7 Habits of Highly Successful People Book Project 1. At the beginning of the class my management philosophy was something I felt was successful based on your skills, experience, and attitude within a corporate environment. The author Stephan Covey states that “Personality Ethic” was something that “Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction” that “this philosophy was expressed in inspiring and sometimes maxims such as Your attitude determines your altitude”.

My reasoning for agreeing with this concept was due to my 20 plus years in corporate America dealing with various forms of management personalities. During my experiences I encountered managers what I’ve put in categories as: okay, good, great, dysfunctional, bad, and horrible. The horrible bosses range from a manager I previously had who had been arrested and charged for embezzlement, to supervisors who discussed employees company personal business during lunches. I have had supervisors who were unqualified with no college education experience nor prior knowledge of the job, to a Department manager who had worked her way up the ladder with only an high school education but was extremely knowledgeable and was hands down the best manager I have ever had. I was unfortunate enough to encounter a manager with various degrees and credentials but he had the worst management interpersonal skills I have ever encountered thus far.

These have all been experiences that have formed my preconceived notions of what type of manager I would one day like to be. I now understand from those experiences that it’s not just education and knowledge of the job that makes a successful manager. These things are of the utmost importance, but it takes much more than these things to make successful relationships with employees and to motivate them to do their jobs effectively.

2. I now feel that since taking this class and reading the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephan Covey that I have had a slightly naïve concept of what management philosophy should be on a day to day basis in order to make environment productive. The author states that “ elements of the Personality Ethic-personality growth, communication skills training, and education in the field of influence strategies and positive thinking are not beneficial, in fact sometimes essential for success”. The author believes that they are secondary traits, not primary.

Covey suggests that “in utilizing our human capacity to build on the foundation of generations before us, we have inadvertently become so focused on our own building that we have forgotten the foundation that holds it up; or in reaping for so long where we have not sown, perhaps we have forgotten the need to sow. The author states that if we use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what we want, to work better and to be more motivated to like me and each other “while my character is fundamentally flawed” this is the behavior that inspires employees the feeling of being manipulated and generates a feeling of resentment and distrust. One must be genuine in their dealings to get respect from employees.

3. In the Primary and Secondary Greatness section of the inside-out chapter the author talks about the reaping what you sow. In management if I were to see that an employee was really wanting to progress within the department, I would encourage them to learn various functions with training. This will help them recognize that I am in fact aware of their desire to grow as well as satisfying the departmental need for having individuals to be cross-trained on interdepartmental work responsibilities. In the event of a future position within the department that would open up the employee who has already been trained on the position and increases their chance of obtaining the position.

The author states that if the price is paid and the process followed that “you always reap what you sow”. Many managers and supervisors want to promote interdepartmentally however, because they are only focused on surviving the day to day run of the department they don’t spend the time on developing the talents that they recognize in some of their subordinates. Then when a position opens within the department they have to hire from outside the department or company to fill the position that employees within the department may desire. This makes the employees feel stagnated with no possibility of growth which inspires the attitude of only doing the bare minimum.

4. There are many reasons why a manager when making a promise should do everything within his or her power to keep that promise. Take a manager who has a large, time consuming, and extremely urgent project due and assigns it to an employee who they know will do an outstanding job on it, and promises to give a large bonus at the completion of the project. This task alone gives the employee a sense of what Chapter 1 in the textbook labels as empowerment. If at the completion of the project the manager tells the employee there’s no funds in the budget to get the employee the promised bonus. This inspires extreme resentment from the employee who will feel used by the manager who wanted look good to upper management using the employees work.

The author speaks about proactive people who “focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase”. A manager should never make a promise such as a bonus or a promotion without verifying with upper management and human resources that commitment can be met prior to making the promise. Then they can actually say to the employee they are promising the reward to “I have received approval from upper management to offer you ______”. Then in the event the promise does not play as promised then they can try to see if they can get some type of secondary reward to at least show the employee that they had the best intention when making the offer. This can help the employee understand that you as a manager do appreciate them and the work that they do and will help the employee feel valued and appreciated.

