Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” have truly changed my life in a positive way. Before starting to read the book, I thought I was going to find myself with one of those books with difficult concepts to understand and to relate with, however, from the beginning of the begging of the book I was able to connect myself to the author’s ideas. Reading about what the author and his wife were going through while they were raising their son was helpful to me, as Covey tells us, his book was inspired by a familiar crisis he and his wife were going through as they were raising their child. Their child was having a hard time keeping up academically and socially. The child was falling behind his classmates in most respects. The first thing the author, Covey and his wife, Sandra tried to do was to motivate his son, to reach such goal they employed phrases such as “that’s good son” “keep it up” however, Covey, soon realized that they were employing the wrong strategy, what they were doing wasn’t in harmony with the way they perceived their son. Consequently, they started to change themselves, they decided to focus on themselves rather than on their son, they gave up the idea of wanting to change their child, rather, they decided to start valuing their son’s uniqueness. The result of such new behavior adopted by Covey and his wife was a child who started to excel academically, as well as in other areas. Such introduction to the book led me to evaluate the way I was doing things at work. I used to be the typical employee who is complaining about his employer, I remember many times wishing to change many of the behaviors of my supervisors, this was the result of me disliking the fact the most of them never seemed to listen to the employees nor they seemed to know how to motivate the employees. I believed they were making a big mistake by failing to listen to employees, given that sometimes, employees can offer valuable feedback that could make a company more productive, effective and successful. However, as I was reading Covey’s introduction, I learned that I was making the same mistake that the author and his wife were making at the beginning when they were raising their son; I was focusing on others, rather than on myself. Covey made me realize that I can’t do anything about the behavior of others; however, what I can always do is change my own behavior and attitudes. Therefore, I’m not anymore the employee who wants to change his superiors’ behaviors, instead, I focus my energies on changing my behavior toward others, including improving my abilities related to listening, respecting, and appreciating other. The results of others towards my new behavior are somewhat varied; some behave the same way towards me as before, whereas others seem to appreciate my new behaviors and attitudes. Covey’s first habit teaches us about the Importance of being proactive. Proactive refers to look forward toward problems before they are over us. Being proactive also refers to offering something to somebody before it is needed. In other words, proactivity is about anticipating situations. Anticipation is defined as a preventive action rather than a corrective one. As Covey remarks, some people fail to be proactive, because they believe that their lives are controlled by genetic, physic or environmental forces. People who believe in the theory of genetic determinism have the notion that their nature is coded into their DNA, and as result their personality traits are inherited from their grandparents. Psychic determinism theory claims that our childhood determines our personal tendencies, causing that when we grow up our emotions and behaviors to be closely connected to our childhood. Finally, individuals who believe in environmental determinism have the idea that factors in their present environment are responsible for their situation, factors such as the national economy or the war in Iraq. As Covey teaches us, proactive people don’t blame any of those three forces for their misfortune. Proactive individuals are influenced by values that do not have anything to do with the weather or how they boss threat them. As Gandhi once said “they cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them” such quote reveals how important our response to the situations that we live every day is. In order to be successful proactive individuals we must make use of difficult situations not to feel sorry about us but to construct our character and develop the skills to better handle such situations in the future. I personally used to feel identified with the physic determinism theory, according to psychic determinism you’re who you’re as result of what your parents taught you, this was something very true in my case, most if not all the decisions I used to take on my daily basis were based on the values my parents taught me in my childhood. My parents taught me about the importance of getting a good education and therefore I decided to attend college, as the book states “your childhood experience essentially laid out your personal tendencies and your character structure” However, being identified with the physic determinism theory could also have negative effects on a person, in my case, I used to feel horrible whenever I made a mistake, this could be the result of my parents having been so severe on me when I was a child and made mistakes, they would punish me or they would as well compare me to my siblings. Being a person identified with the physic determinism theory, affected my performance at work, I used to be most of the time afraid of making any mistake at work given that I was afraid that my superiors would react in the same way my parents used to react, additionally, I had a hard time when a superior would correct me, as I associated such events to when