Leadership

Assignment: Summery of 7 habits of highly effective people

Professor: Muddasar Nazar

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 Mba-3b

Table of Contents

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107

Be Proactive03

Begin with the End in Mind..04

First Things First05

Think Win-Win06

Seek First to Understand then be Understood.07

Synergize08

Sharpen the Saw.09

Bibliography 11

Be Proactive
Covey contrasts being proactive or having a proactive mentality with being reactive. Reactive people, he says, are those who are resigned to the truth that whatever they 2

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 do in the present can have no effect on their circumstances. And interestingly, for reactive people, it really is a truth, for whatever we believe in our heart affects our thoughts, words and actions. If we really believe that we can do nothing about our unreasonable boss or the daily events in our lives, then we simply do not make the effort. Proactive people, on the other hand, simply will not accept that there is nothing that can be done about the unreasonable boss or the events of daily life they will point out that there are always choices. It is by the decisions we make, our responses to people, events and circumstances that proactive people can and do affect the future.

Example 1
Anthony Robles of Arizona State University has only one leg, but that didn't stop him from becoming the national champion in his weight class. Born with one leg, Robles took the 125-pound title with a 7-1 win over defending champion Matt McDonough of Iowa. Robles' three-day performance earned him the Outstanding Wrestler award.

Example 2
Nicholas James Vujicic (born 4 December 1982) is a preacher and motivational speaker born with a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. He struggled as a child, eventually came to terms with his disability and started his own non-profit organization Life without Limbs, at age seventeen. He also has double majors in finance and accounting, runs his own brokerage firm.

Begin with the End in Mind

Many people in the global world identify with the frustration of success. Being successful at their chosen career and committed to its progress they come to realize that it does not, in the final analysis, bring any sense of real satisfaction. The reason for this ultimate dissatisfaction is that they did not begin with the end in mind. For many people, it is not just that they did not begin with the end in mind; it goes a bit deeper - they did not ever get around to defining the end itself and so they simply could not begin with the end in mind. So what does all this mean? The end represents the purpose of your life. Until you can say what that purpose is, with assurance, then 3

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 you just cannot direct your life in the manner that would bring you the greatest satisfaction. There are no short-cuts here. To engage in this habit, you need to have a dream, define your own vision and get into the practice of setting goals which will allow you to make measurable progress toward the dream.

Example 1
Nelson Mandela saw an Africa where apartheid would finally be abolished and every man would be free and equal in the eyes of the Nation. It was this vision that propelled him to do what he had to do, and it was this vision that sustained him through the darkest days in prison. Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in prison before he was elected President of South Africa. Faced with such a huge setback; he never gave up his vision.

Example 2
When Ray Kroc first saw the multi-mixers in the restaurant of the McDonalds Brothers, he envisioned 8 of these restaurants churning out burgers and making a steady stream of cash immediately. Leaders are men of vision and when they look at a certain situation, they see its potential.

First Things First

To really understand and apply this habit, you need to have first done habit 2 that is; you should already have defined what is important to you. Without first doing this, habit 3 has no power because you simply cannot separate what is important from what is not important. This representation shows four categories of demand which may be made on your time. Quadrant 1 consists of activities which are both urgent and important, in other words, things to which you absolutely must attend. Why must you do these things? Because they are important - meaning that they contribute to your mission; and they are urgent - meaning that they have some sort of deadline associated with them. Choices about where to invest your time really are made in the other categories; and most people - driven by the concept of urgency - get drawn into Quadrant 3; doing things that consume their time but do not contribute to their goals. 4

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 Highly Effective People understand that the high leverage activities are all Quadrant 2 important but not urgent. Planning, preparation, prevention, relationship-building, reading, improving your professional knowledge and exercise are all examples of Quadrant 2 activity - not an exhaustive list, by any means. We all intuitively know that Quadrant 2 activities are the key to getting results; but you need to have internalized the first two habits before you can benefit from the high leverage this habit brings. In other words, you first need to have developed the strength of character (proactively) which allows you to be able to say no to demands on your time that fall into Quadrants 2 and 3; and you also need to have defined what importance means for you otherwise the Quadrants do not exist.

Think Win-Win
Think Win-Win. This habit is again an attitude of mind. It concerns fostering an attitude that is committed to always finding solutions that will truly benefit both sides of a dispute. Solutions do not, of course, exist in themselves; they must be created. And, even if we cannot see the solution to a particular problem, it does not mean that no such solution exists. The win-win idea is not based upon compromise - that is where most disputes naturally end. But compromise is the result of not properly perceiving the possible synergy of the situation.

