The 7 Habits of

Highly Effective People

by Stephen R. Covey

Habit Seven:
Sharpening the Saw

A Presentation by Kevin Ching

MIS 376 - Project Management
Associate Professor Kathy Schwalbe
What are “habits”?
 What does it mean to be
“effective”?
❂ The proper balance between
• Production (P) and
• Production Capability (PC)
Who can recall all the 7 Habits?

B B P T S S S
The Seven Habits
 Habit 1: Be Proactive
❂ Taking responsibility for our attitudes and
actions.
❂ Responsibility = Response + Ability
❂ Consciously choose your reaction to stimuli.
Reflect before you react.
❂ This freedom to choose resides in our self-
consciousness and separates us from lower
animals.
 Habit 2: Begin with
the End in Mind
❂ We will all experience an “End” to our lives.
❂ Begin each day with a clear understanding of
your desired direction and destination.
❂ Leadership versus Management (habit 3)
❂ Every worthwhile project is created twice: first
mentally, then physically.
❂ Identify your value system or ethical paradigm.
 Habit 3: Put First Things First
❂ All activities in life fall into four categories:
• Quadrant 1 - Important and Urgent
• Quadrant 2 - Important and Not Urgent
• Quadrant 3 - Not Important and Urgent
• Quadrant 4 - Not Important and Not Urgent
❂ To maximize your effectiveness, put as many
eggs as you can into the Quadrant 2 basket.
It will minimize your crises.
 Habit 4: Think Win-Win
❂ The attitude of seeking mutual benefit.
❂ Even better: Win-Win or No Deal.
❂ Abundance Mentality vs. Scarcity Mentality
❂ Recognizes interdependent realities in life:
marriage, employment, citizenship, etc.
❂ Clarifies expectations by explicitly acknowledging
five elements: desired results, guidelines, resources,
accountability, and consequences.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand,
Then to be Understood
❂ Effective communication:
• One of the master skills in life
• The key to building Win-Win relationships
• The essence of professionalism
❂ Most credibility problems begin with perception
differences.
❂ We see the world as we are, not as it is. Our
perceptions come out of our experiences.
❂ Practice paradigm shifting.
 Habit 6: Synergize
❂ Creative cooperation or teamwork
❂ Concentrate on the previous two habits and
this one will naturally develop.
❂ Synergy, where the whole is greater than
the sum of its parts, results from
complementary differences.
❂ “Opposites attract” principle
 Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
❂ Self-Renewal or minding your production capability
(PC). The other six habits are your golden eggs. This is
feeding the goose.
❂ We often become too busy producing (“sawing”) that we
forget to maintain our “edge.”
❂ Maintenance seldom pays dramatic immediate
dividends, yet without it we soon fizzle out.
 The 7 Habits and
The 4 Dimensions of Renewal
❂ The 7 habits are found to be at the intersection of
Desire, Knowledge, & Skills.
❂ The Affective Realm (Desire)
• The Spiritual Dimension
• The Emotional/Social Dimension
❂ The Cognitive Realm (Knowledge)
• The Mental Dimension
❂ The Substantive Realm (Skills)
• The Physical Dimension
 Identifying the
Spiritual Dimension
❂ Enhances your “want to do” (desire in the
affective realm)
❂ Consists primarily of your value system or
ethical paradigm
❂ Where you perform personal leadership
 Improving the
Spiritual Dimension
❂ Strengthen your religious faith by attending large
and small group gatherings of like-minded
individuals.
❂ Write down your own personal value system or
ethical paradigm.
❂ Form a mission statement for yourself and groups
you are associated with.
❂ Read and share stories with moral lessons.
❂ Create your own “Hall of Fame” with heroes.
 The Spiritual Dimension -
Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues
❂ Temperance ❂ Justice
❂ Silence ❂ Moderation
❂ Order ❂ Cleanliness
❂ Resolution ❂ Tranquility
❂ Frugality ❂ Chastity
❂ Industry ❂ Humility
❂ Sincerity
 The Spiritual Dimension -
William J. Bennett’s 10 Virtues
❂ Self-Discipline ❂ Courage
❂ Compassion ❂ Perseverance
❂ Responsibility ❂ Honesty
❂ Friendship ❂ Loyalty
❂ Work ❂ Faith
 Identifying the
Emotional-Social Dimension
❂ Enhances your “want to do” (desire in
affective realm)
❂ Relationships are emotional bank accounts,
invest in people’s potential.
❂ Emotional health is incompatible with a
“scarcity” mentality.
❂ Emotions should be generally subordinate to
thoughts for the purpose of self-control.
 Improving the
Emotional/Social Dimension
❂ 7 Intrinsic Sources of Personal Security
• Personal Integrity - do what you say
• Rich Private Life - learn to enjoy aloneness
• Nature - get outdoors and around animals
• Education - provides confidence & assurance
• Service - make a difference in something big
• Family - get involved with your extended family
• Commit yourself to an hour of sharpening daily
 Identifying the
Mental Dimension
❂ Enhances your “know to do” (knowledge in
the cognitive realm)
❂ Where you perform personal management
❂ Often takes a nose dive outside of an
academic environment
 Improving the
Mental Dimension
❂ Turn off the TV and other a-muse-ments.
❂ Begin reading a book at least every month.
❂ Begin writing letters, journals, etc.
❂ Extend your vocabulary.
❂ Teach whatever you learn to others. Those who teach,
learn twice.
❂ Memorize things of interest to you.
❂ Find ways to release your mental anxieties.
 Identifying the
Physical Dimension
❂ Enhances your “how to do” (skills in the
substantive realm)
❂ Four main aspects of good physical health:
• Endurance
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Skill
 Improving the
Physical Dimension - Endurance
❂ Endurance is obtained by aerobic (“with
oxygen”) exercise.
❂ It exercises the most important muscle in
your body: the heart.
❂ The heart can only be effectively worked by
engaging the large muscle groups in your
body, particularly the legs and back.
 Improving the
Physical Dimension - Endurance
❂ To benefit aerobically, you should exercise 4 times
per week, 30 minutes each time.
❂ The heart rate should be elevated to a
predetermined level for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Target Heart Rate = (220 - Age) * Fitness Factor
• Out of shape? Fitness Factor = 0.6
• In good shape? Fitness Factor = 0.7
• In great shape? Fitness Factor = 0.8
• Competitive athlete? Fitness Factor = 0.85
 Let’s Try It!

