Summary from Summary
7 Habits of Highly Effective People [Summary & Takeaways]

Personal Summary from: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/habits-of-highly-effective-people-summary

Changes:
perception –> ourselves –> situation

Groundwork: Explore, ask to yourself
1. What does success mean to you?
2. Perception. A paradigm shift is necessary to cultivate effective habits
3. Live & internalize Principles to achieve lasting success:
:: character ethic: integrity, humility, courage, (+ patience)
:: personality ethic: public image, attitude, personality

7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Steven Covey) 1. Be Proactive 2. Begin With the End in Mind 3. Put First Things First 4. Think Win-Win 5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood 6. Synergize 7. Sharpen the Saw

1. Be Proactive
– Take responsibility for your life and decisions
– Focus on what you can control
– Proactive people vs reactive people
– Circle of Influence vs Circle of Concern
– work on the things you can actually do something about
– Replace reactive language with proactive language

2. Begin With the End in Mind
– Clarifying your goals and values to guide your actions
– Make sure that your actions don’t contradict your guiding principles
– Identify your values before start setting and achieve goals
– Define your goals. Use your goals as a guide to
> make decisions
> prioritize your actions
– Align your behaviors with your beliefs and values
– Break down different roles in your life: personal, professional, and community roles
– Write down the worst-case scenario for your biggest fear.
– Visualize how you‘ll handle this situation.
– Write down exactly how you’ll handle the situation
– Set clear goals, feel more energized, less friction, more outcome

3. Put First Things First
– Be disciplined and manage your time.
– Determine important tasks and execute them

– Quadrant I: Important and urgent tasks
> e.g., crises and deadlines
> can consume us and lead to burnout
– Quadrant II: Important, non-urgent matters
> require discipline
– Quadrant III: seem urgent
> perceived urgency
– Quadrant IV: Non-urgent and unimportant tasks
> are a waste of time
> easy to pour energy into trivial, unimportant tasks
> must first prioritize activities aligned with your guiding principles.

To focus your time in Quadrant II:
– delegate effectively
– thinking ahead, preventing crises from happening
– implement the Pareto Principle:
80% of your results come from 20% of your time.

Action:
– breaking down into incremental steps
– identify necessary skill
– reverse engineering plan, finding opportunities

4. Think Win-Win
– Strive for win-win situations:
Having the option to walk away prevents us from manipulating others to achieve our goals

– Abundance Mentality:
– there is enough of everything to go around, including resources, opportunities, and success
– fosters collaboration and cooperation, allowing people to work together

– Scarcity Mentality
— there is a limited amount of everything, and one person’s success must come at the expense of another
— leads to feelings of envy, unhappiness, and victimhood.
— limits a person’s ability to see opportunities
— makes solving for win-win scenarios nearly impossible.

Action:
– write down other person’s needs
– consider how to meet those needs
– Case study: hard transition
> Gave a clear timeline and advanced notice
> Commit to finish
> Offer to help at no extra charge

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
– Listen with the intent to understand, not to respond
– Seek to understand others’ perspectives before expressing your own
– cultivate trust and respect
– require: open-minded and nonjudgmental
– avoid: imposing your biases and assumptions
– result:
> improved communication,
> deeper relationships, and
> more effective collaboration

Reflective Listening
– practice to understand others’ perspectives
– paraphrasing the other person’s message
– checking for accuracy to ensure you understand their perspective correctly

Autobiographical Listening
– tend to respond in one of four ways: evaluate, probe, advise, interpret

EQUALLY CRITICAL:
– .. Then to Be Understood

– present your ideas clearly,
– significantly increase your effectiveness.

HOW TO:
– Watch the emotion
– Presentation:
> Begin by understanding the audience‘s point of view
> problems the audience are facing
> offer a solution to their problems
> Root your presentations in empathy

6. Synergize
– power of collaboration
– look for opportunities to collaborate

– Recognize, value, and appreciate others’ differences:
–> unique abilities,
–> experiences, and
–> perspectives

– combine strengths to reach more significant outcomes
– solutions that go beyond compromising
– Listen to understand, not to respond
– Be open to feedback, welcome feedback from others w/o involving ego
> improve your ideas and actions
> Build relationships with trust and respect

– Create an environment where people feel comfortable …
> sharing their ideas,
> exchanging feedback, and
> collaborating

– List of people who irritate you:
> Put yourself in their shoes
> Try to understand their concerns & why they disagree

Case study:
– released new guidelines or workflows
– welcome genuine feedback
– clarify, then amend
– Let me know why and how,
– work together to improve
– documentation has to be crystal clear: to implement & oversee
– collaborative activity: build trust and respect within the team

7. Sharpen the Saw
– honing your personal development through deliberate actions
– renew and recharge your energy: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually
– Identify the essential areas of renewal for your personality
– prioritize self-care

– A. Physical Renewal:
> exercise, eat healthy, stay hydrated, spend time in nature, get enough sleep

– B. Mental Renewal:
> stimulate & calm the mind
> meditation, read book, learn new things, hobby, watch documentary
> crucial for maintaining a positive outlook & staying sharp in digital world

– C. Spiritual Renewal:
> reflection, solidify value & belief
> meditation, prayer, journaling, self-reflection
> makes you more empathetic, balanced, and effective

– D. Social/Emotional Renewal:
> Humans are social, emotional beings
> hanging out w/ loved ones/friends, having meaningful conversation, practicing empathy, distancing yourself from toxic people