▷ The 7 habits of highly effective people

How to apply the 7 habits of highly effective people

The main objective of Covey’s work is to show readers how to lead an organization or a family based on principles that are valid for all religions and ethical systems. It is one of the most influential books on business management of all time.
In general, proactivity should be valued positively in companies, since a person with these characteristics demonstrates greater personal freedom. On the opposite side are reactive people, those who depend on external factors and the behavior of others towards them in order to feel and act in one way or another.
A good way to understand our own degree of proactivity is to become aware of what our concerns are at all levels, and act on those over which we can really have control by resolving them with our influence. This is what Covey calls the “circle of worry”.
In this habit we work on a series of principles linked to personal leadership. To start practicing it, it is necessary to visualize how we would like the people around us to see us if one day we disappear. What would they say? What have we contributed to them? With this exercise we can come to understand what our destiny is, and if we are taking the right steps to reach it.

The 7 habits of highly effective people amazon

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-help book written by Stephen Covey and first published in 1989. It has since sold more than 25 million copies in 52 languages.[1] The book essentially lists thirty-three habits and behaviors.
In essence, the book lists thirty-two principles of action, which, once established as habits, will help the reader achieve a high level of effectiveness in all relevant aspects of his or her life. The book is divided into three sections, each with chapters related to the seven habits. Covey argues that these habits are based on principles of “character ethics,” which are timeless, universal and self-evident. The author focuses on the principles as the essence of the process.
Since 1991 on Publishers Weekly’s weekly bestseller list and often topping it, this undisputed bestseller deserved an update, and that is what its author has done with this new edition: the overall structure is unchanged, as it would have been absurd, given its high degree of effectiveness, only expanded, extended into new themes and details that the reader will no doubt appreciate. The general starting point, then, remains the same: the inescapable fact that almost everyone senses that his or her behavior, both at work and in private life, could be improved in many respects, but few know how to achieve it.

7 habits for success

But what was the book really about? And are the seven habits of highly effective people that Covey laid out in his book still relevant in a fast-paced world that has already heard too many productivity mantras?
Let’s start by reviewing the basis of his book. Covey presupposes that highly productive and efficient people who are able to manage time and prioritize each task resort to seven basic habits to coordinate everything. The 7 habits of highly effective people are:
When you visualize the end goal, you end up with a strategic vision for yourself or for the organization. Every project, rather, every individual task you work on now must be oriented and move you toward that goal. “Is this important, will this get me closer to the goal?” Otherwise, you will be wasting time doing something that will lead you somewhere other than that ultimate goal.
An important step in setting goals is to be clear about the values you stand for, because that which is the center of your life will be the source of your security and your power. However, sometimes this knowledge can lead to paradigm shifts. Because you will inevitably find ineffective “scripts”, those integrated habits that are not oriented with what you really value (for example, eating fast food on the way home, when you say you value healthy living), which means having to reorient what you do with what you truly value. This is a process Covey calls “rewriting the script” and is part of the paradigm shift, of using imagination to visualize the ideal future, as well as rearranging habits and actions to promote that goal.

Leader summaries

The method of Stephen R. Covey, the so-called American Socrates, is clear, accurate and effective: a course divided into seven stages that the reader must assimilate and put into practice on his own, adapting them to his personality and applying them freely in all areas of business life.
The method of Stephen R. Covey, the so-called American Socrates, is clear, accurate and effective: a course divided into seven stages that the reader must assimilate and put into practice on his own, adapting them to his personality and applying them freely in all areas of business life.
Stephen R. Covey (Salt Lake City, 1932) author of the best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, published in 1989, translated into 38 languages and sold 15 million copies worldwide, and considered the most important and influential business management book of the 20th century. A graduate in business administration from the University of Utah, Covey earned a master’s degree from Harvard University. In the nineties, he set up the Covey Leadership Center in Utah, from where courses are programmed and companies from more than 123 countries are advised. It is a center specialized in business management and oriented towards productivity and time management. Currently the center is part of the FranklinCovey Co. Stephen R. Covey is the author of 7 management titles, four of which have sold more than one million copies each.