Target Heart Rate = (220 - Age) * Fitness Factor

Out of shape? Fitness Factor = 0.6
In good shape? Fitness Factor = 0.7
In great shape? Fitness Factor = 0.8
Competitive athlete? Fitness Factor = 0.85
 Improving the
Physical Dimension - Strength
❂ Strength comes from muscle resistance
exercise. The muscle fiber is stressed until
the nerve fiber registers pain. Nature
overcompensates and 48 hours later, the
muscle fiber is made stronger.
❂ Simple calisthenics, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-
ups, squats, weight training, etc.
 Improving the
Physical Dimension - Flexibility
❂ Comes through stretching
❂ Loosens and warms up the muscles before
exercise
❂ Helps to dissipate the lactic acid so that
you don’t feel sore and stiff after exercise
 Improving the
Physical Dimension - Skill
❂ Basketball, Football, Baseball, etc.
❂ Mind - body coordination
❂ Adds enjoyment to what otherwise would
be considered hard work
❂ Promotes confidence and self-control
❂ Promotes interdependence when team
work is involved
 Synergy in Renewal
❂ Renewal in any one of the 4 dimensions
increases your ability to live the 7 Habits.
❂ Improvement in one habit synergistically
increases your ability to live the rest: more
proactive, more exercising of personal
leadership, more effective management of life,
more Quad 2 renewing activities, more seeking to
understand first, more effective in seeking
synergistic Win-Win solutions.
 How Does This Habit Apply to
Project Management?
❂ Effective project managers recognize that
projects come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The only way to prepare for the ones never
encountered is to learn from the experience of
others.
❂ “Sharpening the saw” in this context means
stretching your project management skills
through additional education, volunteer projects,
and continuous improvement.
 The Upward Spiral
❂ “Learn, Commit, and Do” are the three
recurring activities that force us up the
spiral to higher and higher planes of
effectiveness in personal growth.
❂ “There are two great pains in life:
• the pain of self-discipline and
• the pain of regret.”
 Other References
❂ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -
Personal Leadership Application Workbook by
The Covey Leadership Center
❂ Applying Covey’s Seven Habits to a Project
Management Career by Douglas Ross
❂ Time Quest, the Franklin Day Planner System
by Franklin Quest Company
❂ The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett