Stephen Coveys Book Review of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Book Review of - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People- Stephen R. Covey
Overview of the content
Author: Stephen R. Covey
Title: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Publisher: Free Press
Place: New York
Date of Publication: 1988
Number of Pages: 381
Covey’s work on self-improvement titled ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ is grounded in the author’s view that one’s worldview is wholly based on individual assessments. For altering any situation, there is a need to adopt change within oneself, which necessitates a shift in perspective (Hussain, 2017).
This work may be considered a phenomenon of contemporary personal development texts. The author differentiates character ethic from personality ethic. The former deals with fixed individual principles whereas the later refers to human relations methods and quick-fix ideas which form the crux of most self-help texts penned in the last century. According to the author, superficial success which fails to manifest internal mastery cannot be considered success. The terms he uses for internal and external success are ‘private’ and ‘public’ victory, respectively, with the former necessarily preceding the latter to be counted as success. This represents his personal life-focused strategy (Butler-Bowdon, 2011).
In Covey’s opinion, people’s worldviews are grounded completely in individual perspective. As mentioned earlier, situational change necessitates self-evolution, which in turn necessitates perspective shifts. The author scrutinized success-related literature spanning more than two centuries and noticed a salient evolution in humanity’s definitions of success with time. This particular book’s beauty, in essence, lies in the fact that improving one practice causes a synergistic increase in one’s capacity of improving others. Renewal enables one to follow a mounting spiral of evolution and progress, of ongoing improvements (Hussain, 2017). Rather than concentrating on doing away with bad habits, the book’s emphasis is on cultivating good ones. A majority of individuals need to cultivate and hone good habits through learning; i.e., good habits aren’t intrinsically present and typically require more conscious efforts as compared to bad practices. Altering habits modifies one’s views of others and vice versa (Mark, 2016).
Evaluation of book
Though Covey’s book has already completed its silver jubilee, it continues to be extensively referenced in the twenty-first century. The focal point of this work is, largely, an ordinary individual’s professional and personal practices, as these form one’s personality. All individuals have certain habits, both bad and good, and a certain collection of these habits scarcely affect one’s everyday life. Quite frequently, individuals do not realize these habits of theirs; they simply view them as constant personality traits or might be totally ignorant of their existence. Others may clearly get to witness them and if one fails to stop and study them closely, one may end up fully, though unintentionally, cultivating dangerous habits (Mark, 2016).
The author begins with a total of three habits categorized as ‘Private Victory’, which deal more with cultivating individual habits. Private success is imperative before one endeavors towards public victory as change implementation within a group first requires self-change. This forms the preparatory stage for the next three habits outlined by the author, which aim at boosting one’s management and leadership ability. All 7 habits described work synergistically, complementing one another in a number of ways. One can easily study them if one takes them as components of the following key habits: organized planning and acting on one’s plans (Mark, 2016).
The first part of the book, titled ‘Paradigms and Principles’, deals with character and personality ethics, fundamental and ancillary greatness. Further, the author describes the potential of an archetype wherein his 7 habits exemplify several key, basic human efficacy tenets (Al-Shidhani, 2011).
The second part, titled ‘Private Victory’, addresses three habits, namely proactivity, commencing by taking the end result into account, and working on a priority basis. The first habit, proactivity, deals with individual vision. Self-awareness sets one apart and helps one study one’s perceptions of self (in other words, one’s self-paradigm). The proactive theory comprises of elements like creativity, autonomy and conscience. The second habit deals with commencing tasks by taking the end into consideration. This section describes personal leadership doctrines. While leaders lead a rather busy and hectic life, their efficiency and effectiveness is contingent on their keeping required goals at the forefront, always. The third habit which deals with prioritizing provides the base for individual management. According to the author, the most important thing should never be controlled by the least important one. The third part, titled ‘Public Victory’, deals with three additional habits, revolving around interdependence (Al-Shidhani, 2011).
Covey’s work essentially deals with cultivating a core value set such that deriving resolutions to issues becomes easy, and greatly increases one’s effectiveness in every area of life. Therefore, the 7 habits help draw out life’s basic truths, ensuring their perpetual accessibility such that anytime one encounters challenges, one can resolve them rationally and consistently (Hamm, 2007).
As the author considers worldview’s bases to be perceptions, with situational change necessitating self- and perceptional- change, he first scrutinized more than two centuries’ works that dealt with "success" and noted a salient evolution in mankind’s definitions of success. Earlier, character ethic (which deals with the principles of humbleness, bravery, uprightness, loyalty, sobriety, fairness, patience, diligence, artlessness, decorum, and the biblical Golden Rule) proved to be the basis for success. However, beginning somewhere in the 1920s, society’s attitude towards success underwent a shift to "personality ethic" (in which success is governed by one’s practices, personality, outlook and public image) (Hussain, 2017).
