Paper Example on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: A Path to Success

Part I

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in an influential book that takes a keen look at the values that a person needs to be successful. The author acknowledges the need for shaping our characters to be successful. Convey highlights the seven habits of effective people for those willing to change their character. The author posits that within his 25 years of interaction with successful people he noticed that they had good personal relationships with others and personal effectiveness (Covey, 2004). The book is divided in four sections each addressing a different subject. In the first part of the book, the author also advises that before one embarks on acquiring the habits, then there needs to be a transformation in terms of behavior and attitude change. The paradigm change in character should not be adopted without assessment and that a similar paradigm cannot apply to the different persons. The author talks about the need to relate our inners self with the outside situation. This will help in understanding the outside the situation because it agrees with our inner self.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The second part introduces the first category of habits, private victory. Here, the author highlights the habits that contribute to personal independence and effectiveness. He talks about three habits related to private accomplishment. The first habit is proactive, which the author associates with the need to be ready to face the challenges of any opportunity. The author talks about the need to make sound decisions in time before it is too late. The second habit is beginning with the end in mind (Covey, 2004). Here, the author talks about the relevance of having the end in mind. The author posits that everything is created with two creations, the first occurring in mind and the second one taking place in real life. He cites one example of how we edit reports in daily life, making many corrections so that we can get a final draft. The third habit is to put first things first. The author asserts that we are in control of the situations in our life. Therefore, we need to be disciplined and organized so as not to waste energy and resources on irrelevant things. Success is about selecting priorities, planning, and organizing life. The author asserts the third habit is as a result of the first and second habit. He postulates that as we develop the first and second habit, you are prepared to deal with any unexpected circumstances in life.

A third part of the book addresses the habits that are needed to interact well with other people. The author opines that when you relate well with others, then they do the same with you (Covey, 2004). Success should not only be based on being an independent person, but there is a need to develop interdependence habits. This makes it easy to adjust to the interdependent environment. The fourth habit is thinking win/win. The habit means that we should be fair in our engagements with others. The win/win does not imply that we have to do anything it takes to win, but merely a habit that gives one a psychological advantage that aids in overcoming unnecessary worries. The author expounds on the habit by talking about the paradigms of human interaction.

The fifth habit is sought to understand than to be understood. We need to make the correct choice of words when conversing with others. The author provides an account of Tycoon Bill Marriot who attributes his success to the power to listen to people attentively. The sixth habit is to synergize. Convey asserts that the universe is subject to change. Therefore, we should be ready to synergize to cope up with change. In the last part of the book, part four, the author reflects on what he has learned from the six habits (Covey, 2004). The author seeks to establish a balance between the habits to lead a balanced life. This ensures that problems in one area with regards to the discussed habits do not affect the other areas. As such, the seventh habit under this section is sharpening the saw. The saw implies the brain, and therefore it talks about ways of developing our brains mentally, socially and spiritually.

Part II: Concepts Presented by the Author

The author has touched on several concepts while highlighting the habits of highly effective people. The first concept that the author discusses are habits for changing from dependent to independent. Dependence means that in life, with need others at some point to survive. For instance, when we are infants, we are under the care of someone. On the other hand, independence means being free from the support of others. The author touches on the stages of maturity and provides the qualities relevant to the transition from one stage to another (Covey, 2004). The concept mainly looks at the habits that develop a person into one who is ready to encounter the challenges of how to achieve personal effectiveness. For instance, the author talks of being proactive so that we control our lives and not allow the situation to act on us. As such, the author envisions the benefit of developing our effectiveness. The author acknowledges the power that we have in our success. As such, before we benefit from our association with others, we need first to develop ourselves ready for situations that we may encounter.

The second concept is interdependence, our relationship with others. We cannot be effective on our own because there is a role that people play in our lives, which is equally of great benefit. The author acknowledges that we need to develop our relationship with others. The relationship that we have with others has so much influence on our ability to succeed. Situations and opportunities in life also involve other people (Covey, 2004). As such, to benefit from opportunities in life it is essential to establish good relationship with others. In every activity in life that involves other people, the focus should be achieving maximum benefit for all the people involved. It consists of doing away with our ego and embarking activities as a team so that achievements are more significant than what one could have been achieved alone.

