Restoring the Powerful Lessons
Character Ethic in Personal change
By: Stephen
R Covey
23/09/2012
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This presentation is an excerpts from the best selling management book,
“The seven habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R Covey.
Each of the Seven Habits has been described in the slide No-4 to slide No-
26.
In the next few slides, I have tried to share my past experience and
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knowledge & information gathered during my interaction with various
management consultants, while undergoing various training, knowledge &
information gathered from various management books, articles, & various
world wide web sites pertaining to management education. Inculcating
these habits & implementing the HR practices can help personal
development as well as organisational development & help develop a
culture in consonance with organisational philosophy.
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Stephen Covey(Oct 24,1932 to July 16, 2012) was the well renowned
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international Management Guru, imparting training to most of the Fortune 500
companies.
He is the author of several best selling Management books.
He was the co-chairman of Franklin Covey Company, an international firm devoted to
helping individuals, organisations, and families become more effective through the
application of proven principles of natural law. For many people, reading Covey's work,
or listening to him, literally changes their lives.
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It is principle centered, character based, inside-out approach
to personal and interpersonal effectiveness.
Inside-out means to start first with self, even more
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fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self- with
your paradigms, your character, and your motive.
The inside-out approach says that private victories precedes
public victories, that making and keeping promises to
ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to others. It
says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to
improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.
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1)Ethics:- Ethics are that dimension of human thought & behaviour that is
guided by standards & principles of appropriate conduct. It
involves a commitment to do the right thing.
2)Values:- Values are one's judgments about what is important in life.
Values tell people what is good, bad, right, wrong, beneficial,
important, useful, beautiful, desirable, appropriate.
3)Paradigm:-It is our perception about the world. It is the way we see the
world-not in terms of visual sense of sight, but in terms of
perceiving , understanding & interpreting the world.
4)Habits:- An acquired pattern of behavior that often occurs
automatically.
5)Principles:-These are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have
enduring, permanent value.
6)Proactive:- Tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events.
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 There are two types of ethics that define our success.
 a) Character ethics:-Things like integrity, humility, fidelity,
temperance, courage, justice, patience, simplicity through
which the people can only experience true & enduring success.
These attributes are the foundation stone of success. The
character ethics teaches us that there are basic principles of
effective living, and that people can only experience true
success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate
these principles into their basic character.
 Character is like a tree & reputation like a shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing-
Abraham Lincoln
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 b) Personality ethics:-In such type of ethics
more importance is given to the personality of a
person rather than the character, for achieving
success. This emphasises more on quick-fix
influence techniques, communication skills &
positive attitude.
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Private Victory:-The first three habits move a person from
dependence to independence. These are the essence of the
character growth. These habits are called habits of self-mastery.
Principles of
personal
Habit 1
vision
Be
Proactive
Habits
Principles for Principles of
of personal Private personal
Habit 2 Habit 3
leadership Victory management
Begin with Put first
the end in
things
mind
first
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Habit 4- Principles of
interpersonal
Think Win/Win leadership
Habit 5- Principles of
Seek first to understand Empathetic
& then to be understood communication
Principles of
Habit 6-
Creative
Synergize Cooperation
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Principles of
Habit 7-
Balanced self
Sharpen the Saw renewal
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 What is proactivity? It is more than taking
initiative. This is the ability to control one's
environment, rather than have it control you,
as is so often the case. Self determination,
choice, and the power to decide response to
stimulus, conditions and circumstances.
 We have the initiative and the responsibility to
make things happen.
 Highly proactive people recognize that
responsibility.
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Circle of influence & Circle of concern:-Excellent way to become more self aware
regarding our own degree of pro-activity is to look at where we focus our time &
energy.
Circle of Concern: Identify
those concern on which you
don’t have any influence &
minimise this circle of
concern
Circle of
Influence
:Increase this
circle of
influence to
increase your
pro activity.
Highly Proactive people focus their efforts on
circle of influence.
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 We have lot of concerns in our lives. In some cases we
have no control over those concerns & in some cases
we have control. We have to identify those concerns
only where we have some control & enlarge our circle
of influence to bring out a change.
 How to enlarge the circle of influence?
 a) Be a light not a judge.
 b) Be a model, not a critic.
 c) Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
 d) Don’t get into blaming, accusing mode.
 e) Work on things you have control over.
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 At the very heart of our circle of
influence is our ability to make and
keep commitments and promises.
 The commitments we make to
ourselves and to others, and our
integrity to those commitments, is
the essence and clearest
manifestation of our pro activity.
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Habit 2 is based on the principle that all things are created twice. It is based on
principles of personal leadership, which means that the Leadership is the first
creation and Management is the second creation.
Leadership and management are the two creations.
Management is a bottom line focus.
According to Peter Drucker :-Management is doing the things right ,
Leadership is doing the right things.
