The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Habit 5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-improvement book, which emphasizes our perceptions about everything around us and how it affects a situation, a person, and how we must be open to change them.

A Brief Summary:

This one is my favorite chapter and the most loved habit. Based on the principles of empathic communication. We have this tendency to rush in, to fix things up with good advice. But we often fail to take the time to diagnose, to really, deeply understand the problem first.

Communication is the most important skill in life. We spend most of our waking hours communicating via reading, writing or speaking.

There remains a gap of “listening”. Do we actually listen what others say or share? And to listen you need to understand what others say. When you try to put yourselves in the other’s shoes, you actually understand their view-point.

If you want to be really effective in the habit of interpersonal communications, you have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of the character that inspires openness and trust.

Key Lessons:

1.) Empathic listening

2.) Barriers to communication

3.) Listen to understand

4.) Diagnose before prescribing, for that you will have to listen

I will share the next effective habit soon.

Much love and gratitude

Priyanka Nair