The principal basis for Stephen Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people is the P/PC, which combines success and caring. As per the principle, success is only absolute when it also manifests the utmost caring for the source of such success. For example, instead of amassing wealth by taking away from others, absolute success entails creating wealth that both the self and the community can benefit together. Of the seven habits, the fourth, dubbed think win-win, is the one I found most value learning about. Win-win can be said to happen when everyone in the equation, agreement or contract wins. Thinking win-win, therefore, means ensuring that the pursuit of winning does not mean taking away from others but rather focusing on mutual benefit. Thinking win-win is arguably the most important of the seven habits of effective people as it is key to sustainable success.
The best way to create a better understanding of thinking win-win as a component of sustainable success is to contrast a cooperative and competitive approach to life. A cooperative approach to life is where every single actor seeks to establish mutually beneficial relationships with all those that the actor interacts with (Rehman & Nasir, 2015). The interaction can be professional, commercial or even normal day to day life scenarios such as social interaction. Under cooperation, the actor thinks about how all the parties involved can get the best possible outcome. Cooperation is best understood when contrasted with competition, which entails every single actor pulling for their success in most cases at the expense of others. During a competition, it is only possible to win intermittently because one has to lose when the other party wins but with cooperation, it is possible for all parties to always win; hence making the success sustainable (Bocken, Rana & Short, 2015).
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Sustainable success is just one of the major benefits of thinking win-win with others being the ability to operate ethically with ease and also the ability to make mutually beneficial social, professional, and commercial bond. Sustainable success as a benefit cannot be overstated as it is in vain to succeed for a duration only to lose it in subsequent transactions or as repercussions for the path taken to succeed (Laszlo & Zhexembayeva, 2017). For example, Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was touted as the youngest self-made billionaire in history. Her success was, however, not sustainable and overnight, she moved from being a billionaire to being a villain (Livni, 2018). The second benefit is being able to succeed while retaining the ability to act ethically. Ethical behavior is beneficial to the self just as it is beneficial to others as it avoids vagaries such as legal consequences. In the Theranos example above, Elizabeth Holmes has been indicated in several charges and faces several years in prison if convicted (Livni, 2018). Finally, the ability to create mutually beneficial and lasting relationships is also a major benefit. For a start, humans are social beings, and if one becomes a pariah, quality of life will be adversely affected in spite of success. Lasting relationships are also a key necessity for sustainable success.
All the positive actions associated with a thinking win-win entail have an ‘us’ as opposed to a ‘me’ mentality. Forming partnerships is among the positive actions associated with this behavior and involves sharing the benefits just as you share duties and liabilities. Forming partnerships differs from finding people to exploit by sharing work and liabilities while seeking to hoard benefits (Bocken, Rana & Short, 2015). Another positive action under thinking win-win is coaching and mentoring others to grow together. When one coaches and mentors others, there are chances of being a party to their success in the long run hence perpetuating sustainable success (Bocken, Rana & Short, 2015). Helping others in their time of need is also part of sustainable success as others will also be available to lend assistance when the actor is going through a rough patch.
My choice of thinking win-win was influenced, inter alia, by an event that took place in my life and also in the life of a close family member both of which reflected the vagaries of not thinking win-win. I once had a job in a second-hand car dealership where; as a part-time employee, I was only earning commissions. In my desire to succeed, I engendered an all-out approach including poaching potential customers from my colleagues and telling half-truths and a few white lies to customers. Eventually, I was able to alienate both the customers and also my colleagues who were not amused by my tactics. Despite the fact that I was making good money, the working environment became so hostile that I had to quit. At around the same time I started working at the dealership, one of my cousins started a lawnmower business. His profits were so low because he would take extra care to do exemplary work for customers even when they would accept regular work. The customers noticed his work ethic and through a combination of referrals and repeat business, his business grew in leaps and bounds, and after I lost my work, I found myself working for him. The two examples above made studying thinking win-win personalized for me.
It is evident from the totality of the above that thinking win-win carries the key to sustainable success. Sustainable success as evident from the discussion above can be defined as keeping on winning. An approach that involves the exploitation of others may lead to some form of success for some time, but eventually, it is bound to be counter-productive. However, when an actor finds a way to incorporate others in a mutually beneficial effort to create wealth, everyone will keep of benefiting, hence making the success sustainable. For the avoidance of doubt, the other six habits of highly effective people also made an impact on me, but it is thinking win-win that I found most relatable, perhaps due to the two examples outlined above.
References
Bocken, N. M. P., Rana, P., & Short, S. W. (2015). Value mapping for sustainable business thinking. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering , 32 (1), 67-81.
Laszlo, C., & Zhexembayeva, N. (2017). Embedded sustainability. In Embedded Sustainability (pp. 116-140). Routledge.
Livni, E. (2018, August 02). Elizabeth Holmes and other famous grifters expose the myth of quick and easy success. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1345502/elizabeth-holmes-and-other-famous-grifters-expose-the-myth-of-quick-and-easy-success/
Rehman, S., & Nasir, N. (2015). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Book Review). Peshawar Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (PJPBS) , 1 (2), 211-230.