The most effective way to nurture Habit 2 is to develop a personal
mission statement. It focuses on what you want to be(character)
and to do(contributions and achievement) and on the values or
principles upon which being and doing are based. A good mission
A good mission statement should incorporate socially meaningful and
measurable criteria addressing such areas as the moral/ethical position of
the individual, the personal improvement to be developed and the
expectations of growth and personal development.
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Stephen R. Covey's Mission Statement:
To inspire, lift and provide tools for change and growth of
individuals and organizations throughout the world to significantly
increase their performance capability in order to achieve worthwhile
purposes through understanding and living principle-centered
leadership.
T.K.Dhar’s Mission Statement
To strive relentlessly to bring a change in environment and society
through sharing knowledge and resources at my disposal, spread
joy, unconditional love and compassion and lead a life with highest
degree of moral values and integrity.
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 This is the principles of personal
management.
 Habit 1 says you are the creator. It is based on
the four unique endowments of imagination,
conscience, independent will and particularly
self awareness.
 Effective management is put first things first.
While leadership decides what first things are,
it is the management that puts them first.
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 It is the habit of interpersonal
leadership.
 It involves the exercise of each of the
unique human endowments- self awareness,
imagination, conscience, and independent
will in our relationship with others.
Character is the foundation of win/win and
everything else builds on that foundation.
Win/Win is a total paradigm of human
interaction. It comes from a character of
integrity, maturity, and the abundance
mentality. It grows out of high trust
relationship. Lack of respect & trust
destroys relationship & puts the
organisation always in urgency mode.
Achievements are largely dependent on co-
operative efforts with others.
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 Seven common mistakes the leader
makes which prevents the leader
from being trusted by the followers:
 The leader withhold trust in others.
 The leader asks much, yet fail to
acknowledge effort.
 The leader behaves badly.
 The leader does not admit his mistakes.
 The leader spin the truth.
 The leader duck people & performance
issues.
 The leader does not walk the talk.
 And finally, they assume that their
position alone makes them worthy of
other’s trust.(Author- Dennis and
Michelle Reina- Co-founder of the
Reina Trust Building 23/09/2012
Institute)
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 Seek first to understand involves a very deep shift
in paradigm. We typically seek first to be
understood.
 Most people do not listen with the intent to
understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
 In order to seek first to understand we have to be
empathetic listener.
 What is empathy ?
It is the awareness of other’s feelings, needs, and
concerns. Empathy is our social radar. It is the ability to
sense what others feel without their explicitly saying so.
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 Empathy is demonstrated in the way we listen
or do not listen. Most of us listen with the
intent to reply. We do not listen with the intent
to understand. In order to become empathetic
listener we have to refrain from the following
types of behaviour and responses:-
 Changing the topic
 I know better than you.
 Judjmental
 Advising
 Telling our own stories
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 Before the problem come up, before you try to
evaluate and prescribe, before you try to present
your own ideas- seek to understand.
 It is a powerful habit of effective independence.
 When we really, deeply understand each other, we
open the door to creative solutions . Our
differences are no longer stumbling blocks to
communication and progress. Instead they become
the stepping stones to synergy.
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 What is Synergy? It means that the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts.
 Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more
agents working together to produce a result not
obtainable by any of the agents independently.
 Synergy is the essence of principle centered
leadership.
 It catalyzes, unifies, and unleashes the greatest
powers within people.
 The essence of synergy is to value differences-to respect
them, to build on strengths, to compensate for
weakness.(Envy, jealousy, selfishness are the main negative
attributes of a human being which becomes the main
bottlenecks in synergy)
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It is the renewal of following four dimensions
of our nature:-
 i) Physical:-Exercise, nutrition, stress
management.
 ii) Spiritual:-Value clarification, commitment,
study & meditation.
 iii) Mental:- Reading, Visualising, Planning,
Writing.
 iv) Social/emotional:-Service, empathy.
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 Proactive people can figure out many, many ways
to educate themselves.
 a) There is no better way to inform and
expand your mind on a regular basis than to
get into the habit of reading good literature.
 b) Writing is another powerful way to sharpen the
mental saw.
 c) Organisation as well as individual effectiveness
requires development and renewal of all four
dimensions(mentioned in previous slide) in a
wise and balanced way.
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Self awareness-
Commitment
Imagination,
Habit 1-
conscience,
Self Be Proactive
emotions, conduct
Development
-Reading, writing, Leadership-
Habit 2
socialising, Babit-7 Mission, values,
exercising, work Sharpen the Saw
Begin with the Contribution,
end in mind
life balancing. Judgment, inspire,
innovate, Lead by
example, mentor
Seven Habits of
Highly Effective
Collaboration- People-Stephen
Management-
Team work, Habit 6- R Covey Habit 3
Motivate,
Group effort, Synergize
Put first things
Accomplish, Do
first
Delegation things right.
