The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

By: Stephen R. Covey

Narrated by: Stephen R. Covey

Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best seller - over 40 million copies sold

The number one Most Influential Business Book of the 20th century 

One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated listeners for nearly three decades. It has transformed the lives of presidents and CEOs, educators and parents - millions of people of all ages and occupations. Now, this 30th anniversary edition of the timeless classic commemorates the wisdom of the 7 Habits with modern additions from Sean Covey. 

The 7 Habits have become famous and are integrated into everyday thinking by millions and millions of people. Why? Because they work! With Sean Covey’s added takeaways on how the habits can be used in our modern age, the wisdom of the 7 Habits will be refreshed for a new generation of leaders. 

They include: 

Habit 1: Be Proactive 

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind 

Habit 3: Put First Things First 

Habit 4: Think Win/Win 

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood 

Habit 6: Synergize 

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw 

This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity - principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. 

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2004 Franlkin Covey (P)2004 FranklinCovey

Critic Reviews

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is by now one of the best-selling books of all time." (Fortune)

Author not good reader

The reader for this book is the author. He is almost monotoned and says, “new heading” when he comes to a new heading or topic. It’s hard to listen to. He should be using tone and intonation to illustrate a new topic is starting. I’m not even going to listen to the entire book. I can’t stand it anymore. It’s like doing homework. That is not the desired effect of purchasing an audiobook.

Good audiobook but bad reader

Good audio book but the reader has a whistle to his voice after most words. It reminds me of the old man from family guy highkey.
You can also hear him breathe heavily as he reads so it kinda makes taking the book seriously more difficult.
Sounds like my grandpa reading it with the whistle and heavy breaths

It took a few listens but it is well worth it

This was not an easy listen by any means, but after Listening to the Program About 8 times. It has paid out Many times over, In practicing these principles in daily life.

I don't understand these other reviews

Too religious? Irrational? Morality? What book are these people reading?

Does the author mention religion? Yes. He clearly states that he believes in God. That takes up approximately 2 sentences in the entire book (though he says a little more in the afterword). He also mentions that all enduring religions AS WELL AS all enduring philosophical systems agree on certain principles of human maturity and interaction, and those are the principles he bases the book on. But is The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg religious, or even spiritual? Because that's by far the primary principle in the book.

Now, I guess you could say some parts talk about morality, but not in the sense of "you must love your neighbor" or whatever. And yes, the part about being honest could be seen as morality, but considering the whole point is that honesty is a requirement for having people trust you, it strikes me that many of these negative reviews may be written by people who wanted a quick fix, a set of numerical steps on how to be successful.

But that is not what this book is about. The point of this book is that you will never be content in your life if you are looking for contentment OUTSIDE OF your life. It all has to come from within -- that is, your character, who you are. There's nothing moral about that. There's nothing religious about that. But there's also nothing easy about it. This book is work. Lifelong work. And a lot of people simply are not ready for the implications. The first time I read it I didn't realize how far away from the objective I was. But as I've grown and reread the book, I've discovered how deep it goes.

Of course, none of this is scientific. None of it is rational. That isn't the point. We aren't solving sudoku or splitting atoms. We are dealing with human emotions, and there's nothing rational about emotions. But there can be a solid approach to controlling our lives, and that's what this book is all about.

I just wish they'd hired a professional to read it.

I did not expect to like this book

I really did not expect to like this book. I generally find the self help genre weak and I expected this title to be one more christian based positive thinking book. There is a tiny bit of faith-based stuff in the afterward, but it strives to be any-god-will-do. Mostly it is detailed, ordered, steps to, over time, improve your effectiveness.

The Seven Habits (plus the new eighth one) are:
Be Pro-Active, Set Goals, Prioritize, Think Win-Win, Listen, Synergize, Maintain, & Inspire
This list seems a bit trite, but the author takes care to build each concept upon another. It is more realistic than most self-help books and does not promise a quick fix, or riches, or power, it instead suggests an effective pattern for somewhat steady improvement. This system goes beyond having a "open mindset" to having an "abundance mindset". This does not mean an abundance of stuff, but noticing that many situations are not zero-sum, and that win-win net-positive situations are often, if not almost always, possible.

Of course doing all the things the author suggests is non-trivial, but they are generally good suggestions for making progress once you are committed to change.

The writing and narration is quite clear, folksy, and pleasant, and far from the exuberance of some books in this genre. Some may find the folksiness a bit slow and boring, try speeding it up.

