The seven characteristic principles

In the light of the modern technology world we live in today it has become more complex, stressful, and demanding for us humans. Especially when one must find a balance between work, family and your own self. For one to achieve higher aspirations and overcome great challenges in once projects and life, Stephan R. Coveys has come up with seven principles.

SStephen R. Coveys approach is an inside- out approach and focus on one’s character ethics which is the foundations of one’s success. The character ethics is about one’s integrity, humility, courage, and modesty. To achieve one’s success and happiness one must look inside with the help from the seven principles. To achieve greatness, you must plant the seeds and work with your own self.

This article presents the seven approaches to help one with becoming more effective in reaching one’s goals. It is all about aligning oneself based on one’s characteristic ethics to achieve one’s goals. The article covers the seven principles and their limitations, connecting the dots and its practical relevance in project management.

Context

Figure 1: Effective Habits, Internalized principles and patterens of behavior

What are habits?

To understand the seven habits, one must first understand what habits means to having a successful project or work team. Habits are rituals and behaviors we as humans do automatically without thinking about it. Habits are connected to an activity e.g. brushing one’s teeth . To incorporate or change a habit one must have an open mind for it to happen. An equally important thing you need to have in order to change or adapt a habit are the following three things: knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the question one must ask what to do and why. The skill is where one should ask how to do. Desire is wanting to do. Changing a habit or adapting one can be hard and therefore it is important that you are motivated or have a greater purpose for why.

When incorporating the seven habits from Stephan Coveys you can divide them into three criteria, the Private Victory, Public Victory and Renewal. The Private Victory is all about working on yourself and understanding how you can become a better project manager. Understanding and working on yourself will give you the boost that is necessary to achieve greatness. It is all about going from being dependent to independent. The Public Victory is what Stephen Coveys calls the maturity continuum, which consists of three levels of dependence, independence and interdependent. Dependence is the relationship between a boss and the employer and their attitude towards each other. Going from dependence to independence means you need to understand the first three habits to become the I. The interdependence is where you will be thinking like a team and not about the I to accomplice the goals or scopes set. The interdependence phase will be described in habit four to six.

Figure 2: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Tree diagram (inspiration from Sean Covey

1. Be proactive

Figure 3: The Circle of concerned/ Circle of Influence

The most important habit!

Take responsibility for your own life. The human being is a unique specie because we have self-awareness. This means that as a human you have the possibility to learn and analyze your own experiences as well as other people’s experiences . This allows us to change or adapt habits. Being proactive you are driven by your values and therefore take responsibility for your life and the choices you make. Being able to be a proactive person means that emotions does not affect the work environment, whereas reactive people are the opposite. In other words, Mahatma Gandhi said:

"They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them."

Our language is a powerful tool to determine if you are a proactive person or reactive person. The proactive person will take responsibility and take matters into his own hands and will have wayed out the consequences of the choices he has made .

Another way to look at this by the Circle of concerned/ Circle of Influence is how to spend your time wisely on things, which you can control and not on thing, which you cannot control. Looking at figure xx The Circle of concerned is things that are out of your control e.g. people’s opinions, others’ mistakes or economy.

The Circle of concerned are people that are reactive, who complain a lot, and their mood tends to affect the people from the outs. This leads to them not taking action or responsibility of the things that they are able to control. This is shown in figure xx where the reactive people have a negative energy.

The Circle of influence are people are thing you can take into matters and can be controlled e.g. your attitude, your goals, skills to learn. The proactive people take responsibility for their decisions and it determines their way of living and not their conditions. They don’t dwell on things, which they cannot control, but act and improve the things they are able to control. They also know that at times there are things that cannot be controlled, but they are able to control the way they react to the situation. This is shown in figure xx where the proactive people have a positive energy.

Do not dwell on things you cannot control but take responsibility to the things you can. This gives you a stronger way of living and more power. Being proactive in project and portfolio management will give a stronger output and a stronger team. You want to act rather than being acted upon! To be proactive is something that can be used in project and portfolio management.

2. Begin with the end in mind

Figure4: Leadership vs. Managment

Everything in our minds are created twice. First one creates an idea or a habit in their head and then they seek it out . Like in building project the Architect has an idea in his mind of architectural looks of the building and then begins to make blueprints and construction plans. To reach the goals in life it is important to create a map to determine the lifegoals and the destination to reach them. Everyone has at least once in their life been asked where they see themselves in five, ten or fifteen years. If you cannot answer, you are wondering around without any purpose in life. This can also be related to a project. If a project manager does not have a clear purpose of the project, it is likely that the project will not be a success. If the project has a clear purpose, the chance for it being a success it big. Find your destination and work towards it. Do not ask what life can offer you, but what you can offer life. Leadership vs Management:

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." By Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis

Leaders are the ones who have a vison on where the companies are heading, there mission, visions and the company’s goals, whereas managers are hired to make sure that the companies’ goals and values are aligned