Following the '7 Habits' path to personal effectiveness - and business success

“Every organisation has some sort of good culture, or else it wouldn’t have survived until today. But the question is, can its old culture support its strategy and bring it into the future?” said Porntip, whose consulting firm is the exclusive licensee of FranklinCovey in Thailand.
Speaking at the launch of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Version 4.0” curriculum, attended by more than 400 top executives last week, Porntip said “7 Habits” is a powerful framework that Jim Collins, an American consultant and best-selling author, described in the preface he wrote for the 25th anniversary edition of Stephen Covey’s original book as being “the OS” (operating system) for personal effectiveness.
Great cultures are created intentionally and each requires the devotion of a company’s leaders, she said.
“Don’t pin [everything] on an outsider’s help – even at PacRim, we can only help in providing tools and framework,” she said, adding, “Ask yourself how much time you give for building a culture. Does it match the time you spend on something else?”
Sampan Silapanad, Western Digital vice president of magnetic-head operations – Thailand, told the launch event that competition in the workplace had resulted in a culture within organisations to reward workers who have answered the organisation’s “hard metrics”, such as costs, quality and financial results.
But this misleads them into neglecting to build a strong foundation based on people skills, he stressed.
“It is unavoidable that companies have to strive for hard results, but paying attention to the human side will help them sustain their business performance over the long run,” he added.
Sampan said the “7 Habits” culture had helped Western Digital to survive and bounce back strongly from the massive floods that hit Thailand in 2011, as the management had applied the “begin with the end in mind” principle, making it clear from the outset of the crisis that they would not lay off any staff.
John A Murphy, deputy managing director of Pandora Thailand – the local subsidiary of an international jewellery firm – said the company had used “7 Habits” as a tool to transform the organisation’s culture, with a special emphasis on the “be proactive” habit.
“If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others. In being able to lead yourself, you need to have self-awareness,” he said.
Theerayut Pitaksith, managing director and third-generation leader of the biggest dealer of Isuzu vehicles in Thailand, Isuzu Ung Nguan Tai Group – which has 15 branches and 800 workers – said “7 Habits” training had helped his firm to grow a new working culture and do away with its top-down management tradition.
“Managers have learnt to listen to their subordinates. This is very important in the service business, as we need to manage up from the front line,” he said.
Theerayuth added that the “proactive habit” had turned out to be the most helpful tool in helping his company switch from being reactive to market competition, to a new paradigm in which everyone speaks up and practises proactive language, such as speaking about what they can do – instead of making excuses and complaints.