7 Habits - Be Proactive

I really enjoyed how Covey presents the concept of being proactive. He starts out with the discussion of self-awareness and how that separates us from animals. He then presents the idea of a social mirror, where our nature that is presented to others, along with the perceptions of others (all through their own "colored glasses" of life) are not necessarily congruent. The visions of others may be quite disjointed and out of proportion, which as he states, can say a lot about their character. He then discusses the three main social "maps", or theories, of determinism - Genetic determinism (it's our Grandparents genetics that are at fault), Psychic determinism (it's our parent's fault), and Environmental determinism (it's everyone elses fault). The latter is related to Pavlov's famous drooling dog experiment where there is a response to a stimulus. It all comes together with the presentation that man, because of his self-awareness and ability to see himself distinctly from others around him, has the ability to choose. The freedom to choose becomes the basis for the habit of being proactive. Instead of having the environment, and genetics, and other's dictate our response to stimulus, we can choose to act differently because of our self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will.

To me, being proactive is one of the most important qualifiers of good leadership. To be proactive is to have a mindset that is not reactive by nature. That is, by determining beforehand to, as Covey says, "subordinate an impulse to a value", we can make choices that are focused strategically toward our goals and objectives. Proactivity is a value based choice instead of an environmental reaction. A good leader will be able to proactively form or be part of the solution instead of only being able to see the problem (and then, as many people do, react out of fear.)

Covey mentions (pg 75) that being resourceful and taking initiative is what sets proactive people apart from reactive people. I see this a lot in my job and in my industry as a whole. Retailers and online solutions are very impacted by what people think, and if the customer thinks something should be different, it can generate a lot of angst amongst the leadership. If they are fear based, it will be a knee-jerk reaction. If they are proactive, they will be learning and planning for the future with short and long term solutions - seeing through the myriad of opinion generated from customers who will be long term purveyors and those who are there to just cause trouble. A proactive leader is innovating and working to provide what the customer's actually need, instead of just what they want right now. Customers are fickle people, but loyal customers have long term needs that can be met if they are sought out and solutions are designed accordingly (instead of just throwing out something because people are hollering). This same mindset is evident in many business segments.

The other thing that Covey talked about that I liked was the discussion of focusing efforts in a person's circle of influence (COI) rather than their circle of concern (COC). The COI is where a person can actually have influence and do something about issues and opportunities, where the COC, though important, may not be. Focusing in the COC just wastes time and resources and causes more stress - which of course makes us more and more inefficient and capable of delivering real solutions that can affect needed change.

I liked the suggestions made in the Application Suggestions (pg 93) and hope to do number 1 (listen to my language and see how proactive I'm being and number three (select a problem and evaluate it for COI vs COC and make steps toward COI). I'll blog on how it goes!