Sharpen the Saw

This means deliberately taking time out to work on self-improvement. Covey identifies 3 areas: physical; mental; spiritual; and social/emotional.

While the book does not mention it, I recall that Jesus Christ regularly took time out and withdrew into the desert to fast and pray. I like the idea of time-outs and I certainly do think that people ought to do more of them.

Synergize

This means several different things working together and the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Covey’s chapter on synergy is a bit hard to understand. I think he means all of the habits working together. He talks a lot about different people working together on something.

Seek Understanding

Interesting thought: we listen and read by channeling information through our own frame of reference. Covey recommends “empathic listening” by changing perception away from first person frames of reference.

This includes taking the time to talk to people one-on-one.

Think Win-Win

An organization works better if everyone is cooperating. He goes into the Emotional Bank Account. Trust comes from past positive actions. Win/Win comes from building trust. He compares this to compromise. Compromise comes from Loose/Win and Win/Loose scenarios.

He talks about the Win/Win Agreement. These agreements have to have 5 explicit elements:

1) Desired results
2) Guidelines
3) Resources
4) Accountability
5) Consequences

With this habit, he shifts from personal stuff to human interaction.

Put First Things First

In other words, make priorities and don’t get distracted.

Time management issues have always left me discouraged. It seems that I never can complete a checklist. Covey recognizes this and talks about managing yourself instead of managing time.

This is where his famous Time Management Matrix comes in. He has two columns: Urgent and Not Urgent. He has two rows: Important and Not important. Then it becomes logical to concentrate on the first row and then move on down to the second one. Spending more time on the Not Urgent/Important quadrant will shrink the Urgent/Important one.

Begin With the End In Mind

This gets back to having a goal. Covey says that all things are created twice, first in the mind and then in the physical.

He talks about the difference between leadership and management. His metaphor to explain this is to imagine cutting a path through the jungle. The leader chooses the path, the manager are the ones cutting through the undergrowth.

This is the chapter where he goes into why and how to make a Personal Mission Statement.

This habit is about leadership, starting with leadership of yourself.

Be Proactive

Steve means more than just taking the initiative by this. He also means to stop seeing ourselves as others see us and letting that affect our behavior in negative way.

I do not think that this means that we should be indifferent to how people see us. My dad admonishes me to this day to dress right. People will more naturally be willing to do business with someone who looks professional rather than a slob. Girls and boys will be more willing to go out with someone who looks good than someone who does not.

What I got out of this section of Covey’s book is the importance of attitude. Like Napoleon Hill’s, “Think and Be Rich”. Covey’s approach to changing attitudes is to act. Positive attitudes come from positive behavior.