Part III: Comparison with other Articles

The concept of interdependence that is supported by the author is also held by other authors of the same subject. For instance, the idea of Covey that people are not born with inherent abilities to relate well to others is also held by Corley (2010). According to him, successful people can relate well with others, and it's a quality that they just acquire as they grow. They realize the role of other people in their journey to meet their goals. Therefore, they work towards gaining the qualities that will help them in establishing better relationships with others. According to Corley (2010) successful people do not allow their ego to control them, and they are not bothered with the success of the other people they are working with as long as they will also succeed out of the relationship. However, it does not differentiate between interpersonal and personal skills, as in the case of (Covey 2004) where independent habits and interdependent habits are distinguished.

According to Goldsmith (2007) people need to acknowledge the individual differences of the people they work together. The success of the group is a win for all the teammates. As such, it also holds the same idea as the concept of an effective habit of being interdependent as postulated by Covey (2004). The win/win mentality makes people not allow their ego to guide their contact and be ready to work together, so long as all of them are to win. However, the article mainly looks at how team members can work together. Goldsmith (2007) more inclined to the best qualities of working together, which is a summary of habits for relating well with others. As such, it does look at the importance of being independent in the successful teams. It instead looks at the qualities of team members that can contribute to a good working relationship between the team members.

According to (Covey 2004) working well with others can be strengthened through communicating well with others by settling on the right words that will offend another party. According to Goldsmith (2007) working well with others is all about open and proper channels of communication. Therefore, fostering interdependence differs between the two authors. However, they all agree with the role of communication in building a better relationship with others. They both posit that communication helps in winning the trust of others and have working relationships that result in the benefit of all.

Goldsmith (2007) agrees with Covey there is a need for developing habits for personal victory. Both touch how qualities such as being proactive and how one must be in control life. Being an effective person begins with having attributes that will give you a sense of direction and take charge of different situations in life. Developing habits of being independent help in making wise decisions that can help avoid any future challenges. According Goldsmith (2007) teams have roles designed for each team member, and every team member must be ready to perform the tasks assigned. As such, team members need to be competent to effectively execute their roles. This cannot be possible if it is dependent on being ready to make sound decisions. When such tasks are assigned, one needs to be aware of what they need to achieve. This will ensure that they can identify the problems and come up with suitable plans to overcome the challenges.

Part IV: Discussion

The author is divided into four parts. Although it was to talk about the habits, the author did not address the topic in general. The author divided the text into sections to comprehensively touch every aspect of the topic. The author also gave his account of how he has been relating to successful people (Covey, 2004). As such, the author's analysis was informed with a long experience of relation with success and not just from reading other materials on the subject. The author also explained each concept to help the reader understand the issue being discussed in each section of the topic. The topic was interesting because the author looked at the maturity continuum and looked at the habits required at the independence level and interdependence level. Also, the author provided practical examples that made it easier to understand the topic.

The style used in addressing the topic was appealing. The author discussed the topic in bits. Therefore, it is easier to establish a connection between one areas of the topic. For instance, the habits were discussed in three parts (Covey, 2004). As such it was easier to understand how the habits are related to the discussed part. For example, in the first part, private victory, the author begins by defining what it implies and proceeds to explaining the habits that can help someone develop private victory. This may make a reader want to read the book over and over. Also, it is easier to review the book in case one wants to confirm something because the topic was addressed in sections.

The B.A.S degree incorporates job-related skills in the classroom. However, the course looks more at the skills relevant to B.A.S related job vacancy and does not take an in-depth analysis of the skills needed to attain personal effectiveness and to relate well with others. Also, the skills addressed in the course are somehow general. They do not specifically address the concept of independence and interdependence. As such, most of the habits addressed by the book were new to me. Although the course touches on the relevance of excellent communication skills when getting into the profession, the book takes a different look by...