Thank you very much for this life changing work of yours.

It contained all the information I needed on time management – how to get things done, how to prioritise, how to set and manage goals, and so on. But this book went much further in addressing the subject of ‘time’ management – it went to the core of man’s endless search for ways to be a better person and to improve interpersonal relationships, and it also identified how there was a whole lot more to life than simply getting more done. In fact, it opened my eyes to the fact that getting more done actually had a tendency to get in the way of life!

Suffice to say I was intrigued, so I went out and bought the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Since that time in the early 1990s, I have read the book probably hundreds of times. I have studied it, and I have listened to the audio versions on my way to and from work. I have attended the Seven Habits Workshop presented by Franklin Covey Europe. I have made the effort to present the concepts to my personal and professional peers. Above all, I have become something that I was not when I first read it.

When it first came to my attention, I was a disgruntled uniformed police constable. I had temporarily achieved the dizzy height of Detective Constable, an overriding ambition of mine at that time, only to ‘fail’ the Aide process, and not be invited back. Having tried again, I felt I was knocked back for the most spurious of reasons. I had therefore thrown down my teddy and refused to accept a disguised offer to have another go – in fact, I would say I missed the offer because of my own belief in the unfairness of the system for selecting detectives that existed at that time. I was on the edge of depression, although I did not realise it until, just in time, a line manager (and good friend) caught me in time for me to step back from the edge.

The first thing I did was to regain my sense of personal responsibility (Habit 1, see post). I decided that I could do something about the way I worked. I chose to focus my working efforts, unofficially, in one specific area. I stress that I did not ignore my other duties, but I did find something that I enjoyed doing, and at which I was exceptionally good. Specifically, I took on the role of ‘bounty hunter’; I decided that I would administer and effect the execution of all warrants in my busy section. I also took it upon myself to trace and effect the arrest of every wanted person in my section.

I became a legend! I achieved the ‘honour’ of completely emptying the warrants file of the second busiest section in the force on two or three occasions; I traced all but one of the wanted persons circulated not only in my section but in some of the other divisional stations as well. I mention this not as an exercise in self-glorification, but to set the stage for what happened later and to demonstrate how focus on a strength can achieve remarkable results.

The skills I employed in that one area of investigation bore fruit in other ways. For example, this activity took place in the early years of computerisation in the police service. Most of the information I needed was available on the many and varied databases available to officers at that time. So I had to not only utilise the computer systems but I also had to apply lateral thinking in developing the broad strands of data available on each system, and on the alternative paper systems still in use. I had to use my imagination. I also had to research the legalities of what I was doing.

This is where my own personal development took off.

I became the ‘expert’ on the use of computers. I can’t build one, but if any one in my working environment has a computer usage problem (as opposed to a hardware glitch) they have been known to call on me, and I sort it.

I took up legal studies and made the effort to qualify, outside the service, as a Legal Executive. I am now (technically) more qualified than many of the legal representatives coming to defend clients in police stations. On one occasion a legal adviser actually told his client I was more qualified than the adviser!

I joined the Board of the Institute of Professional Investigators (IPI), the premier organisation representing professional (usually private) investigators in the UK. I eventually headed that Institute – the first and as yet only police officer to do so – and I came to represent it on the Competency Criteria consultation group of the Security Industry Authority, the quasi-government organisation responsible for the licensing of private investigators, and itself directly answerable to the Home Office.

With the IPI, I worked with others to create the Investigator Modules of training for the International Institute of Security’s City and Guilds Qualification in Security Management (Investigator Route).

I wrote two books, one called The Manual for Professional Investigators, the other called, unsurprisingly ‘Tracing – the Investigators Guide to Finding Wanted and Missing Persons’. That second book has also been published ‘hard copy’ by a respected US specialist publisher in the field of investigation.

But I also suffered a setback. In 1999, I sought, and was given the job of Field Intelligence Officer for two sectional stations. I had tried three times for such a role and had failed the first two interviews. On the third occasion, I was given the job based on the strengths demonstrated in those failed attempts.

I lasted 8 months before I was ‘sent back’ into uniform. (Quite why that is seen as a punishment when it is in fact an honour, beats me.)

My Detective Inspector was on my side, but he had the unenviable task of telling it like it was – that despite what we both felt was an unjust situation, if I fought it and won I would inevitably have found myself in the same situation again and again because of those involved. I admit, now, that I lost control of my emotions over the loss of what had been so important to me, and I shed many tears in front of that DI.

I chose to leave that Division and set up home elsewhere. There I went back to basics and returned to what I was good at, only to discover that having been commended in one Division for my efforts on bail jumpers I was now criticised for doing exactly the same thing. I was appraised as being a very poor performer. (I was on the point of being sent to the Chief Superintendent for words of advice, avoiding that only by reminding my supervisor that the rating he gave me would have made that precise consequence a requirement rather than an option.) As a professional, proud of what I do, that hurt.

