Life lessons from a perpetual bestseller

Ogilvy Africa Chief Executive Officer Mathieu Plassard.

Habit 1: Be proactive

Take control of your own fate. Since you are the person who will make the most changes in your life, you have to be an active participant in your own life. It is one of the hardest habits to maintain since it is easier to cast off responsibility of things that come to you if you do not achieve the desired results. Being proactive means putting primary focus on events that are within your realm of control and not fussing about things you cannot change.

“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.” Create a habit of taking charge of your own life with zeal. Do everything within your power to improve yourself and the situations that you come across. This first habit sets a good foundation for developing the next six habits.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

“In order to attain your goals, you need to visualise the outcome of every action as clearly as possible before doing it.”

Covey recommends that you learn how to plan your goals. With the second habit, you master psychological creation of goals which makes the physical creation and implementation easier. It also helps to anticipate obstacles and distractions and deal with them effectively. This habit underscores the importance of planning ahead to prevent you from wandering down the wrong path and if you do, it is easier to get back on track.

Habit 3: Put first things first

It’s all about priority. After taking charge of your life and planning your goals, you need to need to set priorities that meet your own goals. “The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” According to Covey, prioritisation is not about managing your time; rather, it is about managing yourself.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

“A win/win situation is the ideal situation in any public sphere.” Resentment builds up when one person wins too often as others continue to lose. Decision making needs to be approached in a way that makes the best of the situation. If there is no opportunity for both sides to win, renegotiate the terms of the deal. Nurture a culture that lets your team know that you are looking out for their interests and yours equally.

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Learning to listen is difficult; because it does not serve your interests at first. It needs constant development and entails paying attention to the other person and trying to understand their point of view without the intention to reply, manipulate, interrupt or convince the person talking. Effective listening allows you to gather real information rather that perceived information. It gives clarity of a situation or a problem which saves a lot of time in trying to find a solution. As a leader or employer, listen empathically for both feeling and meaning. “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”

Habit 6: Synergise

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” This habit puts more focus on team work. Covey emphasises that the whole is better that the sum of its parts. Have network of effective people and your problems will always have viable and creative solutions. Each team member’s know-how needs to be fostered to create a team of several individuals rather than several individuals on a team.

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw

To bring it all together, you are encouraged to help these habits grow and develop to become integrated in your character. This is the habit that makes everything else possible by constant self-renewal. Maintain a balanced life by taking good care of yourself physically, mentally, socially and spiritually.

 “To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.” How about putting these habits into practice?