Page 47 - stephen covey The seven habits of highly effective people

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart

define what you're trying to accomplish. You carefully think through the product or service you want
to provide in terms of your market target, then you organize all the elements -- financial, research and
development, operations, marketing, personnel, physical facilities, and so on -- to meet that objective.
The extent to which you Begin with the End in Mind often determines whether or not you are able to
create a successful enterprise. Most business failures begin in the first creation, with problems such as
undercapitalization, misunderstanding of the market, or lack of a business plan.
The same is true with parenting. If you want to raise responsible, self-disciplined children, you
have to keep that end clearly in mind as you interact with your children on a daily basis. You can't
behave toward them in ways that undermine their self-discipline or self-esteem.
To varying degrees, people use this principle in many different areas of life. Before you go on a
trip, you determine your destination and plan out the best route. Before you plant a garden, you plan
it out in your mind, possibly on paper. You create speeches on paper before you give them, you
envision the landscaping in your yard before you landscape it, you design the clothes you make before
you thread the needle.
To the extent to which we understand the principle of two creations and accept the responsibility for
both, we act within and enlarge the borders of our Circle of Influence. To the extent to which we do
not operate in harmony with this principle and take charge of the first creation, we diminish it.

By Design or Default

It's a principle that all things are created twice, but not all first creations are by conscious design. In
our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first
creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle or Influence to shape much
of our lives by default. We reactively live the scripts handed to us by family, associates, other people's
agendas, the pressures of circumstance -- scripts from our earlier years, from our training, our
conditioning
These scripts come from people, not principles. And they rise out of our deep vulnerabilities, our
deep dependency on others and our need for acceptance and love, for belonging, for a sense of
importance and worth, for a feeling that we matter.
Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to
every part of our lives. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the
second creation of other people's agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits
The unique human capacities of self-awareness, imagination, and conscience enable us to examine
first creations and make it possible for us to take charge of our own first creation, to write our own
script. Put another way, Habit 1 says, "You are the creator." Habit 2 is the first creation.

Leadership and Management -- The Two Creations

Habit 2 is based on principles of personal leadership, which means that leadership is the first
creation. Leadership is not management. Management is the second creation, which we'll discuss in
the chapter on Habit 3. But leadership has to come first.
Management is a bottom-line focus: How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals
with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? In the words of both Peter Drucker and
Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management
is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning
against the right wall.
You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of
producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They're the producers, the problem