Presentation by- Arun Sehrawat

What is a Habit
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit Aristotle

Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. "Sow
a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a
habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.
Habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire.
Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the what to do and
the why.
Skill is the how to do.
Desire is the motivation, the want to do.
In order to make something a habit in our lives, we have to have
all three.
The Seven Habits
Independence or Self-Mastery:
The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to
independence (i.e., self-mastery):
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Interdependence
The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working
with others):
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Self Renewal
The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation:
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw



Habit 1: Be Proactive
While the word proactivity is now fairly common in
management literature, it is a word you won't find in most
dictionaries.
It means more than merely taking initiative. It means that
as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our
behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the
initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the
essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven
by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their
environment. Proactive people are driven by values --
carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.
Initiative
Taking the Initiative
Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon. As
well as enabling us to choose our response to particular
circumstances, this empowers us to create
circumstances
Taking initiative does not mean being pushy,
obnoxious, or aggressive.
It does mean recognizing our responsibility to make
things happen.
Language check to see proactivity
Reactive Language: There's nothing I can do. That's
just the way I am. He makes me so mad. They won't
allow that. I have to do that. I can't. I must. If only.
Proactive Language: Let's look at our alternatives. I
can choose a different approach. I control my own
feelings. I can create an effective presentation. I will
choose an appropriate response. I choose. I prefer. I
will.
Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence
Another excellent way to become more self-aware regarding our own
degree of proactivity is to look at where we focus our time and energy.
We each have a wide range of concerns -- our health, our children,
problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war. We could separate
those from things in which we have no particular mental or emotional
involvement by creating a "Circle of Concern.
As we look at those things within our Circle of Concern, it becomes
apparent that there are some things over which we have no real control
and others that we can do something about. We could identify those
concerns in the latter group by circumscribing them within a smaller
Circle of Influence.
By determining which of these two circles is the focus of most of our
time and energy, we can discover much about the degree of our
proactivity.
Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence.
Application
For a full day, listen to your language and to the language of the
people around you. How often do you use and hear reactive
phrases such as "If only," "I can't," or "I have to"
Identify an experience you might encounter in the near future
where, based on past experience, you would probably behave
reactively. Review the situation in the context of your Circle of
Influence. How could you respond proactively? Take several
moments and create the experience vividly in your mind,
picturing yourself responding in a proactive manner. Remind
yourself of the gap between stimulus and response. Make a
commitment to yourself to exercise your freedom to choose.
Select a problem from your work or personal life that is
frustrating to you. Determine whether it is a direct, indirect, or
no control problem. Identify the first step you can take in your
Circle of Influence to solve it and then take that step.

Habit 2: Begin with End in Mind
Although Habit 2 applies to many different circumstances and
levels of life, the most fundamental application of "Begin with
the End in Mind" is to begin today with the image, picture, or
paradigm of the end of your life as your frame of reference or the
criterion by which everything else is examined.
Each part of your life -- today's behavior, tomorrow's behavior,
next week's behavior, next month's behavior -- can be examined
in the context of the whole, of what really matters most to you.
To Begin with the End in Mind means to start with a clear
understanding of your destination. It means to know where
you're going so that you better understand where you are now
and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction
Begin with End in Mind
"Begin with the End in Mind" is based on the principle that all
things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a
physical or second creation to all things.

It's a principle that all things are created twice, but not all first
creations are by conscious design. In our personal lives, if we do
not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for
first creations, we empower other people and circumstances
outside our Circle or Influence to shape much of our lives by
default.
The most effective way I know to Begin with the End in Mind is
to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed.
It focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do
(contributions and achievements) and on the values or
principles upon which being and doing are based

Leadership and Management -- The Two
Creations
Habit 2 is based on principles of personal leadership,
which means that leadership is the first creation.
Leadership is not management. Management is the second
creation, which we'll discuss in Habit 3.
But leadership has to come first. Management is a bottom-
line focus: How can I best accomplish certain things?
Leadership deals with the top line: What are the things I
want to accomplish?
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the
right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the
ladder of success; leadership determines whether the
ladder is leaning against the right wall.
Habit 3: Put first things first
Will you take just a moment and write down a short
answer to the following two questions? Your answers
will be important to you as you begin work on Habit 3.
Question 1: What one thing could you do (you aren't
doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would
make a tremendous positive difference in your
personal life?
Question 2: What one thing in your business or
professional life would bring similar results?

