What are key takeaways from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Takeaway #1 Locate Your Current Position Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University at the time of his death. Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people. Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. If not, please do give a feedback on how my future posts can be improved :) Either way, thank you for reaching the end of this post, and please follow my account as I'll be continuing this series.Who is the Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? If you have found value in this blog, please give an upvote as to help create quality posts in the future. Covey describes the seven habits as principle-centered, character-based, inside-out approach.
Next chapter, we will have an overview of the seven habits. "Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value." Thank you! A criminal organization has a set of values too but violates the principles that we value. According to Covey, "while practices are, principles are deep, fundamental truths that have universal application." These are not values either. Like the lighthouse, we center our paradigms on natural laws that can never be broken, or principles. This is a classic example of a paradigm shift, where we challenge old beliefs to discover a better perception in life. Change course 20 degrees.”īack came the flashing light, “I’m a lighthouse.” “You had better change course 20 degrees.”īy that time, the captain was furious. “I’m a seaman second class,” came the reply. The captain said, “Send, I’m a captain, change course 20 degrees.” The captain then called to the signalman, “Signal that ship: we are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees.”īack came a signal, “Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.” Lookout replied, “Steady, captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship. “Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain called out. Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.” The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. Reality: The way things are Values: The way things should be Paradigm shift towards a principle-centered paradigmĬonsider this story narrated by Frank Koch that was featured in a Naval Institute's magazine, Proceedings: Paradigms are only models of the real thing, but it is critical that you have the right model! Imagine using the map of Chicago to navigate the city of Detroit! No matter how much we change our behavior or attitude, without the correct paradigms we would be lost. To further understand paradigms, these are similar to maps. This is the way we see the world around us. In developing primary greatness, it begins with the mindset - or a paradigm. Developing primary greatness first might take more resources, but it pays off in the long run.
We all know having secondary greatness does not entail having primary greatness, but without primary greatness, one uses secondary greatness for the wrong motives, hence, being manipulative instead of being effective.
Primary greatness is described as the goodness of character while secondary greatness refers to having great social skills, knowledgeable in human interactions, influential. GreatnessĬovey explains the lesson further using primary and second greatness. Painful problems are usually fruits of our actions, and actions are a fruit of our character. We must first focus on the things that we can control. The surfacing lesson in this chapter is that the key to achieving goals that are out of reach is to win from within. This book provides step-by-step actions we can take to achieve holistic effectiveness. Published in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-help book written by Stephen Covey that has helped shape leaders all around the globe with 25 million copies sold and translated to 38 different languages.