The 7 habits of Highly Effective Management

In project management it’s crucial that the manager of the project has all the needed management skills to guide the project to a success. A project manager therefore needs to possess different personal characteristics to achieve this. The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People focusses on how to improve your habits to be more effective as a person in your personal and professional life. These habits can be applied to project management as well. This article will give an in-depth view of how each of these habits can be useful for managers working in project management.

The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-help book written by American Author Stephen Covey. The first edition was published in the 1989 and since then more than 40 million copies has been sold worldwide. In this book Stephen Covey focuses on an inside-out approach to achieve success both personal and business wise. This is achieved by following the seven habits: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the edge. By using these steps within project management, managers can improve their leadership role and ensure that project will be managed successfully.

The 7 habits

The book The 7 habits of Highly Effective People focusses on a inside out approach, meaning that you aren't following an instruction but you actually creating habits based on principles to live your most effective life possible. This is done by following the 7 habits described in the book, the first three habits focus on you as a person and are called your private victory. The Following three habits are focused on you working with others and is called the public victory. Lastly, the seventh habit focusses on maintaining and constant improvement of the learned habits. This will ensure constant improvement of your effective life.

According to Covey you need to balance your Production and Production capacity to get the most out of your life. This is called the P/PC balance principle. If you focus too much on one aspect, you will neglect the other. This means you have to invest in yourself(PC) to produce the best possible outcome(P).

Private Victory

The first three habits are called the Private Victory. These habits focus on your yourself and will create a increased self-confidence if followed correctly. These first habits are focused on you identifying your deepest values and acting upon them to life your most effective life.[p. 61]

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Proactive Focus(right) and Reactive focus(left)[p. 90-91]

The first habit concentrates on you engaging on things you can control, instead of reacting on things happening around you. The circle of concern and influence can be used to illustrate this phenomenon. You can choose to act upon the things happening around you(concern) and therefore only reacting as a person or you can choose to be proactive and act upon the things you can influence. If you choose to focus on the proactive side you will expand this area of influence and eventually you will spend less time in the circle of concern because you're taking the lead in your life as illustrated in the figure.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

The next habit focusses on working towards goals in life. The habit; begin with the end in mind means that you need to know what you want to achieve in your life to be able to work towards this and make decisions according to it. Making a personal mission statement can help you define your goals in life. To help create your mission statement you need to know what you really care about. It can help to ask yourself how you would like to be remembered by your close family, friend and colleagues if you would pass away. Answers to these questions show what you really care about and can form the basis of your mission statement and further goals in life.

By learning the following habit and applying the previously mentioned habit you are constantly proactively improving your life to achieve your goals set in life.

Habit 3: Put first things first

Time Management matrix[p. 171-190]

Now that you created the first two habits the third habit focusses on actually achieving your goals by using your time and effort efficiently. This is done by placing your activities in the time management matrix. This matrix has four quadrants where tasks can be categorized under. The tasks are assessed according their importance and urgency. On first sight you would say that you need to spend most of your time on the tasks that are most important and urgent but according to Covey this creates and environment where you are only driven by crisis and deadline-driven projects. This will create a lot of stress and and an environment where your P/PC is out of balance. You are putting to much effort in Producing results while not taking care of your personal development and goals(Production Capacity).

The goal is to focus as much time as possible on tasks that are important but not urgent, if done correctly the tasks that used to categized as important and urgent start to become less and less because the tasks are done before they have a change to become urgent. The tasks that are in this category are based around your goals and make sure your Productivity Capacity and Production are in balance while achieving your set goals. Examples of tasks in different categories are displayed in the quadrants of the time management matrix, also called the Eisenhower matrix.(p. 171-190)

Public Victory

Now that you identified your own deepest values and set goals towards them, the next three habits focus on your relationships with other people. These habits are called your Public victory. In the end by following these habits you will create or strengthen your relationships according to the set goals of your life.[p. 61]

Habit 4: Think win/win

The fourth habits think win/win is about relationships and interaction with people that are centered around mutual benefits. This concept is based around the idea that your success shouldn't be on the expenses of someone else. This is also covered in the book getting to yes. This book is about negotiation with people and according to the authors a successful negotiation starts by identifying what the benefit is for the opposite side when they agree with your proposal. This will lead eventually in a win/win situation. This is also aimed for in the fourth habit, by putting yourself on the opposite side and asking yourself why it would be beneficial for the other person you can achieve mutual agreements and win/win situations based around your previously set goals in the first three habits.