As an employee I have had many unfulfilled promises made by managers who seemed to have the best intentions with promises of some form of compensation or promotions. Then when they failed because “the powers that be” stated that for some form of reason it could not be kept the manager had no more than “I’m sorry, and I tried”. I always felt that there could have been more done to compensate me. This class has opened my eyes to various ways the situation could have been handled from the promising manager’s position. Since a promotion nor compensation had no longer been an option, at the annual review evaluation time the manager could have adjusted their budget for increases to give me a significant increase. Although understanding this would affect the other employees bonus increases, to show that it was truly some form of remorse involved that this attempt at rectification showed how much the manager valued what I had accomplished. When I’m a manager, and if every in this type of situation I now feel prepared due to this class in which I now have the necessary tools to help guide me in being a successful manager who is valued by my employees.

5. The habit that I found would help me involving others in finding a solution is number 4. Covey states there are various leadership styles that could either help a manager get the best work qualities out of his or her employees or the worst. I think the most productive would be the win/win alternative for using employees to help complete or solve a problem. If the employee feels that they are winning as well as their manager or supervisor, they will more than likely put more effort into a solution. Chapter 5 mentions that an employee help would be assisting with a non-programmed decision making situation, which could be something outside of the normal work routine. Chapter 6 refers to this as a single-use plan. A reward such as a bonus or maybe even a day off could inspire the employee to put more than their general work effort toward the successful completion of a problem or project.

The problem generally arises when employees see the situation as a win/lose situation. This alternative is common with the authoritarian approach which the author states “I get my way; you don’t get yours”, is these managers mentality. He also indicates that “Win/Lose people are prone to use position, power, credentials, possession, or personality to get their way”. This makes the employees feel like they are nothing more than a number doing a job and inspires them to put out less effort toward the completion of the job because there’s nothing they feel to gain by being an over-achiever. The worst part about these types of situations is that employees feel majorly undervalued and unappreciated. It can make them feel trapped if they don’t have the skills to move around in the company, and they start to feel extreme resentment towards the manager who seems to be enjoying his position with certain benefits that his or her subordinates are not entitled to.

I have seen in my experience employees who seemed to hate their supervisor or manager because they treated them with no respect intentionally sabotage their work performance to intentionally cause the management harm which in turn affected the company overall. As a manager I would do more than find some type of physical compensation to reward employees for doing work outside of their regular work duties, I would also take an interest in who they are and hope to become and see if there is something I could do to assist.

6. As a future manager I think that the hardest obstacle I might encounter would be the Win/Win or No Deal alternative that the author mentions. Covey states that “No Deal basically means that if we can’t find a solution that would benefit us both, we agree to disagree agreeably – No Deal, No expectations have been creating, no performance contracts established. In my opinion this would be more in the case he mentions of agreeing not to hire someone because it is not beneficial to all parties involved. This is great in some business situations as well as personal situation.

There is however as huge lapse in how this can be applied in a manager – employee relationship where the employee will be mandated to do something that won’t be beneficial to him nor the manager but it is beneficial to the company. There will be many situations in which this is the case and the manager in most cases has to wear the “bad guy” label. Many employees have a hard time dealing with these types of situations and it does hinder the personal relationships with the managers that have to be put in the situations to enforce the work to be done.

Unfortunately, it is widely known that in most business environments depending on how well company goals are met with a successful profit managers generally receive an annual bonus in addition to their salary. It’s viewed by employees that managers automatically have the win/win advantage because of the automatic bonus potential. So the manager will have to find ways to help the employees feel valued in other ways so they don’t look like the “bad guy”, who cares only for him or herself.

7. In reviewing the habits mentioned in this book, I have found that the most meaningful to me is Habit 2. Habit 2 according to the author is the first or mental creation (imagination). The author states that this habit has “the ability to envision, to see the potential, to create with our minds what we cannot at present see with our eyes; and conscience – the ability to detect our own uniqueness and the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which we can most happily fulfill it. It’s the deep contact with our basic paradigms and values and the vision of what we can become”.

