Franklin Covey training goes beyond The 7 Habits by advocating that these practices can be tailored to the needs of a company; Week 1 Seven habits Most people who walk through the doors of Right Management, the Hong Kong representative for the Franklin Covey training programme that brought The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to the world, question whether the well-known pillars can really be applied to the corporate workplace. 'They think that they are too personal, and are solely for personal development. But the seven habits are not only about self-development, but also self-mastery,' said Winnie Chiu, Right Management's senior consultant and lead trainer. 'If you want to be a leader in the corporate world, you must first be able to lead yourself.' And she should know. Ms Chiu said she had spent long enough in the corporate world to have rubbed shoulders with many corporate power brokers in Hong Kong. Two years ago, she left a well-paid, influential management position at the Hong Kong Jockey Club as human resources director to strike out into what was for her the brave new world of external corporate consultancy. That decision itself was influenced by Dr Covey's principles, she said. The wake-up call literally came one busy day at the office, when the phone rang. In her capacity as corporate director at the Jockey Club, she was already certified to train in-house for the 7 Habits, once a month. But the voice on the other end of the line offered her the opportunity to spread Dr Covey's gospel to an even wider audience in Hong Kong. Also at the time Ms Chiu's son was entering primary school. The decision for her was whether to slave away and climb the slippery slope to the upper echelons of power at the Jockey Club (in the process making more money but sacrificing quality time with her family), or having the chance to look after her son better while meeting a wider range of people by becoming a trainer. A long-time follower of Dr Covey's work, she drew on the guru's second rule, which was to begin with an end in mind. She explained that by moving into corporate consultancy, not only would she have been able to be a better mother, but by teaching the Seven Habits full time, she would also be able to live these principles in a more comprehensive way than before. Another influence in her decision came when she read a speech made by Bryan Dyson, a former chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company, and part of the ill-fated team that brought the world the 'New Coke' experiment. 'He said in life you can juggle five balls. The first ball is your career, which is made of rubber. The second to the fifth are made of glass, and they are respectively family, health, friends and spirit. If we drop the career ball, it will always be able to bounce back, but the others never will,' Ms Chiu said. Citing the parable of the goose and the golden egg, another example that Dr Covey has used over the years to demonstrate his principles, Ms Chiu said it was important to achieve balance in life. Like the goose, she felt that if she had continued climbing the corporate ladder, she would have been able to continue to keep up her production capacity, but the quality might have fallen. In that vein, the Hong Kong-based trainer said that the principles set out by Dr Covey when his book was first published in 1989 applied equally in the workplace as they did in individual life. The underlying implication is that employees who have embraced the popular teachings are more likely to have more balance in their lives and therefore be more effective in carrying out their corporate duties. In turn, this is likely to translate into generally higher levels of productivity that will then translate into a positive impact on the bottom line. The Franklin Covey programme goes beyond The 7 Habits by advocating that they can be tailored to the needs of an organisation as an entity. For example, an extension of the first habit - being proactive - is to infuse organisations with a culture that focuses on opportunities that create value rather than concentrating on the obstacles. Among the benefits it touts is a greater focus on innovation and employees who take ownership for solving problems. Similar cases could also be cited for the other rules. The fifth rule - seeking to understand, and then to be understood - is given a corporate spin and emphasises client needs, advocating that every interface with a customer should be value-adding, and that the culture of the organisation, work groups, and individuals need to learn the discipline of empathic communication. The final rule - sharpening the saw - a reference to the need for individuals to maintain mental and physical acuity to keep up productivity, has been turned into a call for continuous improvement in the workplace. In a study of 46 organisations that have implemented its teachings, the training programme maintains that people more often than not achieve better focus on organisational priorities, stronger interpersonal relationships, effective listening skills, better understanding, more openness in how others deal with things, and the ability to use the knowledge and skills learnt in the programme to accomplish their tasks better. This is the first in our eight-week series on how The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can apply to senior executives. Next week: Habit one - being proactive. Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character Stephen Covey Author The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People