Nowadays, everybody seeks quick fixes. Any individual, group or company that is thriving is approached and demanded to spill out its formula for success. However, such a shortcut route to achieving success by expending less time, cost and efforts is nothing but a Band-Aid which works only for the immediate term. It doesn’t offer any solution to the underlying issues. There is a need for paradigm shifts, which may be described as radical changes within oneself rather than a superficial modification in one’s practices and outlook, if one seeks to truly attain change. And it is here that Covey’s book plays a part (Hussain, 2017).
This widely recognized work’s chief strength lies in its briefness and ability to provide facts accompanied by multiple examples and believable success stories that serve to effectively demonstrate the author’s main philosophy. Furthermore, the author has equipped his text with tables, figures and images for illustrating his notions. He further underscores his message by kick-starting explanations for individual habits by quoting a proverb; the culmination of each section comprises of recommendations for real-world application. But this work is also characterized by a few shortcomings. Certain sections aren’t easily understandable, particularly if the reader is not a native-English speaker. Moreover, surprisingly, the author has failed to label his tables and diagrams (Al-Shidhani, 2011).
At the time of penning this work, the author could hardly have realized the fact that his efforts would herald a domestic and professional leadership revolution. This book forms the crux of an opus which has grown into several thousand texts that effectively altered the whole management and business scene. In spite of the multitude of text published after Covey’s book, the latter continues to be preferred and revisited by readers. As the text’s main message indicates, one needs to acquire mastery over a few primary habits prior to proceeding to brighter, bigger things. The book, though packed with facts, moves readers emotionally (Mark, 2016).
Recommendation
Neglecting the trivial flaws inherent in the book (as outlined in the previous section), I would recommend it as a valuable read to every staff member, manager, leader, educator and, in particular, any individual who aspires to improve his/her leadership efficacy and success. While some contend that the habits put forward by Covey are simply a matter of common sense, I would argue that: If taken separately, there might be some truth in the above claim; however, if integrated in the same order as that proposed by the author, and using the supporting principle-centeredness philosophy, the habits may be able to generate the synergy Covey claims. This book affords its readers a way to make changes to small things for achieving change in bigger ones.
As individuals, groups, and businesses, we’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realize we’re in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been — in every aspect of independent and interdependent life. We are more in need of a vision or designation and a compass (a set of principles or directions) and less in need of a road map. We often don’t know what the terrain ahead will be like or what we will need to go through; it much will depend on our judgment at the time. But an inner compass will always give us direction. Effectiveness — often even survival — does not depend solely on how much effort we expend, but on whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle; and the metamorphosis taking place in most every industry and profession demands leadership first and management second (Covey, 1988, p 101).
The author’s studies resulted in his putting forward the ‘Principle-Centered Leadership’ strategy for effective management and the ‘Principle-Centered Living’ strategy for leading a successful life. He believes it is not possible to improve or increase one’s chances at success if one simply changes one’s outlook and conduct superficially. Foremost, there is a need to consider one’s personal principles, worldview and opinions regarding others. Subsequently, people will be able to behave with each other in line with their personal principles. I concur with Covey's opinion that habits need to stem from personal principles, from which personal behavioral change is feasible. Others will, subsequently, be more inclined to follow suit (Hamm, 2007).
Real productivity (i.e., the why) hinges on result. Efficiency represents the how. Individuals are only really successful in life if they accomplish their life’s mission and key objectives, and add something of value to their major roles in life. While efficiency (accomplishing aims by expending the least possible energy and time) is good, in a few critical areas, it is not possible to attain efficiency as well as effectiveness. For instance, efficiency is not feasible with people. Caring for an ailing relative, find one’s soul mate or helping a fellow human being out cannot be scheduled. The solution lies in differentiating: efficiency is for things and effectiveness is for individuals. Not practicing ‘proactiveness’ is the biggest killer of Covey’s Seven Habits. The foremost step to achieving effectiveness is self-answerability, realizing that one may consciously opt for doing a good job, and nothing and nobody may stop one. But too many people point fingers at others, or take stock of personal failings and not advance towards their true potential. Disregard to ‘proactiveness’ adversely affects all other habits.


Bibliography
Al-Shidhani, T. A. (2011). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J., 426–427.
Butler-Bowdon, T. (2011, February 04). Book review: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Retrieved from City Wire: http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/book-review-the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-people-by-stephen-covey/a467559
Covey, S. R. (1988). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York: Free Press.
Hamm, T. (2007, May 27). Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Retrieved from The Simple Dollar: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/review-the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people/
Hussain, A. (2017, September 29). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [Book Summary]. Retrieved from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/habits-of-highly-effective-people-summary
Mark, A. (2016). Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Retrieved from Cleverism: https://www.cleverism.com/book-review-the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people/