(Use reference 'getting to yes' as for another source in win/win)

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Seek first to understand, then to be understood is all about communication and understanding the people you are interacting with. To help you to listen to other people and understand their point of view it goes past only listening to what they are saying. Body language and difference in the tone of voice can be helpful to fully understand the person you are communicating with. Once you understand their point of view you are capable to communicate with mutual respect what will only create a deeper relationship with the person.

Habit 6: Synergize

The last habit of your Public Victory is Synergize. This habit is centered around synergy, meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.[p. 308] In context of the previously learned habits, you will create an personal creative environment where opportunities will arise. This can bring uncertainty for your feeling as you are forced to get out of your comfort zone and it can feel like your loosing your set goals in habit two but habit 6 ensures you that you need to embrace this process to fully unlock your potential as a person.

Renewal

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw

The last habit is about constant improvement of the learned habits. The name of seventh habits is a metaphor for this concept, Sharpen the saw in context of Covey metaphor means that it takes a lot longer to cut down a tree with a dull saw than with a sharp saw. by maintaining the saw and keeping it sharp(keep improving the habits) you will improve your effectiveness in life in a ongoing process.

Application to Management

The book The 7 habits of highly effective people is about how to live your most effective life by constant personal development. These habits can also be applied to management and will further be discussed in this section.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

As a manager in a project, program or portfolio environment you have to decide what is important to spend your time on. If you only react on what is happening around you, your set goals as a manager will not be achieved and you will not be reaching your full potential of yourself and that of your colleagues you are working with. If you focus on the parts you can influence you create an environment where you take the lead and therefore influence what is happening around you. This is a key characteristic of a successful leadership and therefore important for a manager.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

Setting goals is essential for managers. If goals aren't defined, you as a manager don't know what you're aiming for and the used resources are not use efficiently used or even wasted. By setting goals in a early stage on project, program or portfolio level you can allocate the proper resources to have the most effective result.

Habit 3: Put first things first

The time management matrix can be used by managers to prioritize and identify tasks. It also creates an opportunity to create tasks centered around the goals identified previously in habit 2. You as a manager can try to focus most of your time on tasks of matrix two, where the tasks are important but not urgent. This ensures that the project, program or portfolio isn't driven by crisis set tasks but managed in a timely matter without stress for you or your colleagues.

Habit 4: Think win/win

As a manager your main focus is to achieve your set objectives. This can only be done by involvement with relevant stakeholders.[p. 5-6] It is essential that you identify what their benefits would be if they agreed with your goals. If this is identified properly the relationship between you and the other stakeholder will grow and only become stronger. This creates an win/win environment where everyone has the same mutual goal. By applying the win/win philosophy you create an effective interpersonal leadership role as a manager.[p. 237]

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

As a manager you're most of your time communicating with other people. By first listening to stakeholders and actually fully understand their needs and desire you can create a good relationship with your stakeholders and achieve a deeper understanding of each other and work together. This will eventually lead to better relationships in your professional life.

Habit 6: Synergize

If you as a managers fully embraced the first five habits you create an environment where all stakeholders have the same mindset and will start leading themselves towards your goals. Colleagues will respect you and others around them and accept if someone else has a different opinion. They will synergize and come up with creative ideas that will possibly even surpass the previously set goals in habit two.

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw

Managing a project, program or portfolio is an ongoing changing process and needs constant adjustment. By constantly improving your habits as a manager you will create a successful work environment around you that aims for excellence.

Limitations

The whole 7 habits are based around the principle of an inside-out approach, meaning that the success of the discussed habits completely depend on you incorporating the taught habits on your own in your life. This can be difficult for people that are actually in need of these habits as they have to take initiative on their own. Meanwhile the theory of the 7 habits originates from 1989 and can be questioned if this is still applicable in current day society. Fortunately the most concepts discussed in this theory are based around creating a mindset to understand yourself and the people around you to eventually get the most out of your personal and professional life.[p. 15-22] These principles are still relevant in present time.

References

Annotated Bibliography

Covey, S. R. (2020). The 7 habits of Highly effective people. Revised edition, UK: Simon & Schuster, In this book the seven habits of Highly effective people are introduces and explained by the author Stephen R. Covey. This reference is mainly used in this article and the latest edition is expanded by more insights by the son of the author.

International Organization for Standardization.(2020) Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on project [ISO 21502], A publication about Project, programme and portfolio management by the International organization of standardization(ISO). The document provides guidance on concepts and practices that are of important for project management.

References