Example 1
Sam Walton took extremely good care of his employees and he gave very employee a chance to become successful with him by allowing them to purchase stock options of 5

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 Wall-mart at discount. He treated them as associates of the business and wanted them to enjoy part of Wall-marts success.

Example 2
Many airlines started cutting jobs in the months following 9/11. The airline industry had been badly damaged, and many airlines were forced to cut their workforce by up to 20%. Instead of following the trend, Southwest made an announcement only three days after 9/11 that Southwest would be keeping all of their employees and starting a $179.8 million profit sharing payment to employees. Southwest CEO James Parker believed that because Southwest had built their company on sound business principles for the past 30 years, they were able to handle crisis better than other airlines.

Seek First to Understand then be Understood

What most people do, naturally, when involved in some type of discussion, meeting or dialogue is exactly the reverse; they seek first to be understood. And, as Stephen Covey says, when both parties are trying to be understood, neither party is really listening; he calls such an interaction, 'the dialogue of the deaf. This habit is an important key to inter-personal relationships and it seems to be almost magical in its ability to transform the course of discussions. Why? Because by making the investment of time and effort required to understand the other party, the dynamics of the interchange are subtly affected. This habit is not just about letting the other person speak first; it concerns actually making the effort to understand what is being said. It is about understanding that our natural habit of mind is to misunderstand.

Example 1
Starbucks is known for its exceptional treatment of employees, offering things like insurance to even part-time workers. When tragedy struck the company, it's no surprise that their CEO was able to comfort a hurting store and community. In 1997 three employees were killed in a bumbled robbery of one of their Washington D.C. stores. Instead of issuing a press release or calling legal counsel, CEO Howard Schultz 6

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 flew straight to D.C. and spent the entire week with the employees and their families in the area. Schultz's compassion and incredible leadership helped heal those closest to the tragedy.

Example 2
The negotiation of Mark Zuckerberg with the people who claimed that he stole their idea of face book ended in win-win situation. Mark paid those people a huge amount of money, even though he never accepted that he stole their idea but still to end at a good note he ended up giving huge amount of dollars.

Synergize
The sixth of the habits is Synergize. This habit involves you putting your head together with the other party or parties in order to creatively brainstorm a synergistic solution to a problem i.e. to find a solution which contains win-win benefits. It can only be done successfully if you have first practiced habits 4 and 5.

Example 1
TD Industries is employee-owned and consistently on Forbes's Best Companies to Work For list. But the company almost didn't make it through the late 1980's without savvy leadership. Many Texas banks were failing in the late 1980's, and TD Industries was hurting greatly by the lack of funds needed to do large construction jobs. The company leadership informed their employees that instead of filing for bankruptcy, they were going to pay out the Defined Retirement Plan to its employees, and asked employees to use that money to reinvest into the company. Because of the company's transparency and trust in their employees, the employees responded by giving back 30% more than what the company asked for. The money helped stabilize the company, and they weathered the rough financial spell.

Example 2
At a time when the idea of "business blogging" was brand new (and usually feared), IBM encouraged their 320,000 employees to start company blogs. IBM leadership

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107 drafted a corporate blogging policy that encouraged employees to be themselves, speak in first person, and respect their coworkers. The result was a marketing bonanza for IBM. Their company blogs are some of the most trusted technology blogs and generate tons of page views and links back to IBM. Instead of fearing the new technology, IBM embraced it, making their customers and employees very happy.

Sharpen the Saw

The last habit of the 7 Habits is, Sharpen the Saw. In this habit, you are the saw; and to sharpen the Saw is to become better, keener and more effective. Highly Effective People always take time to sharpen the Saw. What is meant by Sharpening the Saw is to regularly engage in the exercise of the three dimensions which make up the human condition: body, mind and spirit. Covey also adds a fourth dimension the interpersonal.

Example 1
Rafael Nadal normally wakes up at 8:30 in the morning and plays tennis from 9:30 to 1:30 in the afternoon. He then trains in his gym from 4:30 to 7 in the evening. Doing this regularly keep Nadal fit and keep his skills and abilities sharp.

Example 2
Second example is of Mary Kay, Dynamic speaker, inspiring motivator, visionary entrepreneur these qualities helped make Mary Kay Ash a powerful leader in business and in her community. Throughout her life, she was able to gain more and more knowledge and learning the new styles of management

Diagram HOW it WORKS

Zahid Hussain 01-221111-107

Bibliography
1. http://www.money-health-relationships.com/stephen-covey.html 2. http://www.bainvestor.com/Seven-habits-effectiveness-Covey.html 3. http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk/7-habits/7-habits.htm 4. http://attitudeadjustment.tripod.com/Books/7-Habits.htm 5. Book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People