BTW - some reviews mention chapter ordering issues that seem to have been fixed.

Change your Life

If you really want to change your life for the better, read this book. I would suggest not listening to this in the car, but in the quiet of your home and make notes as you do. You will truly change the way you go through life and the way you understand other people.

A true guide for life

This is one of my top ten books of all time for lifelong contemplation.

Key themes of Proactivity; Setting and following priorities; Re-scripting according to principles; Win-Win; Listening to understand others; Synergy; and Renewal are fundamental, timeless and universal.

Dr. Covey's approach is unequalled in breadth and depth, while being entirely accessible to any human being. Everything he writes complements everything I've learned in life, while laboring to uproot any weeds that have grown in my internal garden. Having Dr. Covey read the material to me personally... it's the icing on the cake!

I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" when it first appeared decades ago; read it a second time five years later; and now, thanks to Audible, I've begun a profound study and contemplation of the material, that would have otherwise been too tedious to handle, given my other time commitments, as well as the fact that, since my work is about 90% in front of the computer, my eyes tire quickly before printed material in my non-work time.

I organize my listening in two ways: listening in the logical, step by step, chapter by chapter method on the one hand, imagining myself attending a 7 Habits seminar or class; and listening for hours at a time as I lie down to rest/relax/sleep on the other. The result is I end up hearing the material over and over, provoking thoughts and contemplations about where I am in life, where I want to go, and what I need to do to get there. I expect the process to last about six months. My goal from the reading: A complete paradigm re-adjustment for life.

This book has my highest recommendation for any person anywhere.

Excellent Insights

This book provides excellent insights into dealing with others through
introspection. It touches on Victor Frankel and others who provide examples of how to turn adversity into assets. This book is not a traditional self help book, but a companion to guide the listener into ones self.

Good material which is destroyed by poor narration.

The material is good, but it's hard to follow because of the poor narrator. I would recommend this book, if it had a different narrator. You really have to listen to get the info. Not a book you can easily absorb.

The real deal...

Sadly this book is contrarian to a lot of what goes on in our society. Thus I constantly have to "try" to practice these principles. But the trying is worth it. I have used this book as a standard for turning around the cultures of two manufacturing plants after I was hired from the outside. Those turn-arounds were only accomplished because the principles in this book work and because, if patiently applied, they give a management team a common vocabularly for they way they treat each other and their associates. My only function was to act as catalyst and insist that these principles be practiced. After a couple of years, in both cases the stress levels were way down, the morale was way up, and the performance was beyond anything known before and certainly beyond expectation. In my current assisgnment we're saving over $3M per year (450 people) and the roots of that accomplishment are in this book. It's a book to listen to, to absorb, and to go back to over and over again. An annual tuneup by listening to this program, is typical of those who REALLY try to adopt the 7 Habits (and model them). It's tough to be a perfect practitioner. One can only read and try...

Common-sense wrapped in arcane ideas and language

I have no idea how this book became a classic bestseller. I also have no idea why I am in the minority in this opinion. It's rare that I feel negatively towards a well regarded book, but it wouldn't be fair if I kept my opinion on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to myself.

I'll start with the title. As others have noted, it implies there was underlying research carried out by Covey. Did Covey first define what a highly effective person is, gather a large set of people who fit the definition, and search for what habits they had in common?

No. He came up with an arbitrary set of reasonable values which he believes constitute a decent and well-balanced person, and artificially coerces them into a coherent ideology. Note I said "values". What Covey lists can hardly be called "habits" in any behavioural sense of the word. If the book's title was "Seven values for becoming well-balanced" that would have gained the book one full star in my opinion, up to three.

I do believe that Covey's advice is good, but I find it hard to imagine how it is deserving of such praise. I can only imagine that a society in which «Put first things first» ("habit" 3) , «Think win-win» ("habit" 4) and «Seek first to understand, then to be understood» ("habit" 5) are considered ground-breaking ideas is a deeply damaged one. Maybe that was the case in the early 1990s, or in American business culture. Still, it means that in the best case scenario this book has either not aged well in 25 years or is aimed specifically at people living a highly toxic idea of what it means to be successful.

There are very few examples of application. When they are fictitious they are are caricaturesque, such as a father trying to first understand his son's disappointment with school rather than berating him, or a family conflict in which a holiday the dad planned for ages clashes with the mum's wish to visit her ailing mother.