In my opinion if you have no imagination, you literally are just existing and going through life on a hamster wheel. This applies in a corporate environment as well, which is why each company has a mission statement as well as visions. This is something that they are or should be striving towards. Imagination leads to the critical review that takes most companies back to their original drawing boards where they evaluate who they are and what goals do they want to achieve. As a manager, this habit should also be applied toward the employees they are responsible for. If they are encouraged to envision and understand that they are valuable to the company and that without their hard work and support the goals of the company could not be met. Managers can encourage this by every year sitting down with their employees maybe during annual reviews and addition to evaluating their performance finding out their aspirations within the company and setting some type of plan to help aid the employee in gaining the necessary qualifications needed to fulfill the requirements for what it is that they want. This act alone will make the employee feel that their manager values who they are as a person as well as an employee.

This was something that I have learned from this class. I always felt that the evaluation process was always a reason for management to get the last 10 year standard line in majority line in most businesses “You done such a great job and I appreciate what you’ve done all year, and unfortunately the companies not giving out more than a 5% increase across the board to employees with your evaluation status. I really wish I had the room to give you more”. This was tolerable for the first 2 years, but I always felt that if I had truly been valuable there were other ways this could have been shown. This class has given me some tools that I know once I get back into corporate America, will aid me in being a very successful manager with what I hope will be happy employees.

8. In reviewing the habits mentioned in this book, in my opinion I have found that Habit 7 is the least meaningful to me. The author states that “Habit 7 is taking the 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”. The reason I feel that this is the least meaningful is because it could be pretty hard trying to incorporate each and every one of the first six habits into everyday managing practices. There is too much emphasis placed on profit in corporation head who are more interested in making sure that the bottom line profit numbers are being met.

As a manager, making the company’s set goals for their responsible profit will be the most important thing to them because it affects their job security. The habit skill are necessary, and need to be mandated in every business since but time factor can be a major concern. It will take quite a bit of time to master the first six habits before you make it to the 7th in order to sharpen the skills needed to perform what’s required by the 7th. According to Covey he had done various research and through years of personal interactions in order to get the concepts in order. The understanding of the first habit which states that “You’re the creator. You are in charge”, will take time to learn how to apply without coming off as if you are an authoritarian personality. This is just one example of how each and one of these habits will require a total rewiring of one interpersonal skills to be an effective manager according to Covey’s interpretation. The author states that by incorporating these skills can “sometimes be a painful process’. 9. I have really enjoyed reading this book. I found the book very informative and knowledgeable in helping individuals improve their interpersonal skills. These skill and habits are great but in my opinion can be extremely hard to follow on an everyday basis. Human interaction is hands down the foremost important skill that a manager should have need to work on every single day, however with heavy workloads and strict deadlines the necessity for improving manager employee relationships seems to take a back seat in most corporations.

Managers focus more on producing what is necessary to turn a profit and in many situations become so goal driven that they unknowingly show and or have a lack of value of the employees needs besides a paycheck. Unfortunately, this happens due to the overall company goals in most American companies that focus more on the bottom line profit. This places great stress on majority of the managers in our society, who understand that if the bottom line profit margin is not reached that their job status with the organization could and would be affected. So in some individual lives it would be helpful but maybe not so practical.

The author gave excellent personal references in regard to his personal life with regards to how he saw the flaws in his relationship with his son. He was able to be a better parent by applying some of the habits he wrote of in this book. He mentioned that his original Personality and Character Ethics made his “social comparison motives out of harmony with our deeper values and could lead to conditional love and eventually to our son’s lessened sense of self-worth”. He realized that “Instead of trying to change him, we tried to stand apart – to separate us from him – and to sense his identity, individuality, separateness, and worth”. This inspired his new understanding of Personality Ethic which he states there are “two paths: one human and public relations techniques, and the other which is positive metal attitude (PMA).