But I had read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I applied what I had read, and I used what I believed in.

The first thing I did after receiving the ‘very poor’ appraisal was to step back and ask myself why that had happened. I went into hospital for an overnight stay (that turned into two), and on the day before an operation I sat down and took stock. I looked at what had given rise to the criticisms made of me: I acknowledged those that had merit and I identified the way in which unfair criticism had been partly the result of the way I communicated my standards to others. I addressed all of those issues and the following annual appraisal – from the same supervisor – was ‘excellent’. I did have to see the Chief Superintendent then, but for significantly different reasons!

At the end of that year, an opportunity arose for four productive officers in that Division to establish a new ‘crime car’ initiative. I was one of those selected. At the end of twelve months establishing that role, I was invited to act in a temporary position as a Detective Constable. This resulted in my being awarded a Trainee Investigator position. I underwent the Initial Criminal Investigators Development Programme, came top in the force in the relevant examination and completed that programme within nine months of my appointment, half the ‘expected’ time allotted for the process. I was awarded my certificate at a senior CID officer’s conference later that year. The Detective Superintendent who awarded me my completion certificate had been the DI in front of whom I had shown emotional distress 4 years earlier!

I was back where I was supposed to be. And since then, applying the lessons of effectiveness learned through my studies of the Seven Habits and related materials, I have been appointed as a Fraud Investigator in the Financial Crime Unit in my organisation, a goal I set myself four years ago.

I credit what I have achieved in the last 10 years to the lessons taught in Dr Covey’s book.

No matter what happens to us, the response to that is determined by us. There is a space between stimulus and response and we have all the power in the world to use that space.. It hit me as hard as it hit Covey which he mentions in the book..

Love this book.. I also read the – seven habits of highly successful families and it impacted me a lot. There is a sentence which is repeated many times in the book which says something like -’ I dont care how much you know, till I know how much you care’ .. I think that has helped me a lot tooo.. Actually I have tried advising my brother without having the relation or the emotional bank balance and failed miserably and after I read this book, the relation has improved a lot.. Now my parents ask me to advice him as they know that he will do what I tell or atleast try to understand what I tell..

I think they are gems and I am lucky to have had the chance to read them.

You dont have idea, how much it has helped me. Its just too good and too deep to digest everything even after reading and listening 3 times (so far). I can list few changes:-

1. Clarity about planning and execution connection.
2. P and PC balance
3. Sticking to values which my parents taught me about character and authenticity.
4. My belief got strengthen to persue my DREAM !!!

Dont know how to thank you. But I can pass on this to many people around me…
I would cherish, if ever i can meet you for 10 mins.

thanks again for helping people whom you even dont know!

In the Zone,
-Varun Mishra

I am eternally grateful to Mr. Covey for writing this book and to my friend and previous boss Ola Forsstrom-Olsson for recommending it to me. The fact that Mr. Covey also is a believer just made me love that book even more and accept it easier because that fact added to his credibility in my eyes.

Since then we have also read Seven habits of effective families and purchased first thing’s first.

Thanks

Hola, soy una ama de casa con hijos adolescentes, un psicólogo me recomendó el libro de LOS 7 HÁBITOS DE LOS ADOLESCENTES ALTAMENTE EFECTIVOS, ya que no es nada fácil educar o tratar de educar a los hijos en la actualidadaún no termino el ejemplar pero llegue a la parte del libro en donde por error de la editorial claro, no tiene impresas varias páginas que son: 144, 145, 148, 149, 1452, 153, 156, 157, 160, 161, 164, 165, 168, 169, 172 y 173, como podrán imaginar mi molestia fue muy grande, ya que en verdad el libro es maravilloso, no tienen idea de las grandes verdades que ahí dice, y estoy segura me ayudará muchísimo, tanto a mí como a mis hijos, desafortunadamente para mí ya no cuento con la nota de compra y según me dijeron se necesita para realizar cualquier reclamo, la compra la hice en la ciudad de Cuernavaca, Morelos, México, por desgracia para mí no cuento con suficientes recursos económicos para poder adquirirlo nuevamente.
Aunque yo sé que no es culpa de ustedes, quisiera que me orientaran acerca de qué puedo hacer al respecto.
Agradezco mucho la atención prestada al presente y en espera de su respuesta, los saludo muy atentamente.

Sra. Norma Ríos.

Today I have a wonderful family, successful businesses, beautiful homes in the mountains of Colorado and on the shores of Maui. And despite dropping out of high school in the ninth grade (1979), I now have an MBA – went to jail not Yale!

Unbelievably, I have a book coming out in September called The Upside of Fear, which outlines the journey.

Thanks Dr. Covey. Thanks a million… and then some!