my parents corrected me as a child which used to cause a lot of sadness and pain in my heart. Having such fear for criticism made me become a defensive person, I was constantly sensitive to criticism from my superiors or boss, I wasn’t able to understand that they were criticizing me in order for me to become a more effective employee, for instance, I remember feeling insulted every time a superior would tell me that I needed to improve at something. However, my attitude changed considerably ever since I started reading Covey’s first habit, reading such habit made me open my eyes and realize that I was being a victim because that’s what I had decided to do, I was allowing physic factors to control me. The decision I had made was causing a lot of disruption not only in my personal life but also in my professional life. I was falling to be a proactive person because I thought my life was managed by factors that I couldn’t control. Covey’s first habit explains how proactive individuals accept the fact that their behavior is a function of their decisions and not of their physic, environmental or genetic conditions. Therefore, we as individuals, as Gandhi did, have the liberty to choose our response to the adversities we face regardless of past experiences, inherited traits or the country’s currents circumstances. That’s what sets up apart from animals; we can choose how to respond to any stimulus. Hence, I started to change my attitude towards life and people; I made the commitment that I wasn’t going to allow anymore past memories to have a control on my present. Evidently , it wasn’t an easy task, I still haven’t been able to completely achieve such goal, it is difficult to get rid of memories that had always been with me ever since I was a child, however, last September, when I read for the first time Covey’s first habit, I decided to change my attitude towards everybody, including of course my superiors at work, I determined that I was going to be open to criticism and was going to make my best effort in order to not associate such criticism with past memories of my childhood. After about 3 months of practicing such habit I can say that I have done a pretty good job ,and the results have been what have encouraged me the most in order to continue with my goal, ever since I’ve been applying such new attitude at work, I have become a more effective employee, when my superior tells me to improve at something I don’t see it anymore as a critique but rather I see it as he giving me feedback, and as I have learned in the past months, in order to experience the consequences of my actions, I need to get information feedback regarding what those consequences are. If I don’t get feedback from my superiors there wouldn’t be no experience, no learning and no possibility of me becoming a better employee. Previously, when I used to allow my past memories to control me, I allowed not only those thoughts to control me, but also they controlled my frame of mind, whenever I received a positive feedback from an employee I was happy, however, if my superior told me something like “you need to improve in this area” I would get discouraged and would allow such feedback to control my frame of mind. Now, the feedbacks and critics I receive from my superiors don’t affect me anymore. I know have the ability to control feelings to values. Covey’s first habit also explains how there are many concerns in our lives; however, we cannot control all of them. As the author, Covey, explains, we can depict a circle and divide it into two areas: area of influence and area of concern. In order for us to be proactive individuals it is necessary to focus all our energy on the things over which we have influence. Three months ago, when I decided to draw for the first time my Circle of Concern - Circle of Influence, I was disappointed to find out that I was focusing my energies on things I couldn’t control. I was focusing my energies on worrying about things such as how I could change my boss or how I could get a wage increase. I don’t have the power to make those things happen, Covey helped me to understand that instead of focusing on things I couldn’t affect, I had to focus my energies on things I have control. Now instead of wishing a salary increase, I spend my mental energies on thinking how to become a better and more effective employee. Synthesizing, Covey’s first habit taught me about the importance of being in control of my feelings and decisions. Now I can choose what my life should be about. Life is not anymore “happening” . Something that has greatly helped to achieve my goal of becoming a proactive individual was the determination that I took of starting to talk as a proactive person, and as result I set my mind to take the required action, now instead of saying “if I had a degree I would be a more effective employee and therefore would receive more opportunities at work ” I now say “ I have the required tools to be an effective employee and to success at work” I was using the wrong kind of language, my language used to be characterized by phrases starting with --if I was, if only I had, if only my boss was more understanding - such language was realizing me from any responsibility, as Covey explains, such language has the only intention of driving responsibility away from us. However, in the process, such verbal communication is making us believe that we don’t have the power to chose our response and that the situation, or the environment or the other party is forcing us to react in such way. Covey’s second habit teaches the reader about the importance of “beginning with the end of mind” which means to start our goals with a clear and concise understanding of our destination, if we fail to follow such step our chances of being unhappy employees will increase. As