The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

This was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1989, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 15 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.

Here is a brief summary of the habits:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

This means taking responsibility for your attitudes and actions. Proactive people develop the ability to choose their response, making them more a product of their values and decisions rather than their moods and conditions.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

This means living your life with a clear understanding of your desired direction and destination.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

This means organizing and managing your time and tasks around the goals you have identified in habit 2.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

This means collaborating with people to produce outcomes in which everyone benefits - not just yourself.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood

This means really listening to and understanding another person's point of view before communicating your own.

Habit 6: Synergize

Synergy is where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It results from valuing differences by bringing different perspectives together in the spirit of mutual respect. People then feel free to seek the best possible alternative, often the "third alternative," one that is substantially different and better than either of the original proposals.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

This is the habit of self-renewal.