The Eight Habits of Highly

Effective People

Based on the work of Stephen Covey:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People
The 8th Habit
The presentation at a glance
 Important to be effective; effectiveness can be learnt
 Focus on developing character, not personality.
 Habits shape us, so adopt productive habits.
 Build trust in relationships.
 Balance the different roles.
 Allot time to attend fairly to the various responsibilities and
relationships.
 Think positive and show empathy
 Rejuvenate yourself

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Effective Habits

Knowledge
(what to, why to)

HABITS
Skills Desire
(how to) (want to)

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The Eight Habits of Highly Effective
People
1. They take initiative. (“Be Proactive”)
2. They focus on goals. (“Begin with the End in Mind”)
3. They set priorities. (“Put First Things First”)
4. They only win when others win. (“Think Win/Win”)
5. They communicate. (“Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
Understood”)
6. They cooperate. (“Synergize”)
7. They reflect on and repair their deficiencies. (“Sharpen the Saw”)
8. They find their voice and help others find theirs.

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Character vs. Personality
 Much of the business success literature of recent decades has
focused on developing a good personality.
 Developing a sound character is more important.
 Character lays the basic foundation.
 Personality can emerge naturally when character is rooted in and
formed by principles.
 Forceful display of a personality that is inconsistent with our
character is like wearing a mask. It is deceptive, manipulative and
ultimately destructive.

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Basic Principles
 Certain basic principles and values make people more effective.
 They are fairness, equity, integrity, honesty, human dignity and
worth, excellence, a spirit of service, patience, perseverance,
caring, courage, encouragement and positive thinking.
 The person whose character grows from these classic principles is a
true leader who can inspire and help others.
 Character is habit.

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Habit 1: “Be Proactive”
 Responsibility = Ability + choose a Response
 Proactive people DON’Ts:
 blame, accuse, behave like victims, pick on other people’s
weaknesses, complain about uncontrollable factors (e.g. weather).
 Proactive people DOs:
 Recognize and acknowledge their mistake, correct it if possible,
and LEARN from it.

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Proactive Focus

CIRCLE OF
INFLUENCE

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Proactive Model

Freedom
Stimulus to Response
Choose

Self- Independent
Awareness Will

Imagination Conscience

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BE PROACTIVE I can forgive,
forget,
and let go of
past injustices
I choose my
attitude,
emotions,
and moods

I’m the
creative
force of my
I’m aware life
that I’m
responsible

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Habit 2: “Begin with the End in
Mind”
 Plan well. “Measure twice, cut once.”
-carpenter’s rule
 Identify your center -Have clear understanding of our desired
direction & destination.
 What is your center? What determines your mood?
 A Principle Centre – Do not change, dependable.
 Find out your principle – What do you want people to think, imagine,
and remember of who you are?
 Visualization and Affirmation – When there is a doubt, visualize to
understand the situation.
 Identify Roles and Goals.

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Habit 2 Begin with the End in
Mind
Steps to be taken.
 Set goals. You can’t get where you want to go, if you don’t know where
you are going.
 Make some goals very reachable (“just let me get through this day
without hurting some one”)
 Make some goals require work and effort. These are the ones that will be
remembered and rewarded.
 Institutions have mission statements, offices have mission statements.
What is your mission statement?
 Mission statements and goals can apply to a short term project, a career,
or your lifetime.

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Habit 3: “Put First Things
First”
 Quadrant 1 (Urgent and Important)
 Stress, burn-out, inability to manage time.
 Quadrant 2 (Not Urgent but Important)
 Weekly Organizing – Plan weekly.
 Look into your roles and goals
 assign activities throughout the week
 Quadrant 3 (Urgent but not Important)
 Short-termism, loss control, feeling of being victim.
 Quandrant 4 (Not urgent and not Important)
 Irresponsibility, dependency.
 Say “No” to activities in Quadrants 3 and 4.

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 Urgent Not Urgent

I II
. Crisis . Preparation
Important
. Pressing problems . Prevention
. Deadline-driven . Values
projects, clarification
meetings, . Planning
preparations . Relationship
building
. True re-creation
. Empowerment
III IV
Not Important

. Interruptions, . Trivia, busywork

some . Some phone calls
phone calls . Time wasters
. Some mail, some . “Escape”
reports activities
. Some meetings . Irrelevant mail
. Many proximate, . Excessive TV
pressing matters
. Many popular 7 + 8 habits 14
activities
Habit 4: “Think
Win/Win”
 Occurs when there is a cooperation not competition.
 Agreements and solutions mutually beneficial and satisfying.
 Based on Abundance Mentality – there is plenty for everyone.
 Unlimited possibilities for growth and development
 One person’s success is not achieved without others.
 Understand and seeks a win/win solution

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 High
CONSIDERATION
Lose/Win Win/Win

Lose/Lose Win/Lose
Low

Low COURAGE High

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Habit 5: “Seek First to Understand,
Then to Be Understood”
 Diagnose before you prescribe.
 Hearing but ignoring
 Pretending to listen (“Yes”, “Oh”, “I see..”)
 Selective listening (Choose only what we want to hear)
 Attentive listening, without evaluation
(taking lecturer notes)
 Emphatic listening (with intent to understand the other party) -
DON’T think of how you are going to respond when listening.
 The more deeply we understand other people, the more we
appreciate them, the more reverent we feel about them.