Empathy- Habit 5
Relationship-
Listen, Understand, Seek first to Habit 4
Love, Respect,
Care, Support understand then
Think Win/Win
to be Trust
understood
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Self Actualisation
The best modern organisations have started realising that
sustainable success is built on a serious and compassionate
commitment to helping people identify, pursue and reach their own
personal unique potential & aligning the individual potential to
achieve the corporate objective.(satisfaction of self actualisation at
the top of the pyramid shown in slide-28)
When people grow as people, they automatically become more
effective and valuable as employees.
In fact virtually all personal growth, whether in a hobby, a special talent or
interest, or a new experience, produces new skills, attributes, behaviours and
wisdom that is directly transferable to any sort of job role.
The best modern organisations recognise this and as such offer development
support to their staff in any direction whatsoever that the person seeks to grow
and become more fulfilled.
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Aligning all the employees with the organisational
philosophy
In order to survive, most of the organisations today are more
concerned with the improvement of top line & bottom line. But
little attention is paid to the development of the organisational
culture, which is equally important for sustainable growth &
getting enduring success. Most of them have beautifully drafted
vision statement, mission statement, core values, organisational
philosophy. But little attention is paid to align all the employees
with those values & philosophy of the organisation. This leads to
mismatch between the philosophy of the organisation & their
employees.
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HR practices which can help in developing sustainable
organisational culture in the long term
1) Johari Window model:-It was developed by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in
the 1950s.This model can be used to increase self awareness, personal development and group development. The
Johari Window actually represents information - feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions,
motivation, etc - within or about a person - in relation to their group, from four perspectives.
2) 360 degree feedback process:-This can be used for leadership development or development of
interpersonal behaviours. As per Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Co-founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners &
Coach, senior management team at many of the world’s leading companies like American Express, GE,
Johnson & Johnson, UBS –use 360degree feedback as a part of an overall process to help align corporate
values with individual behaviour.
3) Code of ethics/conduct:-Writing code of Ethics applicable for all level of employees helps in
developing sustainable organisation culture . A code of ethics should be tailored to the needs and values of the
organization. Display/circulation of code of ethics/conduct. This require every one to acknowledges & understands
the responsibility to comply with it. Best practices is to include it in employee orientation programme.
4) Organisation structure:-Review of organisation structure, its effectiveness & the best prevalent
practices, keeping in view the long term objective & values of the organisation .
5) Vision, Mission, Core Values:-Sharing/displaying Organisation Vision , Mission, Core values with
all employees, specifically the new entrants(making it a part & parcel of welcome kit) and igniting passion to
live by values.
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Johari Window model for increasing self
awareness, understanding relationship, personal
development, group development
The Johari Window processes of serious feedback solicitation,
disclosure, and striving to uncover one's unknown area relate to
Maslow's 'self-actualization' ideas contained in the Hierarchy of
Needs.(depicted in slide No.28)
Today the Johari Window model is especially relevant due to
modern emphasis on, and influence of, 'soft' skills, behaviour,
empathy, cooperation, inter-group development and
interpersonal development. This model can help in increasing
self awareness which in turn will help nurture & inculcate Habit-4
described in Slide No-20.
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360 degree Feedback
There are tools like 360 degree feedback process, where
the peer, superior, subordinate gives feedback about each
one of them.
This system works on the premise that “There is no
challenge more challenging than improving yourself”.
360-degree feedback process was developed in order to
improve the manager/employee relationship.
In present day organizations, 360-degree feedback process
is used mostly for leadership development.
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Code of Ethics/Code of conduct
Code of Ethics is required:-
a) To define accepted/acceptable behaviours in line with
organisational philosophy.
b) To promote high standards of practice.
c) For self evaluation & act as a benchmark for employees to
use.
d) To establish a framework for professional behaviour and
responsibilities.
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From Effectiveness to Greatness
In 1992, because of his selfless humanitarian endeavors, JRD Tata was awarded India`s highest
civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna-one of the rarest instances in which this award was granted
during a person`s lifetime.
In the same year, JRD Tata was also bestowed with the United Nations Population Award for his
crusading endeavors towards initiating and successfully implementing the family planning
movement in India, much before it became an official government policy.
Some valuable insights:-
Good leaders are followed chiefly because people trust and respect them,
rather than the skills they possess. Leadership is about behaviour first, skills
second.
Great and enduring leaders are anchored by their conscience or spiritual
intelligence.- Stephen R Covey
A Cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers:
You can not continuously improve interdependent processes until you
progressively perfect interdependent interpersonal relationship—Henry Ford.
“An organisation’s ability to learn and translate it into action rapidly is
the ultimate competitive advantage”-Jack Welch
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Basic Principles of Leadership
“Practice what you preach”
This will help earning the respect & trust of the
followers.
Gandhiji realised that untouchability is an evil to the
Indian society. So he preached to eradicate this evil
from the Indian society. He used to stay with the
Harijan’s in their hut to show the world that they are
not untouchable.
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CMA T. K. Dhar
Your feedback, comments & valuable suggestions solicited.
tkd_kol@yahoo.co.in
For insightful thoughts of life & leadership thoughts, visit my blogsite
www.grab.synthasite.com
T. K. Dhar
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