The 7 habits

If you want to boost your career or your personal life, don't waste your energy on unnecessary matters. Pursue greater efficiency!

 

But how to do that? My mentor advised me to read 'The 7 habits or highly effective people' by Stephen R. Covey, so I did. And I can tell you, it gives you a head start.

 

You should be able to empower yourself, if you find yourself learning these 7 habbits from the book. It contains some nice examples and self-helpish pictures to guide you through the whole process.

 

Stephen Covey's vision goes against the 'macho style' of management that was common for that time. They preach all sort of quick wins like manipulation or better communication, .... It is not bad, but not all in the long run. 

 

If you follow the 7 habits, your actions will be guided by your principles, your character, your values. So you will be able to reach your goals AND feel good about it.

 

 

This is the 7 habits paradigm. First strive for independence with the 3 first habbits. If you  master these habits it becomes a personal victory.

• Be assertive
• Plan with the end in mind
• Put First things First.

Then you strive for interdependence with the next 3 habits. These are social habits, if you master them, it will result in public victory! Or world domination ;-)

• Think win/win
• First seek to understand, ...Then to be understood
• Synergize

The 7th habit puts it all in context. The other habits should all work together. You have to keep trying to improve yourself. Every habit has many layers the more you practice it, the more you can learn from it.

• Sharpen the saw

This is realy a good self-help book. You can read it over and over again en try to master it on a more profound way. So get your own copy and stat reading! It will be worth your time.

Your first elevator pitch

Ever heard of the elevator pitch? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. I will try to explain in 3 steps.
Imagine the following scenario:

Step 1 : you get in the lift with someone important for your business.
Step 2 : the door of the lift closes, you have 30 seconds to present your case...
Step 3 : 30 seconds later, the doors open again.

Did you talk about the right things? Did you make the right expression? Did you leave early?

To be prepared for situations like these, you need to be prepared. An elevator pitch needs to be short, 30 seconds 60 seconds max. Try to be unique but also make sure  to answer the following question : what is in it for the other person? The goal of your pitch is to make a difference, a call to action, so there can be a next talk.

There are a lot of blogs that can help preparing for this talk. Make sure to be ready when the moment arrives and don't forget to practice in advance.