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Habit 6: “Synergize”
 Two parties, each with different agenda, value one another’s
different.
 Clone or try to stereotype other.
 1+1 = 3 or more.
 This is teamwork!!!
 Possibility of getting Third Alternative.

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Levels of Communications

High
Synergistic (Win/Win)

TRUST
Respectful (Compromise)

Defensive (Win/Lose or Lose/Win)

Low

Low High
COOPERATION

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Habit 7: “Sharpen the Saw”

 Continuous improvement.
 Keeping the balance of P (Production) and PC (Production
capability).
 Production – “Sweep the floor”
 Production capability – “Keep the place clean”
 Metaphor:
 Woodcutter painfully saw down a tree
 Saw need sharpening
 “I can’t stop – I’m too busy sawing down the tree”

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Four Dimensions of Renewal
PHYSICAL
Exercise,
Nutrition,
Stress
Management

MENTAL SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
Reading, Service, Empathy,
Visualizing, Synergy, Intrinsic
Planning, Writing Security

SPIRITUAL
Value Clarification
& Commitment,
Study
& Meditation

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The Upward Spiral

Commit Learn Do
Commit
Do
Learn

Do Commit

Learn
Do
Commit
Learn

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Habit 8 : “Finding your voice and
helping others find theirs.”
 “Voice” is the unique personal significance each of us offers, and
can bring to bear at work.
 The 8th habit is all about moving from effectiveness to greatness
 Two key components
 A) Finding our unique voice (means to fulfil our innate potential).
 B) Inspire others to find their voices (means to recognize, respect and
create meaningful opportunities for others)

 A) Finding our voice, involves the four elements of a whole

person: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) heart, and (4) spirit.

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Habit 8 : “Finding your voice and
helping others find theirs.”
 (1) Mind = Vision
 When the mind is fully developed we gain vision, the ability to discern the
highest potential in people, institutions, causes and enterprises.
 (2) Body = Discipline
 We need discipline to transform vision into reality. Discipline comes by
combining vision and commitment.
 (3) Heart = Passion
 When we develop a wise heart we will feel the passionate fire of
conviction, the flame that sustains the discipline needed to achieve the
vision.
 Passion flows from finding and using our unique voice to accomplish
great things.
 (4) Spirit = Conscience
 Developing our mental identity will lead us toward knowing the right fork
in the road, toward an inward moral compass that will guide us.

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 Habit 8 : “Finding your voice and
helping others find theirs.”
 Express your Voice > Need
Needs building capabilities in these four
dimensions
Your Talents
 (1) Vision > being able to see a
Conscience Voice future state in your mind’s eye
before it materializes in the flesh
Passion  (2) Discipline > which is effectively
willpower embodied
 (3) Passion > the unrelenting drive
which comes from the heart.
 (4) Conscience > your moral
sense of what’s right and what’s
wrong

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 Habit 8 : “Finding your voice and
helping others find theirs.”
 B) Inspire other to find their
voices
 Focus Modeling
 Expand your influence
Your
 Be trustworthy Pathfinding
Organization’s
 Build trust Empowering Voice
 Blend other’s voices
 Create a common vision Aligning
 Execution
 Align goals and systems
 Empower others

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Habit 8 : “Finding your voice and
helping others find theirs.”
 Four disciplines to close the gap between focus and execution
for organization
 Always focus on the one thing that is wildly important (use the
importance screen + a stakeholder screen + strategic screen)
 Create a compelling scoreboard everyone will want to use
 Translate lofty goals into very specific actions
 Hold each other accountable for results all the time

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Personal Immune
System
Time Duplicit
wasters Live the Seven y
Habits
Spend time Maintain
in Quadrant reserve
Interrupti II capacity Unkindn
ons Be ess
Follow resilient
correct Empower
principles and
Pressin Control own
serve Violated
g others
Communica expectat
life te
proble ions
Maintain high Empathicall
ms y
Synergize with
Emotional
Bank others using a
Crise Account with win-win Outside
s self approach stress
and others and
pressures

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