The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Die sieben Wege zur Effektivität. Ein Konzept zur Meisterung Ihres beruflichen und privaten Lebens lieferte schon bei seiner Erstveröffentlichung im Jahre 1990 bahnbrechende Erkenntnisse und auch heute noch ist das Buch ein Business-Bestseller mit über 10 Millionen verkauften Exemplaren. In seinem Buch erkennt Stephen Covey, eine international anerkannte Autorität auf dem Gebiet des Selbstmanagement, daß der wahre Erfolg nur durch eine ausgewogene Mischung aus privater und beruflicher Effektivität erlangt werden kann. Das Buch versteht sich also als ein Leitfaden zur Verbesserung beider Lebensbereiche. Die angeführten Beispiele schildern dabei gleichermaßen Situationen aus dem Berufs- wie auch aus dem Privatleben. Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Anwendung der sieben Prinzipien ist der Vollzug eines Paradigmenwechsels, ein von Covey gewählter Begriff zur Bezeichnung einer Veränderung in der Art und Weise, wie wir die Welt sehen und interpretieren. Mit seinem Buch begleitet Covey Sie bei diesem Prozeß, der Ihre Sicht und Handlungsweise in bezug auf Produktivität, Zeit-Management, Positives Denken, die Entwicklung Ihrer proaktiven Fähigkeiten (agieren anstatt reagieren) und vieles mehr verändert.

Die sieben Wege zur Effektivität ist nicht geeignet für diejenigen, die den schnellen Weg zum Erfolg suchen. Die von Covey vorgestellten Konzepte sind oft komplex und können nicht von heute auf morgen erlernt erlernt werden. Im Laufe der Lektüre werden Sie sich wahrscheinlich so manche wichtige Passagen unterstreichen oder Anmerkungen machen und am Ende werden Sie das Gefühl haben, einen wichtigen Kurs bei Covey besucht zu haben. --Joan Price

According to Steven R. Covey, to live with security and wisdom, and to have the power to take advantages of the opportunities that change creates, we need fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity. Quite a tall order when you consider that most of us live our lives in a permanent state of flux, questioning our ideals and values and fighting a daily battle with the lack of self-confidence that stops us from taking risks of any kind. But, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey manages to make it sound as if changing the way we look at ourselves and the world around us so that we can become more successful both personally and professionally an absolute doddle. He defines the "habits" as "the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire" and states that the "Seven Habits" of the title are not mutually exclusive, but rather when developed together help to form a well-rounded, sensitive, confident and effective human being.

As with many self-help books, much of what you read here is based on basic common sense and can at times be irritatingly obvious. However, what Covey manages to do so successfully is to break down the barriers which prevent all of us from taking a long hard look at ourselves, and then gradually introduces new rules which allow us to move first from dependence to independence and then towards the ultimate goal of interdependence. But of course, the only real way to test the value of The Habits--be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think "win/win", seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergise, sharpen the saw-- is to work on them. This book is as good as any place to start on the road to self-awareness and self-improvement in the workplace and in the home without becoming too irritatingly smug and self-satisfied. --Susan Harrison

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.

Before you can adopt the seven habits, you'll need to accomplish what Covey calls a "paradigm shift"--a change in perception and interpretation of how the world works. Covey takes you through this change, which affects how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking, developing your "proactive muscles" (acting with initiative rather than reacting), and much more.

This isn't a quick-tips-start-tomorrow kind of book. The concepts are sometimes intricate, and you'll want to study this book, not skim it. When you finish, you'll probably have Post-it notes or hand-written annotations in every chapter, and you'll feel like you've taken a powerful seminar by Covey. --Joan Price

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.