Habits of Highly Effective People

¶ … Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen F. Covey. Specifically it will contain a book report on the book, including examples in the Woodmont Golf Course setting. Covey's fantastically successful book, first written in 1989, has become a worldwide bestseller and sparked several spin-offs for teens, families, and others. While it seems to apply mostly to business and industry, Covey's "Seven Habits" certainly apply to a golf course setting like Woodmont, as well.

Principles are at the core of this book, and Covey opens the book with them. He calls them the "principles of human effectiveness" (Covey 23), and maintains we all have them, or can develop them, and in doing so, we can become more effective, more productive, and better people, as well. These are principles like fairness, service, integrity, patience, encouragement, and honesty, and using them in management improves not only the business, but the individual as well. Covey writes, "When these truths are internalized into habits, they empower people to create a wide variety of practices to deal with different situations" (Covey 35). He also maintains that creating interdependence, instead of independence or dependence can help create better business and personal relationships and lead to success in those areas.

To meet these principles and goals, Covey developed the "Seven Habits," which include "Be Proactive," "Begin With the End in Mind," "Put First Things First," "Think Win/Win," "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood," "Synergize," and "Sharpen the Saw." All of these habits have relevance in the golf course management setting for a variety of reasons, even if at first, they might not seem to have any relevance at all.

First, since in the golf course setting at Woodmont, we are dealing consistently with people. Players, pros, caddies, and even friends and neighbors who just might like to watch a golf game or two. The principles of fairness, encouragement, integrity, and certainly service all apply in this setting. That means we must constantly treat our players and their guests with the highest of all these principles, and provide them with the highest quality of services, from the pro-shop and locker rooms, to the restaurant and even the golf carts and driving range. Our patrons pay a decent fee to play and become members in our course, and they deserve to be treated with principles and integrity, in fact, I am sure many of them expect it. People are at the heart of our concern and without them none of us would survive, and so, they should be at the forefront of our management philosophy.