Stephen R. Covey And The Character Ethic

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After reviewing 200 years of literature on success, Stephen R. Covey realized that most of it was based on solutions to specific problems, but that it was not focussed on the causes of the problem but on the wick aspirin to eliminate the symptoms. The Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic are examples of ideas of self-improvement that
Covey refers as infective if one does not work from the inside-out. The author refers to the Inside-out approach as the first step to be taken in order to reach effectiveness by changing yourself before trying to change the world.

The writer describes human personality as a compilation of our habits and how they play an important role in our lives. Subsequently, he divides habits into three categories: knowledge, skills and desire. Knowledge refers to: what to do and why, skills are the ability to know hoe to do it and desire is the willing to do it. The 7 Habits take the readers through 3 different stages: Dependence, Independence and Interdependence. Interdependence is a choice that only independent people can make. Therefore, the first the habits refer to the process of moving from being dependent to becoming independent.

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Interdependency is closely related to synergy, meaning that it does not matter how much effort we put into something individually, we would never reach a better outcome as if we would work together.
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the