The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What’s the difference, as Stephen Covey describes it, between the Personality and Character Ethics? Does that distinction have relevance to your life? According to Covey, what is the disadvantage of relying solely on the Personality Ethic?

One page lists a litany of complaints, each ending with “hands thrown up in the air” resignation. Was there a time in your life when you’ve felt that way? Do you perhaps feel that way right now? What was your mindset to cause those feelings, and how does it affect your behavior? What price are you paying because of this way of thinking? What might be the payoff if you could change your thinking and your behavior?

What does the experiment using the drawing of a younger and an older woman tell us about individual perception? Talk about how personal conditioning colors perspective in your own experiences. How difficult is it to achieve objectivity — in life generally and in your own life?

Covey says that to change, “we must look at the lens through which we see the world.” How are you able to do this? How can we become more aware of our lenses (paradigms)? What’s a positive paradigm you have toward working with your colleagues? How does this paradigm affect your behavior and your relationships with clients? What’s a paradigm regarding your work that sometimes hurts your efforts and your results? What can you do to change it?

Regarding the Personality and Character Ethics — is Covey suggesting it’s bad to have a personality? What’s an example of how your organization operates with clients that demonstrates high character on the part of your organization? What was a time when you demonstrated poor character as an adult or as a child? For example, you may have violated a confidence or demonstrated poor discipline. What was the outcome, in the short term and the long term? Were you able to make up for this lapse? How?

It’s important to stay focused on strengths, which everyone has, and on how we can focus or apply these strengths. What’s one of your strongest character attributes? What’s an example of how you’ve demonstrated this attribute with friends and family? What about with colleagues and clients?

Why is it more important to work on your paradigms than on your behaviors? What are the consequences of paradigms that aren’t aligned with correct principles?

Describe the stages of maturity through which effective people advance: dependence, independence, and interdependence.

Why is independence not the optimal model to follow in personal or professional environments? How can you help clients see the danger of silos vs. all pulling together? How does the concept of interdependence help change organizations?

Why would an organization care if employees have a paradigm of interdependence vs. independence? What’s the benefit to the organization and its customers when they have a paradigm of interdependence?