You may have heard of Stephen Covey’s best-seller, 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. This is a great book and well worth reading for anyone who is keen to become more effective in both their business and personal lives.
But taking that book one step further is Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits For Managers:Â 
Managing Yourself, Leading Others, Unleashing Your Potential.
This is specifically for managers and was recommended to me by a friend about 18 months ago. Actually, he recommended it so highly he bought me the audio book. I listened to it at the time but decided to recap and go over it again last weekend.
Being an effective manager is not only good for your business, it’s also a highly regarded quality for integrating your business/work and family time, as well as useful within any community or sporting organisations you’re involved with.
So what are the 7 habits of effective managers?
Habit 1:
They are proactive. They demonstrate initiative and resourcefulness to get things done.
Habit 2:
They begin with the end in mind. They have a clear vision and that vision drives them on a daily basis.
Habit 3:
They put first things first. They execute superbly on the truly important goals and do not allow themselves to be sidetracked.
Habit 4:
They think win/win. They know how to help everyone win.
Habit 5:
They seek first to understand, then to be understood. They are superb listeners.
Habit 6:
They synergize. They solve problems creatively because they seek rich and varied input. They actively look for the new and better way to do things all of the time.
Habit 7:
They sharpen the saw. They continuously improve the productive capability of their people by knowing and leveraging their passions, talents and sense of purpose.
Some of these I was fortunate to have been taught in my early 20s by a supervisor at the time. I am very grateful that he was not only brilliant at managing our team, but he was open about why he made the decisions he did and about instilling those skills in each team member too. They have been extremely valuable for helping me run a successful small business for the last 14+ years.
If you’re keen to improve your own management skills then I recommend you read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits For Managers.
(Click here to buy it from Amazon.com)
