People in the Seven Habits

¶ … People

In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven R. Covey maintains that the success literature during the last one-half of the 20th century largely was able to attribute success to positive personality attributes that worked in a person's favor that they maintained . Covey felt that what he termed the Personality Ethic in response to a failure he had seen in success writings between the 1920s and 1950s that focused on solutions to specific problems. However, to truly provide the solution to this question, he applied what he called the Character Ethic. According to Covey, this was prevalent in the literature of the 150 years or so that preceded the literature of the 20th century was more character oriented. It emphasized the far deeper principles and foundations of success which are moral in nature such as integrity, courage, justice, patience, etc.("Summary of stephen," 2010).

In the opinion of this author, while Covey's achievement is laudable, but inadequate. For one to fully realize the potential of his concepts they must unite them with the faith and learning that we have inherited in concert with faith in God via our Lord Jesus Christ. In this vein, we will briefly review the three most important concepts from this article and how these concepts can be applied in concert with the Christian faith. This will provide full utilization of the potential of Covey's doctoral thesis. This is due to the fact that the source of our moral underpinnings is our faith in God. It is this faith that will allow an application of our power of wisdom and discernment given by the Holy Spirit in order to properly integrate the Character and Personality Ethics effectively. This naturally gives the believing Christian habits 1-4 which Covey must spell out in detail for those without this background.

Three Most Important Concepts

Since this author makes the assumption that habits 1-4 are a natural part of the Christian's tool kit, it would be logical to assume that habits 5 through 7 need development. Most importantly, the faith in God gives the Christian the courage to accept defeat as the will of God and to regroup and do better next time by improving themselves morally in their secular field of endeavor.

How These Concepts Can Be Applied

Covey's dissertation and book have become so influential that it has spawned an entire cottage of analysis of this effectiveness in various organizations. In an article by David Carlone, he measures how these principles contribute to the success of military organizations. This study was especially interesting because the participants in the military unit that Carlone studied were required to participate in a 3 day seminar where Covey's book was the central text. The military participants found team working of course particularly useful, such as those in habit 5 regarding listening and being understood. Interestingly, may of them had a problem with the "win/win" philosophy due their attitude of competition that they gained as a natural influence of the outside American society. So, in effect Covey's work contributed to the effect of changing the individual and making them more effective in a military organization as a self-motivated team member who could obey but also seek out solutions and facilitate their application in order to carry out a mission (Carlone, 2001, 494).

Covey's work has become a mantra in almost every field where management is a key to success. While they do not perfectly mimic Covey's model, they tend to agree with him on the habits that promote interdependence and teamwork and find that their absence brings about failure. For instance, in a study of global health care organizations, among the seven habits that the authors advocated, humility to accept outside advice and better partnership and coordination within and without the organization were seen as critical to success (Buse, & Harmer, 2007, 269-270).