Stephen Covey’s classic, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a must read for any Jewish leader who wants to be more productive and effective.
Last week, I shared the first three on Covey’s habits and how they can positively impact your leadership and fundraising.
Today, I’ll pinpoint some key take-homes, from the next four of Covey’s habits.
Covey’s 7 Habits are:
- Proactivity
- Begin with the End on Mind
- First Things First
- Think Win-Win
- Seek First to Understand, then to Be Understood
- Synergy
- Sharpen the Saw
Win-Win
Covey’s Fourth Habit is Win-Win.
Covey says, “Win-win is not a personality technique. It’s a total paradigm of human interaction. It comes from a character of integrity, maturity, and the Abundance Mentality. Win-win grows out of high trust relationships.”
In our fundraising – Win-win is about wanting the best, not just for your organization and the people you serve, but also for your donors.
Check out this past post, where I share the mindset of the Michtav M’Eliyahu as he describes precisely how to achieve Win-win for your donors and your organization.
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
In Covey’s Fifth Habit, he explains when you’re interacting with someone and you aim to influence them to your way of thinking or your idea, you cannot simply dive in and tell them what you think.
The first step you’ll need to take is to understand them as a person, understand their values, and what drives their thinking.
If you can learn to listen and be empathetic, you will be able to nurture open and trusting relationships with people that can lead to wonderful outcomes.
In our fundraising, to really succeed, the best leaders seek first to understand their donor’s values, and what drives their thinking.
Do you first seek to understand your donors and let them do most of the talking before you ask them for their support? Do you know what each of your large donors values most and what they care about?
Synergize
Covey’s Sixth Habit is to Synergize.
Covey says ‘’Synergy catalyzes, unifies and unleashes the greatest powers within people.”
What does this mean?
When as a leader, you’re truly open to what could be, when you step out of your self-imposed restrictions to effectively work with others, then the sum total of one plus one equals much more than two.
In our fundraising – It doesn’t mean to jump on every opportunity that donors throw us. That can side-track us from our purpose. That’s not synergy.
It means to nurture relationships, even though challenging, which allow greater outcomes than had you not taken the vulnerable position of opening yourself up to these relationships.
Sharpen the Saw
Covey’s Seventh Habit, Sharpen the Saw is about “looking after, investing in and improving yourself, after all, you are your greatest asset.”
He says, “This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life.”
In your fundraising and leadership, whether you’re still fresh in the game or have many years of experience and even a mentor to others, investing in yourself comes with so much benefit, above and beyond the monetary cost of this investment.
Whether it’s finding yourself a mentor, taking an online course or hiring a coach for personal productivity or fundraising growth, you will see benefit.
This week, how will you “sharpen your saw?”
In the coming 12 months, what will you do weekly, to keep yourself on top of your game?
B’hatzlacha Raba Raba,
Avraham
P.S Please reply with your questions, feedback or chizuk!
Enjoy this post? Here are more things you might like:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People – PDF summary
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Avraham Lewis guides great people, with amazing projects, to change their current reality and up their fundraising game and personal productivity, through effective mindsets, strategies and techniques that have a track record of raising more funds.
