Leading and influencing other people require first that you take control of yourself in the positive sense of making the most of your abilities and opportunities. To achieve this, you must learn to think proactively and to take the initiative whenever possible. You must also set your own short and long-term goals and develop your capability to achieve them.
Use self-awareness
Stephen Covey regards self-awareness, the ability to think about your own thought processes, as a unique human ability and the secret of human success. It is the first of four keys to freedom of choice between reactive behaviour (being controlled by others) and proactive behaviour (taking control of yourself).
Start to take control of your life by practising active self-awareness. Do the following self-awareness assessment. Can you answer "Yes" to the first five questions and "No" to the last?
* Can you view yourself as though you were someone else?
* Can you identify your present mood?
* Can you name what you are feeling?
* Can you describe your present mental state?
* Is your mind working quickly and alertly?
* Are you torn between doing this exercise and evaluating the point to be made from it? The point is, if you answer "No" to the questions, practise until you can answer "Yes".
The proactive course
According to Covey, the other three keys to proactive behaviour are: conscience (a sense of right and wrong); independent will (the readiness to act on your own, as your self-awareness dictates); and imagination (the use of the creative, right-hand side of the brain).
By exercising and developing all four abilities, you can become a more effective human being, gaining the power to be and do what you want, not just what others want from you. By winning this freedom of choice you empower yourself to take control of your own destiny and fulfil your potential. This masterclass shows you ways of improving all four of Covey's key abilities.
