7 Habits Of Highly Effective People By Stephen Covey

In Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he tells his readers how they can be effective people in all walks of life by adopting these seven habits. The key to achieving these seven habits is listening—not only to others, but yourself as well. When you are faced with any kind of problem, good listening and communication, while applying the seven habits, are key to forming powerful resolutions. Most people would make the claim that they are engaged listeners when, in fact, they have been confusing listening for hearing--which are two very different things. Being a good listener is fundamental to being able to work effectively by yourself and with other people. A quote from Dr. Magee’s presentation “Listening for Personal & Professional Success” states the following, “There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.” I believe that this quote ties in very well with the first three habits that Covey presented us with because they are focused mostly on personal improvement. The first habit is be proactive. You have the ability to control your emotions in every situation. That being said, you need to master self-awareness in order to be proactive. How can you master self-awareness? This can be achieved by listening to yourself. By listening to and acknowledging your emotions, you can figure out if you are a proactive or reactive person. If through listening to yourself, you realize you have a reactive attitude towards things, that is the first step to changing yourself into a proactive person. The next habit is to begin with the end in mind. People tend to do a lot of things without thinking about how it will affect their end goal. The key to beginning with the end in mind is to ask yourself why you do the things that you do and how it will contribute to your end goal. If you listen to yourself, you can decide what you need to focus on in order to reach that end goal. Habit three is put first things …show more content…
Habit four is to Think Win-Win. In a Win-Win situation, all parties must collaborate and listen to each other, so everyone can come to a solution that is beneficial to everyone. To aid in this, it is important that each party uses listening skills, such as clarifying points that may not be understood fully and paraphrasing the message to confirm that they understand what the speaker is saying. Habit five is seek first to understand, then to be understood. Good listening skills are key to mastering this habit. According to Covey, "You have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of character that inspires openness and trust." To truly understand someone, doing things while listening such and probing for missing information is important.. Habit six is synergize. When you understand the perspective of another, you two are able to synergize, or think of new and creative ideas. In order to understand, an individual must apply all the listening tactics that were previously mentioned. It is imperative that you are not only an interactive listener, but an engaged