Having established a sound foundation, and provided some context for understanding the Seven Habits, let’s take an overview.

Aristotle’s famous saying is, “We are what we repeatedly do: excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” That being said, following the Seven Habits – consciously or unconsciously – is key to excellent performance not just in work but also in life. I say consciously or unconsciously because we all know people who ‘do’ excellence, but they may never have read the book. But they’re ‘doing’ what’s in it.

Habits, according to Horace Mann, are like a cable – individual threads of behaviour intertwine until they become a cable of habit than is almost unbreakable. Covey argues it isn’t unbreakable but the initial effort to get out of a habit is metaphorically like that of rockets escaping the earth’s atmosphere. All the real effort is in leaving the gravitational pull and once that is done, the rest is freewheeling. But that first effort can be immense. Ask any smoker.

A Habit is defined as the intersection of knowledge (what and why), skill (how) and desire (want to). To illustrate in the room I have, think of picking your nose. It becomes a habit when all three are present, then remains so even if one is missing.

To the same degree, a good habit also requires all three elements, and is also harder to break once the cable has been twisted into shape. For our purposes we consider good habits to be those that serve us – productivity, respect, excellent performance, etc. But they serve us not only in our working life but also in those important relationships we treasure.

If we want greatness, then, we need to thread great habits. Returning to the See-Do-Get Cycle, seeing that better habits and the application of principles will bring the results we want means we then start to behave in a way that is in keeping with that ‘seeing’ and the results we get reflect that effort. And the better our results, the better we understand where we can improve even further, and the Being-Seeing-Doing (Getting) spiral wends its way ever upward.

Another way to explain this, and to demonstrate how the 7 Habits work, is to use a diagram called the Maturity Continuum (see below). We develop as individuals, workers, spouses, parents and in other respects along it. We start at a level of Dependence – you do it, you show me – and over time become Independent – I can do this. This is Private Victory, mastery over self. But we achieve most successes at the level of Interdependence – we can do this. Everything we do we do with, for or because of others. Life is Interdependent. If we can work at that level we synergise with others to produce much better results. It’s ecology. It’s like one plank supports 100kg, but two planks support more than 200kg. This is Public Victory, the ability to work with others to get what we all want.

Think about this: interdependence – the ability to work with others – is a choice only Independent people can make. A dependant (immature) person is wholly reliant on others for results. But a team member must be independently capable if they are to contribute at a meaningful level.

Surrounding the progressive Continuum is a reality – that we must train, prepare and maintain ourselves through Personal Renewal, a renewal that serves us physically (health and fitness), mentally (knowledge and ability), socially (relationships with ourselves and others) and spiritually (our sense of meaning).

Overt he next days we’ll get into all that in greater detail, of course. But for now, think about that Continuum – how, if we can master ourselves, we are better able to work with others to get some kind of mutual benefit; and that self-mastery includes being at our best (through renewal).

Tomorrow – Effectiveness Defined.

(c) FranklinCoveyInc

Covey identified Principles as another core understanding for effective living and working. Read through this and see why.

To continue using the map metaphor from yesterday, Principles are the territory. They are reality, whereas Values are the maps that we use to represent reality to ourselves.

Man has named Principles, but what they are (for our purposes) are timeless, extrinsic, universal and self-evident truths. Principles are not values, as values are selected or adopted by Man and do NOT exhibit those four characteristics unless we value principles.

Principles act everywhere, without judgement. They do not undermine, attack, argue with or otherwise seek to obstruct us. Principles just are.

Examples of Principles used by Stephen Covey include Truth, Respect, Honesty, Fairness, Integrity, Dignity, Service, Growth and Change.

To recognise them as Principles you can do two things. First, ask if they fit the definition above – universal (apply everywhere), timeless (have and will always apply) extrinsic (exist outside of us) and self-evident (make sense without thought). Second, see if their opposites make sense if they were to be applied to your life.

Principles are not religious, though religions adopt them. They cannot be broken without consequence. Think of Gravity as a principle – go break that.

The principle of Growth is sequential – you cannot alter the sequence of learning, even if you can speed it up. To quote Covey, you learn simple maths, then algebra and then calculus. Try the other way and see if that works.

What does all this have to do with Effectiveness and Success?

First of all, it means that true effectiveness is the result of recognising that principles apply, and that as much as working with them underpins success and effectiveness, working against principles will bring the opposite – failure and ineffectiveness.

Secondly, seeing things through Principles improves our ability to make good decisions and to act accordingly. If we recognise and apply Truth, we become integrated and are seen to be trustworthy. If we recognise and exercise Respect, we both give it and receive it, which is a core business and interpersonal requirement, is it not? If we recognise gravity, we will wear that parachute and we will  walk further away from the cliff edge.

The final thing to know about Principles is that they are not practices, although you can practice observing them. Principles apply everywhere while practices are situationally specific. That is why the See-Do-Get Cycle is important. Changing practices is the Do part of the Cycle and doing that can bring temporary or minimal benefit. But Principles relate to the See part of the Cycle and seeing things through Principles – truths – can change the way you do things at a quantum level and bring about massive improvement.

