then to be understood means that individuals should empathetically listen and understand an individual that would compel them to reciprocate the listening and will take an open mind to get influenced by that person. This situation somehow creates a caring and positive problem solving atmosphere in the workplace. On the other hand, Synergizing is the combination of the strengths of the workforce through a positive teamwork in order to attain the targets that one person single handedly cannot do.

In his book the final habit mentioned by Covey is the continual improvement in both interpersonal spheres of influence and personal sphere of influence. Sharpening the Saw means balancing and renewing the resources, health and energy to be able to create a effective and long term lifestyle. As stated by Covey (2014), it is seen that upward spiral model in sharpening the saw section is explained by Covey and he stated that the spiral will result in change, growth and incessant improvement. To be precise, as stated by Covey (2014) it can be said that one should always attempt to master and integrate the principles mentioned in the book The 7 Habits. Apart from these, Covey stated that to achieve success the individuals in the business sector shoul understand the fact that they should find and raise their voices or opinions and help others to find their voices for the best interests of the organization they are working for (Covey 2014).     

After going through the book authored by Stephen R Covey, I believe that the principles and habits mentioned in the book are extremely helpful for the business leaders and the general employees who are in the business sector. The seven habits which are mentioned in the book are extremely practical in today’s world. I believe that what Covey introduced in his book by abundance mentality, is a concept where an individual believes that there are not adequate resources and success to share with other persons. Covey contrasted it with scarcity mindset and that can be found in the concept that of an individual wins or becomes successful, that means the other person lost. According to Covey, people with abundance mentality reject the idea of zero-sum games and are generally have the ability to celebrate other’s success rather than feeling threatened. I like this book and believe that this book can immensely help for self improvement of the individuals who are working in the business sector and according to the book; slight change in the perception of people can give them a boost in their professional life as it can effectively improve their efficiency (Schedlitzki and Edwards, 2017). What I synthesized from the book is that the first three habits are stressing on shifting from dependence to independence and  the next three habits emphasizes on improving the teamwork and collaboration along with enhancing the communication skills while shifting from independence to interdependence. As stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016), the last habit mentioned in the book emphasizes on the incessant improvement and growth that embodies all the other habits mentioned in the book.  

Habits for Interdependence

I strongly believe that this book is a boost for the individuals who want to achieve theior targets efficiently. I believe that in order to get successful in business sector, one can surely follow this great book authored by Stephen R Covey as brilliantly he has pin-pointed all the aspects that are necessary to become successful and enhances the professional skills of the individuals by influencing them to grow seven useful and effective habits. I think that this particular book immensely helped the progression of my career as it has made me think quite differently. After reading this book thoroughly I learnt things about the response, freedom of choice and stimuli; that has made me grow in my professional life. At a point of time I regularly used audio file of this book and constantly incorporated the ideas that were mentioned in the book. I believe that after thorough reading of this book I have become a fan of Covey as he shaped the career path of mine by this book and I was immensely benefitted by this book to reshape the progression of my career. I believe that after going through the book my relationship with the other individuals of my workplace got improved and that has helped me to become a better leader in the workplace that has had a positive impact in enhancing the overall organizational performance of the organization I work for.

I believe that the habits mentioned in the book are easy to read and understand but immensely difficult in integrating them in real life situation and if someone is able to integrate these in their professional life, he or she would become significantly successful and there lies the success of the book authored by Covey. I believe that the boo authored by Covey focuses on building on good habits that are beneficial in the professional life rather than emphasizing on eradicating the bad habits and that made the approach of the book pretty positive. For me; this book took a control of my professional life and enhanced my ability to take appropriate decisions in a smarter and strategic manner. The book also helped me to get rid of the bad habits by just focusing on building new habits that has benefitted me several times and will do the same in future. The principles mentioned in this book will significantly help a person to overcome the bad habits and will give a necessary boost to the productivity. As stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016), if a business leader has this positive attitude, the overall performance of his organization should be destined to get enhanced. Not only these, but the book also helps an individual to draw a balance between their professional and personal life and to become a happy individual. Staying happy is essential as no man who is not happy can become successful in professional life as the distresses of his or her personal life will constantly affect his or her professional life.

Continual Improvement

It is seen that at the time of publication of his book, Stephen R Covey was doubtful as he understood that he is going to begin a revolution in the leadership that would surround both the professional and personal sphere. It should be mentioned that on the same topic numerous books were written but none of them projected the issues and provided a practical solution like Covey did in his book. Thus to conclude, it can be said that it is a book that has become so popular among the individuals linked with the business sector that they would indulge them in continuous rereading of this book to improve their professional life along with the personal life. It can be said that the key statement of the book is that people should master some specific basic habits before shifting to bigger things and it can be said the book serves up these fundamental basic lessons on a higher emotionally and informatively moving platter.

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