7 Habits of Effective People

7 Habits of Effective People

Introduction

In order to be successful, it is imperative that an individual is highly effective. Leaders and team players are a requirement of the contemporary world, and for standing out an individual needs to be highly effective. According to Covey, highly effective people have seven habits. These habits are being proactive; beginning with the end in mind; putting first things first; thinking win/win; seeking to understand first than being understood; synergizing; and sharpening the saw respectively. According to Covey, in order to become effective, an individual is required to bring change in his habits employing an 'inside-out' approach. This means that the change process starts from the inner self, and involves the first three habits which describe the level of dependence one has on others. Once an individual learns these habits, he becomes independent and moves towards interdependence. This involves learning the fourth, fifth and sixth habits. After learning interdependence, an individual needs to continuously refurbish his personal production capability, which is the final habit of highly effective people. In order to be effective, it is important that an individual learns to establish proper balance between his actual production and ways to improve his production capability. This principle is not only applicable to humans, but is also valid for physical and financial assets. Various concepts such as scheduling, project management, risk management and planning also have applications of these principles.

Scheduling in relation to the 7 habits of highly effective people

Scheduling, a concept of project management has applications of first three habits. After fulfilling the first two habits as a prerequisite, it addresses the third habit i.e., 'putting first things first'.

Scheduling is a time management technique which enables to plan how activities are to be performed. Estimates for the duration of each activity are made which involves the time that an activity requires for completion as well as the associated waiting time. Estimates for the activity duration must be based on the quantity of the resources that are expected to be utilized for the activity. Some activities may require more time than the others. Similarly, some may finish earlier than the estimated time; and some may be completed on the estimated time.

Planning for the activities to be performed is done keeping in mind the project's completion time. All the activities are planned such that the project is completed on time and does not face delays. However, delays and accelerations in activities over the life of a project may occur but they tend to nullify each other.

Activities in Scheduling are planned keeping in view the importance of the activities. It focuses on the importance of the activities rather than the urgency. The more important the activity is the earlier it is scheduled.

In real shop manufacturing, when Scheduling is adopted it leads to job overlapping. This means that bigger job slots are broken down in chunks or small sub lots, so that similar operations can be ...