Covey mentions, frequently people find themselves pursuing empty victories at the expense of things that were a lot more important, examples of this include politicians and athletes who spend their effort, time and energies on the pursue of higher salaries and more fame instead of focusing on building better relationships with their loved ones, at the end they realize they have being focusing their efforts on achieving the wrong goals. Covey explains that in order to successfully apply the Principe of “begin with the end” we must think in things that are authentic and represent what we want to achieve and not what others wants us to achieve. In order to do this, we must determine what’s our center, some people are money centeredness or spouse centeredness, what Covey recommend us is to find a balance between all our centers as this will leads us to our core of principles and values which we will base our mission statement. It is important to base our mission statement on our values, because our values never change, unlike our family or spouse who are subjected to changes. Covey’s second habit helped me to understand that I was failing to apply the principle of “begin with the end in mind” to my professional life, before of reading this habit, my personal goals at work included increasing my income and revenue, however, even though I had been able to achieve such goals, I wasn’t completely happy, however, after starting to read the second habit, I started to evaluate my goals at work, after doing such exercise I realized that I was pursuing the wrong kind of goals, such goals weren’t bringing any happiness into my life nor they were adding sense of purpose and fulfillment to my existence. However, I decided to change the goals I had set for myself at work, to do this, I started by writing my personal mission statement which is “l will seek to be a better employee each day, I will be a better listener and in this way I will understand better what my boss and customers want to get out of me. I will also learn to behave professionally do to this I will learn to communicate and address my colleagues with the proper respect due. I also promise to learn to take criticism more gracefully, I’m conscious that critiques will help me to understand what people expect from me and they will guide me to improve on my weak areas. I will also put a high emphasis on learning to do my job and in doing it well, no matter how difficult a task could be, I will make my best to learn how to do it, if I don’t know how to do something, I will go and find out without making any excuses for why I didn’t do it. I will also put my best efforts in order to cultivate an excellent relationship with the gatekeepers, I’m conscious that bookkeepers, secretaries and cafeteria workers play a very important role in the company I work for, I will treat these individuals with kindness, respect and courtesy because they deserve all that, because they hold more power than I realize and because my reputation with them matters. I will also take advantage of any opportunity which allows me to excel professionally, I will always be willing to learn a new skill, take a study course paid by my employee or receive a training for a different activity, taking advantage of these opportunities will be an excellent opportunity to show my boss my value for life long learning. I will also worry about keeping a clean job history, to do this; I’m going to do my job, to show up in time, and to keep a good attendance history. ” applying the previous mission statement into my working life has been a relative easy task given that it’s based on my principles and values, ever since I’ve been applying my mission statement at work, my employee satisfaction and productivity have increased considerably. To compose my personal mission statement for work, I also asked myself “how do I want to be remembered for at work” I certainly don’t want to be remembered as an ambitions employee who was only thinking in ways to increase his salary, I want to be remembered as an employee who always displayed qualities such as punctuality, a positive attitude toward work, initiative, motivation, ability to perform any assigned duty, and so on. Before of reading Covey’s second habit I used to be self-centered. I was a selfish employee who was only interested on ways of getting a salary increase, now, I try to be principle-centered, that is, I now make my best effort to apply to my life a variety of principles and not only a single principle. Doing such thing, allows me to be adaptable, sensitive and flexible. Now my goals, my direction on life, my destiny, what I want to do with my life are based on principles and truths that most probably will never change. I must say that this habit was somewhat easy to apply to my life because I don’t struggle with economic problems, if I had struggled with financial problems when I started applying this habit to my life, I don’t know if it had been easy for me to apply such habit to my working life.
Habit 3 educates the reader about the importance of applying the principle of “put things first” into our lives. In this chapter Covey introduces us with the tool of a 2*2 matrix. Such matrix illustrates the relationship between urgent and important things; and it symbolizes the way we are spending our time. Covey explains how most people have problems with time and life management because we are not able to prioritize, nor we are able to organize around our priorities, and finally, we lack the discipline required in order to execute our priorities. In Covey’s habit 3, we learn that effective people should try to focus on quadrant number 2 of the time management matrix; people who focus on the second quadrant are proactive people instead of reactive people. In order to be successful individuals we must be proactive. As covey explains, if we want to successfully apply this habit, we need to have first applied habit 1 and habit 2 to our lives. Habit 1 teaches us that we are in charge of our life’s destine, habit 2 helps to understand that all things are created twice, first there is a mental creation and then a physical, and then in his second habit, Covey proceeded to describe how the mental creation process works. In habit 3, we learn about the second creation, that is, the physical creation. This habit helps us to connect habits 1 and 2. The first thing I did as I started reading the third habit, was to establish how I was spending my time, by employing Covey’s 2*2 matrix, I found out that I was spending a considerable amount of my time in the wrong matrices. I was spending a great % of my time at work on activities related to quadrants I, and IV, for instance, I was spending several hours of my work daily schedule on things such as meeting deadline driven projects or making personal phone calls, by making a wrong use of my time, my life was becoming very stressful, I wasn’t able to manage my time in a proper way, additionally, I was becoming an irresponsible employee who was spending work time to do personal taks. When I elaborated my personal quadrant matrix time I found out that I wasn’t spending a considerable amount of my time at work in quadrant II. Therefore, I decided that I was going to follow Covey’s advice and was going to spend more time in quadrant II. To do so I wrote a list of the things I considered to be important and urgent on my professional life. This list included building strong relationships with my colleagues and superiors and fulfilling the demands of the customers. Applying these new objectives to my life was not easy, nor was it easy to forget about the activities of quadrant 1 and 4 where I was spending my time. In order to reach my goal, I imagined the efficient and productive employee I would turn into if I successfully applied those objectives to my life. The results so far have been encouraging, I still need to work to do better with my time management style, however, now I spend about 65% of my time in activities that are essential to the development of an effective employee. Spending most time in quadrant II activities has helped to increase my job satisfaction and performance at work. Having increased my job satisfaction has been very important to me, now my hours at work are filled with joy, and my life as well is filled with joy, now I feel good about my existence. As I go out to the movies I feel great about doing that, knowing that I’ve got a good work life, that I’ve earned my right to sit there and enjoy the movie. My increased job satisfaction has as well led to me doing better at work, some studies have revealed job satisfaction to be key in determining job performance, and this has indeed been my case, now that I’m an almost totally happy employee, I perform better than those colleagues of mine who seem to not be happy at work. The first time I read Covey’s habit 4 of “win- win” was in March of 2008 for a philosophy class. I was told to read such habit because we were learning about whether there is one universally correct moral code. We were examining four candidates to be the possible universally correct moral code: non-consequentialist codes: Intuitionism, Divine Command Theory, Golden Rule Theory, and Ethical Rationalism. I learned about the golden rule whose original origin is uncertain. It seems to have developed independently in different societies at different times in. Its most common formulation in English is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." That is, treat others the way you would like others to treat you. It calls for a moral agent to consider whether he would like to be the recipient of the action(s) he is proposing that others experience. Thus, for example, lying, stealing, killing can be judged as immoral since no one would like to be deceived, stolen from, or killed. Expressed thusly, the principle suggests appealing notions of empathy, fairness, and reciprocity. As I was being instructed about this principle I also learned about Covey’s Win-win principle, which shares several similarities with the golden rule. Covey explains how there are six paradigms which have an effect on how we interrelate with others, which in turn influences the way others interact with us. Some individuals operate under the paradigm of “win-lose” they violate the golden rule, they make use of their position, credentials, power or processions in order to win every time at the expense of other’s defeats. There are also individuals who operate on the “lose-win” paradigm, these kind of individuals don’t care about other individuals no putting into practice the golden rule when they interact with themselves. They mostly care about pleasing other people. There’s also the paradigm of “win-win” which is the one on which we are recommended to function. Having a win-win mentality it’s about developing a character based code for human interaction and cooperation. As Covey explains, we live in a world where people’s self esteem is based on comparisons and competition. Some people think that in order for them to succeed they need someone else to fail, that is, if I win, you lose or if you win I lose . However, the reality is that in order for us to be effective and happy employees we must see life as a cooperative arena instead of a competitive arena. As Covey puts it, under this paradigm “ We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good! ” in order to apply this parading to our lives we must apply the golden rule into our lives, If two parties are on opposite sides of an agreement and they want to reach a win-win outcome, they must apply the Golden Rule during negotiations. In particular, both parties must treat each other fairly and be completely sincere. Furthermore, they need to communicate openly and not withhold relevant information. There should be full disclosure of any facts relevant to the business deal. The moment I learned about Covey’s win-win paradigm I decided that I was going to apply it in all areas of my life, and that evidently included to apply it at work, at that time, in March of 2008 I was working as manager at a local supermarket (HEB) at that time I wasn’t getting along with my staff, I had done my best to improve the relationship with my employees but I was failing, I was trying tactics such as keeping a positive attitude , showing respect to my employees, inviting some of my employees to lunch , but none of those tactics gave me any result. My employees still seemed to not being comfortable with my presence. When I read covey’s habit of “win-win” I evaluated myself to see on what paradigm I was operating at work, and for my dissatisfaction I was working on the paradigm of “win-lose” however I think I was operating on such parading not because of my power or credentials, but because I was new at that position, I had been promoted to manager a few months ago and wasn’t familiarized with such environment. I thought being a manager was about making all the decisions and controlling everything, however, I was wrong, after my self-evaluation and also with the help of a colleague, I discovered that I was abusing of my power, I wasn’t keeping in mind my staff’s opinion when it came to taking decisions, I wasn’t consulting them regarding issues such as downsizing or layoffs, my solutions and my tactics were failing to involve all my employees in the problem solving process, therefore, I was failing to get their best thinking and responsibility. So, what I did was to start communicating with my employees in a way that I let them know that I cared about their input and opinions, it took me some time getting used to this management style, but ever since I’ve been interested in both my employees and I to win, our relationships changed considerably. They didn’t seem anymore to feel uncomfortable when I was around; we were now a team, working together towards a same goal. At my next work at Burger King, also as a manager, I was pretty successful because now I was making my best effort to operate on the win-win paradigm, and if it wasn’t possible to reach a win-win resolution, then, there wasn’t any deal. At Burger King I was expected to influence employees’ behavior through motivation, communication, group dynamics, discipline and leadership. As a manager, I remember myself several times correcting my employees, they didn’t like to be corrected, however, they appreciated being corrected in a polite way, they knew they were new employees and therefore needed a training. This way, we were creating a win-win relationship, they were being benefited because of my knowledge and instructions and I was being benefited because of their cooperation and hard-work. They also appreciated the fact that I cared about their opinions, input and feedback when it came to take important decisions. The next chapter that I found to be the most inspiring and more influential on me was the last one, which is titled “Sharpen the saw” in this habit, Covey teaches the reader how a balanced renewal of our four dimensions creates the ideal of optimal synergy. Covey uses the analogy “sharpen the saw” to explain that if we are sawing wood, we must sharpen the saw on a regular basis. Otherwise, we would be working very hard, sweating in large amounts, but we wouldn’t be cutting as much wood as we should. This habit allowed me to understand that I had a wrong notion about what “sharpening the saw” meant. Sometimes, when I was feeling stressed at work as result of too much work, and consequently my productive started to decline, I decided that make use of my vacation time to take a break from work, however by doing that, I wasn’t sharpening my saw, I was just putting my saw down. In his seventh habit, Covey reveals that in order to be more effective workers, we must constantly renew our four dimensions of nature, they are: physical, spiritual, mental and social/mental. By us renewing ourselves in those four areas, we are creating growth and changing in our lives. Sharpening our saw allows us to increase our capacity to produce and handle changes around us. Covey explains how every-day provides us with an opportunity to recharge ourselves. All it takes is willing, knowledge and skill. In order to renew ourselves we must be proactive. Additionally, we must work in our quadrant II, furthermore, we will be working in our circle of influence, and so, we must do it for ourselves. The author explains how in order for self renewal to be successful it must be balanced in all four areas – spiritual, mental, physical and social/mental, ignoring any of these dimensions will negatively affect the others. However, if we keep a balance, the things we do to sharpen the saw in any area will have a positive influence in the other areas, given that they are so strongly interrelated. The first of the dimensions that Covey mentions is that of physical, under this dimension, Covey explains how essential is to be engaged in any physical activity for health, energy and a sense of well being. To renew our physical dimension, Covey suggests engaging in some sort of exercise, doing so, will helps us to feel better, healthier and our body will become more efficient at processing oxygen which is primordial to energy.