Put first things first
Habit 3 is the personal fruit, the practical fulfillment of Habits 1 and 2.
In addition to self-awareness, imagination, and conscience, it is the fourth
human endowment -- independent will -- that really makes effective self-
management possible.
As you see, the two factors that define an activity are urgent and important.
Urgent means it requires immediate attention. It's "Now!" Urgent things act on
us.
Urgent matters are usually visible. They press on us; they insist on action.
They're often popular with others. They're usually right in front of us. And
often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. But so often they are unimportant!
Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is
important, it contributes to your mission, your values, your high priority goals.
We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more
initiative, more proactivity.
Saying No is also important
Delegation
We accomplish all that we do through delegation -- either
to time or to other people.
If we delegate to time, we think efficiency. If we delegate to
other people, we think effectiveness.
Many people refuse to delegate to other people because
they feel it takes too much time and effort and they could
do the job better themselves. But effectively delegating to
others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage
activity there is.
Transferring responsibility to other skilled and trained
people enables you to give your energies to other high-
leverage activities. Delegation means growth, both for
individuals and for organizations.
Gofer v/s Steward Delegation
There are basically two kinds of delegation: "gofer
delegation" and "stewardship delegation."
Gofer delegation means "Go for this, go for that, do
this, do that, and tell me when it's done."
Stewardship delegation is focused on results instead of
methods. It gives people a choice of method and
makes them responsible for results. It takes more time
in the beginning, but it's time well invested
Time Management Matrix
Emotional Bank Account
We all know what a financial bank account is. We
make deposits into it and build up a reserve from
which we can make withdrawals when we need to.
An Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that
describes the amount of trust that's been built up in a
relationship. It's the feeling of safeness you have with
another human being.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks
mutual benefit in all human interactions.
Win-win means that agreements or solutions are mutually
beneficial, mutually satisfying.
Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong
or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of
thinking if fundamentally flawed. It's based on power and
position rather than on principle.
Win-win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for
everybody, that one person's success is not achieved at the
expense or exclusion of the success of others.
Seek First to Understand, Then to be
Understood
Communication is the most important skill in life. We spend
most of our waking hours communicating. But consider this:
You've spent years learning how to read and write, years learning
how to speak. But what about listening? What training or
education have you had that enables you to listen so that you
really, deeply understand another human being from that
individual's own frame of reference?
"Seek first to understand" involves a very deep shift in paradigm.
We typically seek first to be understood. Most people do not
listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent
to reply. They're either speaking or preparing to speak.
As you learn to listen deeply to other people, you will discover
tremendous differences in perception. You will also begin to
appreciate the impact that these differences can have as people
try to work together in interdependent situations.

Synergize
When properly understood, synergy is the highest activity
in all life -- the true test and manifestation of all the other
habits put together.
The highest forms of synergy focus the four unique human
endowments, the motive of win-win, and the skills of
empathic communication on the toughest challenges we
face in life. What results is almost miraculous. We create
new alternatives -- something that wasn't there before.
What is synergy? Simply defined, it means that the whole
is greater than the sum of its parts. It means that the
relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in
and of itself. It is not only a part, but the most catalytic, the
most empowering, the most unifying, and the most
exciting part.
Sharpen the Saw
Habit 7 is personal PC. It's preserving and enhancing
the greatest asset you have -- you. It's renewing the
four dimensions of your nature -- physical, spiritual,
mental, and social/emotional.
"Sharpen the Saw" basically means expressing all four
motivations. It means exercising all four dimensions of
our nature, regularly and consistently, in wise and
balanced ways.

Application
1. Make a list of activities that would help you keep in good physical shape, that
would fit your life-style and that you could enjoy over time.

2. Select one of the activities and list it as a goal in your personal role area for the
coming week. At the end of the week evaluate your performance. If you didn't
make your goal, was it because you subordinated it to a genuinely higher value? Or
did you fail to act with integrity to your values.

3. Make a similar list of renewing activities in your spiritual and mental
dimensions. In your social-emotional area, list relationships you would like to
improve or specific circumstances in which Public Victory would bring greater
effectiveness. Select one item in each area to list as a goal for the week. Implement
and evaluate.

4. Commit to write down specific "sharpen the saw" activities in all four
dimensions every week, to do them, and to evaluate your performance and results.


Integrity
Integrity is a personal choice, an uncompromising and predictably
consistent commitment to honour the following values and principles:
Moral
Ethical
Spiritual
An individual's value system provides a framework within which the
individual acts in ways which are consistent and expected. Integrity can
be seen as the state or condition of having such a framework, and
acting congruently within the given framework.
One essential aspect of a consistent framework is its avoidance of any
unwarranted (arbitrary) exceptions for a particular person or group
especially the person or group that holds the framework.