When the examples are purportedly based on real-life, they become so vague as to hand-waving that could be reduced to «This was a bad situation. Then my "habits" were applied, with no details. Then everything went magically well!».

This pattern is played out again and again: business or person X was in a tough negotiation or disagreement with business or person Y. Then X thought "win-win", or "understood" Y's position first, and they reached an agreement! There's no elaboration into what these win-win positions entailed, what made them viable and desirable to both parts, how X had initially failed to understand the position of Y, or how and why this understanding influenced Y. The examples do not illustrate the application of Coveys values (I insist they are values, not habits), but rather are dogmatic insistence that they work. Ironically I do believe that they work, I would just rather Covey showed me rather than told me. Show, don't tell.

My final gripe is with the convoluted, jargony and flowery pseudo-philosophical style that is found all throughout the book. Not only does it get in the way of what Covey is saying, sometimes you wonder if he is trying to say anything at all. This not only contrasts with modern self-management literature which emphasises getting to the point, but also with self-help books of the same period (The Now Habit, 1989). Even How To Win Friends And Influence People (1936) is refreshingly direct and straightforward compared to Seven Habits.

To conclude, if you have read this far, take my advice with a grain of salt. Many people rave about this book, so there must be a reason they found it valuable. All I can say is that if you enjoy straightforward language, illustrative examples, and the idea of empathy towards the needs of others does not seem alien, this book is most likely not for you.

The message is simple

Like others on here I initially found the voice monotone and dry with none of the usual punch and uplift found in other personal improvement readings. But on reflection I think that this bland style works better in the long run. It allows you to listen, really listen to what he is saying rather than be short term uplifted. A long book taken at what seems a leisurely pace but I do not think it could have been shortened and still get the message across. This is a casserole not a microwave meal.

good stuff

i thought this was interesting and useful book. The behaviours (habits) make alot of sense
It is a tad preachy at the end. If your in a toss up between this and how to win friends and influence people i think the later is better

Highly recommended.

I'd known about this book for a long time and it was always on my list of books to read (listen to). I found the 7 habits fascinating. The age of the book does come across and it is a little preachy but Stephen Covey's research, conclusions and insights are staggering in their depth. Although you come away feeling that a lot of what he says is common sense, the vast majority of people, including myself, would never think in those terms. Stephen unravels what it is to be human and how to make the most of that gift. I can't believe anyone listening could fail to benefit hugely from the experience.

Get over the hangup - does NOT push religion

There are a few reviewers who have written off the book because the author happens to merely mention - in one sentence in the prologue - that he is a Christian. Surely the problem is no more than if he had mentioned being an atheist? - Anyway it is irrelevant to the content of the book and has no bearing on the concept, which is well researched and solid. The author has presented to boards of directors of major international companies and organisations and they wouldn't buy into crap and this is in no way wishy-washy or spiritual, the principles are well set out and argued.
I let the voice - which some may find jarring - pass over me and listened to the content which was what I bought it for after all.
Very insightful and well organised.
As an open minded individual - as far as one may be - why are so many people so touchy as to junk an entire book that is well reviewed by many business leaders and thinkers (and others) simply because an author mentions that he/she has a belief system? Very odd methinks...perhaps there may be something in it. Must look deeper myself perhaps - shall look in the relevant Audible category for a scholarly work without a strong agenda in either direction methinks! - Any suggestions anyone?

Helped me focus on who I am

brilliant book.Layed out principles that are common for all people and essential for success. it helped me to re-focus on what is important for me in life and how to reprioritise my life around my principals.
A must listen for anyone and everyone

A great listen

A very empowering book with lots of easy to do, useful ideas for leading a happier, more fulfilling life. Well worth a listen.

7 Habits, constructive change not quick-fix

I took the time to listen to the unabridged version. Audible could do with reviewing the encoding but other than that the book was excellent.

This book is required reading for managers in the 21st century as is the 8th habit. This was an easy listen (even the unabridged version) and Stephen Covey is a great narrator. I'd recommend this book to all.

Life changing

You can now have your cake and eat it. Having read a lot of management books, this is the one that will change your outlook on family and work. You will learn over time to do things differently and take control of those aspects of your life that at the moment might be controlling you.
The book is very readable and listening to Stephen Covey is even better.

Must Read

If you have not yet read this book then you really should. It has been very influential and contains a wealth of ideas. If you only read one personal development book it should be this one. The audio book is well read by the author and is easy to follow and quite entertaining.