Skip to main content

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

About the book:

Stephen Covey talks about seven strategies and ways of thinking that will lead you to be more effective as a person. In the beginning, I thought it was just another cheap social strategies book, but it turned out to be very eye-opening and practical.

The seven habits are divided into two groups, four personal and three social. The first group can be summarized in the phrase: "Make a promise, keep a promise". The second can be summarized as: "Involve others in the problem and work out the solution together."

In essence, the seven habits are only extensions of two principles, integrity and loyalty.

Takeaways and Paths of Action:

Habit 1: Be proactive.
Change the way you speak about your tasks from reactive to proactive. Here are some examples:

Reactive: "I have to meet this deadline."
Proactive: "I have chosen to be responsible and to deliver the project on time."

Reactive: "This happened, now I have to do it."
Proactive: "I will choose the most appropriate response to what's happened."

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.
Imagine it is the day of your funeral. What would you want your family and friends say about you? Think about your character, your contribution, and your achievements. Then, write down a personal statement on your phone and keep it with you. Repeat this exercise if you feel that you have lost your North.

While this may seem useless and time-consuming, there is much power in writing down a few sentences about what you truly want to become and referring to it when facing uncertainty.

 Habit 3: First things first.
When was the last time you did something just for yourself? We tend to focus too much on what's being asked from us. Organize your goals using the following matrix. Then, try to focus more on accomplishing those on the bottom right quadrant.
Habit 4: Think Win-win.
For you to win, nobody else has to lose. For them to win, you should not accept losing either. Think "Win-win o no deal".

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Imagine you are visiting the optometrist, and he is too kind as to give you one of his own pair of glasses, for free. He does not examine and just says: "Don't worry, I know what you have, I have the same thing. Just have mine". This is what we often do when people talk to us. We guess, we judge, and we tell them "what worked for us"  without even listening. Seek first to understand.

Habit 6: Synergy.
This is what to think next time somebody disagrees with you: "How can I use this new perspective to improve mine and improve the results of what I'm doing here" This is what you say: "Good, you see it differently. I'd like to understand."

Habit 7: Self-renewal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVFV5Zym2eQ
You are the goose. Take care of the goose.

Favourite quote:

"Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he id. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be." - Raplh Waldo Emerson.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The book: The hard thing is that hard things have no universal solution. This book teaches management principles not from standard definitions but from real insightful experiences narrated from a CEO's point of view. The author talks about several challenges he had to face (in specific situations) when running Opsware. Hiring an executive against the advice of the board of directors or rejecting acquisition offers that exceeded everyone else's expectations are two examples of the hard decisions Ben Horowitz made. Takeaways and Paths of Action: The following apply to individuals in a leadership position: 1. Give feedback, constantly: If you are giving feedback all the time to everybody, it is more likely that they will take it as a regular practice rather than a personal attack. Keep in mind that your goal is to help the other person's job improve, not to prove your point. You can also use the "shit sandwich" technique. Give a compliment on the g...
3 comments
Read more

The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman

The book: This book is a detailed report from a study of 212 startup founders/founding teams, including Steve Wozniak (Apple), Evan Williams (Blogger, Twitter), and Tim Westergren (Pandora Media). Noam Wasserman (author) explains the key decisions that founders and/or co-founders need to make from the day on which they decide to build their company until it is acquired by a larger corporation or goes public. The book also gives advice on dealing with investors and boards, based on the entrepreneur´s motivations, which are typically wealth or power. Takeaways and Paths of Action: The following only apply to individuals that are or would like to become entrepreneurs: 1. Keep co-founder relationships in order: Handshake contracts for equity distribution lower the value of a startup and generate confusion among the members of the team later on. A written agreement benefits everyone. Make sure to plan for worst-case and unexpected scenarios such as bankruptcy...
2 comments
Read more

Mindset by Carol Dueck

About the book: Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, presents her research on two thinking patterns, the growth and fixed mindsets, which have a strong influence on the way people behave, their self-esteem, and their attitude towards challenging situations. Growth-minded people are those who acknowledge that all skills can be acquired, only through practice. These include artistic, mathematical, and physical skills. Takeaways and Paths of Action: 1) Be aware and share the message. Intelligence is something you need to work for; it is not given to you. Success is not about proving you're smart, it is about learning. This is not very specific nor applicable. However, I do think that being aware that we are born knowing close to nothing but can learn anything through practice and concentration is very important. We should share this message with friends and family. 2) Be a good loser. With an open mind, look at people who are doing better ...
Post a Comment
Read more