Preview
  • 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
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (39,712 ratings)

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

By: Stephen R. Covey
Narrated by: Stephen R. Covey
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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.

©2004 Franlkin Covey (P)2004 FranklinCovey
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Critic reviews

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

Featured Article: 55+ Powerful and Inspiring Quotes to Guide Your Leadership Journey


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What listeners say about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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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.

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356 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent

As good as it gets, a must read is here presented as a great listen... thus allowing us all to more conveniently return to this classic self-help book for a reminder on how to be more effective.

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4 people found this helpful

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Great Content & Horrible Voice for Audiobook

I don't mean to be rude or anything but Mr. Covey doesn't have the voice that you want to hear when you are driving, his voice makes me fall asleep. His voice made an amazing book a terrible audiobook. The book itself has beneficial information and so much to learn from. But It's so hard to pay attention to what he is saying because of how he reads it!!! I wish he would hire someone to read the book instead of him reading. If you find this book read by someone else please download that version. I struggled to finish this book, it's boring.
Please do us a favor and hire Bahmi Turpin or Marguerite Gavin to read this book.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

I'm going to apply this to all aspects of my life!

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3 people found this helpful

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I listened twice.

So many great points, lessons, and principles. You cannot catch them all in one go. I plan to review it often through the year to remind myself of the seven (7) habits. Life lessons, dealing with dictator type bosses, self improvement & more! You will not be disappointed.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Help at last

I have been searching for help with problems for myself and my family going to Zig Zigler and many others to try to fix things with positive mental attitude. I wasn't wrong to look here for fixes, but I found a better way with Mr Covey. His simple explanations and examples make it easy to listen to and discuss with my wife. I now have wisdom that is making a difference in my marriage and family!

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    3 out of 5 stars

great information but not organized well

First of all, the information in this book is great but I think it would be much better had he started the chapters with stating the habit then explaining it. The habits were mentioned in random spots of the book which made it harder to follow and understand. I was hoping for clearly defined habits.

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Awesome book for everyone.

Great book for everyone who is looking to be a better person on all areas. Great narrator. Good voice to listen to.

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Worthwhile listen

I wasn't too sure about the book near the start but once I got into it it was awesome. I highly recommend this book!

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as RELEVANT now as it was in 1989

Many other books in this field will teach you some techniques to learn. This book argues that we don't need to improve our techniques, we need to improve our character. It them sets out to teach you 7 " habits" that will align your character with universal principles. It's not a quick fix, but it is a true fix. And along the way you will pick up some techniques too, but they'll be grounded in a correct context now - character development.


"Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny."

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