7 Habits of Highly Effective People: A Summary
“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People... represents the internalization of correct principles upon which enduring happiness and success are based.”
Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold over 25 million copies and been labeled the No. 1 most influential business book of the twentieth century.
Just over 30 years ago, Utah State leadership professor, Stephen Coney, wrote this prize-winning book with the intention of helping individuals, families, organizations, and corporations increase their effectiveness. The lessons taught in this book have been embraced and praised by some of the world’s most successful and influential leaders.
It is week 34 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenge, and this week’s task was to read a book 240 pages or more. I chose Stephen Coney’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People because I just entered my 30th year of life and I want to live the next 30 (Lord willing) with utmost diligence and intentionality. I have heard nothing but praise of Coney’s book from Christian and non-Christian leaders that I respect and admire.
After reading 7 Habits, I was struck by the similarities between Stephen Covey and Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life. While 7 Habits is significantly less philosophical and heady, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that Covey's work had a significant impact on the thinking of Peterson. Like Peterson, Covey takes his observations of humanity throughout the ages, including religious beliefs, and synthesizes those lessons into 7 principles (or habits) that will lead toward increasing one's "effectiveness" throughout life.
This book is too monstrous and prolific for me to offer a critical review. Instead, I will summarize for you the 7 Habits, their application, and finish with a comment on the idea of “effectiveness.”
1. Be Proactive
“Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence” (p. 83).
While this first habit sounds more like a command than a principle, it finds its roots in self-awareness. Covey makes the argument that true proactivity protrudes from self-awareness. If people can look outside of themselves and think about who they are, what they are doing, and why they are doing it, then they have taken their first steps in identifying their Circle of Influence.
For Covey, the Circle of Influence is defined intuitively. It encompasses only the things that you can directly control, change, or affect. Covey’s advice here is somewhat simple. Be honest with yourself and your surroundings.
The way to build a beautiful architectural masterpiece starts with the foundation.
“We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness, and ultimately, I would say, for most of our circumstances” (p. 93).
Proactive people understand what is in their Circle of Influence and don’t dwell on what is not.
2. Begin with the End in Mind
“It is possible to be buys—very busy—without being very effective” (p. 98).
Beginning with the end in mind is based on the principle that everything is created twice. The first time is when the idea is formed in your mind, and the second is when it is actualized.
Simply put, before you start running you need to know where you are going.
I like how Covey makes a distinction between management and leadership. Management is down and in whereas leadership is up and out.
“Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success can compensate for failure in leadership.”
So how does one begin with the end in mind? Well, it takes time.
Time.
Time is something we never really want to give a lot of but is critical to intentional living.
Covey argues to take time crafting a one-sentence fully encompassing mission statement. This can be for your family, church, school, organization, or business. Having a mission statement lets a person being with the end goal in mind.
3. Put First Things First
“Habit 3… it’s the exercise of the independent will toward becoming principle centered” (p. 147).
Habit 3 is the grind. Habit 3 is what type “A” people love. To do lists. Organization. Planning. Discipline. Habit 3 is the self-conscious will to apply Habits 1 & 2 into daily life.
Dreamers like me hate Habit 3. The creation of a vision for me is easy. The implementation is another matter. But I agree with Covey, without personal independent will resolved toward daily action, our desired goals will likely dissipate into wishful new years resolutions.
Habit 3 could be best summarized with Nike’s slogan.
Just Do It.
But don't just do anything. Inside this chapter, Covey breaks up activities into four different quadrants. The Urgent and Non-Urgent, with the Important and Not Important. The key is to live in the first two quadrants. The Important Urgent and Non-Urgent things, with 80% of our time spent on the Important Non-Urgent.
The more we maximize our time on the important non-urgent the more we prevent the unimportant and decrease the possibility of urgent crisis.
4. Think Win/Win
“Win/Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions” (p. 207).
This is the easiest of the 7 Habits to grasp. The basic principle: Seek mutually beneficial outcomes.
“So often the problem is in the system, not in the people. If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow” (p. 232).
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
“This principle is the key to effective interpersonal communication” (p. 237).
I loved this chapter. Simply because Covey starts off belittling the commonly thought effective communication method of mimicking.
Mimicking is a taught practice of active listening that repeats back to a person what they said.
If someone says, “I am angry”, you would reply with, “So what I am hearing is that you are angry.”
Covey calls this minimalistic communication. At best it makes someone feel like you are listening. At worst it is condescending, belittling, and can be taken as pure arrogance.
Habit 5 suggests something different. Understanding.
Genuinely seeking to empathize and understand the other party's perspective. If you are applying Habit 4, seeking win/win outcomes, then Habit 5 is essential to knowing what equals a win for the opposite party.
“When we really, deeply understand each other, we open the door to creative solutions and third alternatives” (p. 259).
6. Synergize
“Synergy is the essence of principle-centered leadership… It catalyzes, unifies, and unleashes the greatest powers within people” (p. 262).
Habit 6 is cooperation. We are better when we work together than when we work alone.
The ultimate picture of this is Michael Jordan during the first several years of his career. Easily the best basketball player in the world, and yet, couldn't win a championship. Why? Because the Bulls hadn't yet become the best-synergized team.
Cooperation happens when the element or organization is functioning together toward the same Habit 3: Mission Statement. When the goal is united the other Habits will begin to fall in line with one another.
7. Sharpen the Saw
“Habit 7 is taking time to sharpen the saw. It surrounds the other habits on the Seven Habits paradigm because it is the habit that makes all the others possible” (p. 287).
Habit 7 could be called personal time, soul care, rejuvenation, personal reflection, or any other fill up your tank sort of analogies.
The idea is simple. If you keep using the same saw to cut wood, eventually the saw is going to get dull and be less effective. At some point, it will likely get stuck in a piece of wood or fail to finish its cut.
In order to keep the process going, you have to keep your saw sharp.
Covey offers four dimensions to consider: Physical, Mental, Social, Spiritual.
By keeping these four dimensions fruitful and filled you will directly enhance the ability for the other 6 Habits to move you toward your goals.
This is the quick meat of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Now I just want to conclude with one thought. A proverbial pebble in your shoe to irritate you a little.
I am going to make an assumption about you, that would be true of me and 25 million other people who bought this book.
Why do you want to be effective?
I turned 30 last week. A classic milestone for self-examination. I have been asking myself that same question. Why do I want to be effective? What am I really trying to accomplish? Who am I really trying to please or impress?
For the Christian, effectiveness is a dangerous idea. Because often it implies achieving some measure of worldly success independently of God. The word itself is not wrong, but I want to, and challenge you as well, to think about it theologically. What does it mean to be effective in view of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility?
Just a pebble for your shoe!
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.