So you can now start to see the progressive, sequential and integratedness of The Seven Habits philosophy. Principles apply, seeing things through the paradigm of principles makes for greater effectiveness, seeing also improves doing improves results, and character makes for better seeing than personality.

Tomorrow we start looking at why the Habits are – effective.

Yesterday we looked at the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic, just after we explored Paradigms. Paradigms influence how we see thing, and we see things either through a lens of Character, or Personality. How does knowing about paradigms affect personal change?

Personality is a map; it is just someone’s subjective representation of the truth. But Character is the territory itself, it is the objective reality. Our maps tell us where to go – so we need accurate maps. Have the wrong map, you get nowhere fast. The territory only tells the truth.

Our Paradigms affect our behaviour – we cannot act outside of our perception and assessment of what we see.

Another way of understanding the effect and use of the concept of paradigms is to explore the See-Do-Get Cycle. The Cycle suggests that how we see – our paradigms – influences what we do, and what we do influences our results, what we get. Often, the response to challenge in our workplace is to change what we Do, but Covey proposes that all this provides is temporary relief before the new way of Doing no longer addresses the original problem. He suggests that changing the way you see the problem provides better results. What does that mean for personal change?

It means changing from the Inside, Out.

Returning to the idea that we are responsible for our response to what happens to us, how we see what happens to us requires an accurate paradigm if we are to address it correctly, with character. Assuming you have acknowledged and accepted the idea that having an accurate paradigm is an essential element of any improvement process, then you now have to decide what to do about it. As it is in work, so it is with personal change.

You have to see that you are the problem, and that the solution is within you.

Jim Rohn said you won’t get fit by getting someone else to do press-ups for you. Personal change requires you do the work, not someone else. Other people can be resources for personal change, but you are the one who has to make the changes and put in the effort, not them.

Personality Ethic people solve their problems by putting on wild clothes, being louder and even more whacky. They change their image and so the Outside sees them differently – but what Outside sees still isn’t reality. They change their Do, but the real problem isn’t addressed. They redraw their map but the territory stayed the same.

Character Ethic people look inside and ask themselves “What is the truth, what is the right thing to do, and am I willing to do it? And when they have an answer to those questions, they set about doing it. They change from the Inside, and Outside sees the change – and it is real. The world moved, not the drawing of it.

This process reflects that how Character Ethic people saw the problem was part of the problem, and now they see differently they get better results.

What Covey was saying is that lasting, beneficial change comes from within. It is not a false front that lasts as long as the current trend. If you want to change for the better, look inside, look at your paradigm of self, see what your current truth is, decide what the real truth should be, and base your next actions on that.

Tomorrow – we look at Principles.

Yesterday I wrote of Covey’s concept of Paradigms, and of “How we see the problem is the problem.” Today’s entry is about one of the influences on how we see and behave. Today we will address the difference between the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic.

“When Man first discovered the mirror, he lost his soul,” said the philosopher. This single sentence summed up what Stephen Covey had discovered in his study of 200 years of American ‘success philosophy’ literature. He noticed that for 150 years success was about diligence, effort, integrity and so on. But just before and since WWII success was suddenly all about ‘the power look’, manipulation, image, etc.

We have read about Kennedy wearing two vests on walkabouts because he couldn’t be seen to be cold. We watch as politicians waffle and fail to answer questions so as not to offend any potential voter, minority group, sponsor, lobbyist or reporter with anything so blunt as the truth.

The difference between the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic is stark. We now venerate celebrities and value their opinions upon issues that they know nothing about. We judge people based on their (presumed) political persuasion when we don’t know the first thing about them, or we lump them all in with abusive terms. Personality Ethic thinking abounds, in the sense that many people think that their image is all they need to be. Watch any ‘reality’ show and ask yourself what all the preeners, whacky-dressers, overly camp and expressive talkers and other pretenders are hiding.

We live in a Personality Ethic World, and it shows.

But guess what? Character is STILL appreciated, lauded and respected. Ask Captain-now-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore, the centenarian veteran who walked 100 laps of his garden on a zimmer frame and raised over £30m for the NHS. People saw a man of character and were inspired.

Generally speaking, the difference between Character and Personality is that the first is truth and the latter is false. The difference is summed up in the motto of North Carolina State, “To be rather than to seem.”

Personality is front, it’s show, and when such people need validation they ride bandwagons and espouse whatever is opportune in the moment. They are always right and you are always wrong. Which means, taking paradigms into account, they see through the lens of self and self-importance and act accordingly.

Character is intrinsic, it’s who a person is, and is usually based on integrity, realism, values-based self-confidence. People with character acknowledge what is and respond after careful thought. They see themselves as capable of being wrong and are willing to learn, to be better informed. They can be trusted to be what they appear to be.

Do you see the world through character, or personality? More to the point, which lens would you rather have? Which would you prefer to be seen to have?

How does your (my) self-image affect my (your) paradigms and your behaviour? Do we act based on how we will be seen, or on what we know and believe to be the right thing regardless of image?

And how does that affect our willingness to change?

Find out tomorrow.