The spiritual dimension is extremely important because it gives meaning and purpose to our lives, as Covey clarifies, we don’t need to be religious individuals in order to renew our spiritual dimension. For religious people, their spirituality will be closely connected to their religion; however, non religious people can renew their spirituality by engaging in activities such as yoga. The third dimension of Covey is related with our mind, the mental dimension, as Covey points out, most of us experienced our mental growth through a formal education, unfortunately, once we achieved our high school or college diploma we let our minds deteriorate. Surveys indicate that in most American homes the television is on from 35 to 45 hours a week. Covey remind us to not let our minds atrophy, to reach this goal we must make time out of our busy agendas to read, write or any other activity that would help our mental dimension to expand. The last dimension is the “social-emotional”. This dimension invites the reader to focus and exercise her/his interaction with others. I started reading Covey’s seventh about 3 weeks ago, therefore, I haven’t had enough time to put this habit into practice, however, for the last few weeks I have tried to renew myself in the four dimensions mentioned by Covey. The first thing that I did was to evaluate myself. In my personal evaluation, I found out that I wasn’t renewing myself as I should, I was failing to renew myself in the dimensions related to my spirituality and mental . However, I was doing a good job with the dimensions associated with physical and social /emotional. I have always been in love with sports, I love to work out, and this helps me to be do good at my work, businesses want to have a good financial health, therefore, if employees are in a good state of health this will contribute to a company’s successful performance given that healthy and fit workers are indispensable to ensuring a company remains efficient and profitable. If an employee is healthy s/he does not ask for sick days frequently, furthermore, h/she feels good about himself/herself and this leads to increased productivity. Regarding my social/emotional dimension, I try to keep a good relationship with my colleagues and superiors. Even though I was excelling in two of the dimensions that Covey mentions, I was not making the grade with the other two dimensions, and as Covey mentions, it is important to keep a balance between the four dimensions, however, I started to devise ways that could help me to improve on the dimensions I was failing to dedicate time. In order to improve my mental dimension at work, I have become conscious of the importance of my mental development. Even though I was enrolled in some online courses, I did it because my parents or my employer told me to do so, however, Covey has helped me to understand how important is to focus on my mental progress, to reach this goal, I’m now educating myself by reading or watching educational television programs. Now I’m conscious that the more I understand about how business operates and what is going on in the world, the more effective I will be as employee. Now I’m also acquiring and practicing effective communication skills such as good expression skills and good listening skills. I’m also focusing on improving my writing skills, furthermore, I’m working on my non verbal communication, I’m now paying more attention to my nonverbal transmitters such as eye contact, body moment or the tone of my voice. Furthermore, I intend to learn a new software application, as technology moves into more areas of work, I will need to understand the importance of being skilled in computers, the more comfortable I am with computers, the better I will perform. Covey has helped me to understand that I must not wait for my employer to train me. I now realizing that I must take control of my own career and personal development and must take advantage of courses at my local community college. Developing my mental skills is important not only because I don’t want my mind to atrophy but also because as the workplace becomes more complex and fast paced, these skills will become even more important. If I develop good communication and human relation skills and I will become a more valuable employee and that will lead to reduce stress, both mine and that of those around me. In order to improve my spiritual dimension I now everyday make time to meditate alone and to talk with God. Even though I go to church, I don’t feel doing so has helped me to be an spiritual person, I believe that this is the hardest of Covey’s dimensions to achieve successfully, but I know that once I sharp my spiritual dimension I will have clarity, purpose, clear mind and a motivation to work, all this will help me to value my job. Covey’s seventh habit has been very helpful in order to become a more productive employee. As covey points out, highly effective people always take time to sharpen the saw. Sharpening the saw is essential and best of all, all of us are in conditions to do it, we don’t need to spend a lot of money, time or energy in order to do it, with easy tips we can renew ourselves. Now I try to make my best effort to engage in activities that will help me to improve in my four dimensions. When I feel exhausted with work, instead of asking for vacation time to do nothing at home, I now ask to be sent to a weekend seminar, by doing so, when I come back to work I will be rejuvenated with lots of energy and motivation. In conclusion, Covey’s habits have contributed to me becoming a better employee; they have helped me to review my life choices and to make important alterations in my work life that will lead to me being a more happier and efficient worker. This book has introduced me to important principles which have taught me to explore myself and the way I interact with my colleagues and superiors at work; this has resulted on me improving my work habits. I found Covey’s seven habits for highly efficient people to be inspiring and refreshing.