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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

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  • 9 key ideas
  • Text
  • Published 1989

Introduction

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a guide to becoming effective in work and in life. Stephen Covey's starting point is that lasting results come from character and sound principles, not from clever techniques, so change has to begin inside you and work outward.

The book opens with the way we see things and with the path from depending on others, to standing on your own, to working well with others. Then come seven habits. The first three build self-mastery: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first. The next three build the ability to work with people: think win-win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, and synergize. The seventh, sharpen the saw, is the habit of renewing yourself so the other six keep working.

  1. 1Lasting effectiveness grows from character, so change how you see before you change what you do
  2. 2Effectiveness means caring for results and for your ability to produce them, and growing from dependence to independence to interdependence
  3. 3Habit 1, be proactive: between what happens and what you do, you choose
  4. 4Habit 2, begin with the end in mind: everything is created twice
  5. 5Habit 3, put first things first: schedule your priorities, do not prioritize your schedule
  6. 6Habit 4, think win-win: it rests on trust and on the belief that there is enough for everyone
  7. 7Habit 5, seek first to understand, then to be understood
  8. 8Habit 6, synergize: the whole can be more than the sum of its parts
  9. 9Habit 7, sharpen the saw: renew the person who does the work

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