Energize - combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership. This is so very important when working with any group or team who needs to work closely to get a project done, one can not do it all for the team. Don't just take action willy-nilly. Actually have a plan. Think things through. Do one thing in the right order before you need to do the next thing in order to get where you want to go. One of the things that is talked about was doing something don't just sit and talk about it At the start of every week, write a two-by-two matrix on a blank sheet of paper where one side of the matrix says "urgent" and "not urgent" and the other side of the matrix says "important" and "not important." Then, write all the things you want to do that week." If we did more planning then we would spend less time trying to figure out whats next. I have always been told by my dad, when you are building measure twice and cut once, you always want to make sure the detail are correct before you go all in.
One of the points he make in the book is breaking things down into quadrants. The most important thing you can do in your career relating to the simple two-by-two matrix is to do some Quadrant 2 stuff (not urgent but important) every day. At least 10% of your day needs to be devoted to this important but not urgent stuff. Ideally, you're spending 30% of every day on this. You need to severely restrict the Quadrant 3 stuff (urgent and not important). Most of us don't realize how much of this stuff we do every day and we think it's important when it's really not. With better awareness and better planning, you can really cut this stuff down.
Paradigm shifts are all about how we view things. This is affected by our background/upbringing, our education, our experiences, basically anything that has helped make us into the person we are today. When understanding the Seven Habits, we need to be willing to accept a paradigm shift. We need to be able to let go of our old way of "seeing" things and view things differently. I believe that it is much easier to accept a paradigm shift in our lives when we learn and are converted to principles. As we see the truthfulness of principles taught, it helps us to view things differently. For example; when Elder David Bednar taught that we can choose to be offended, it taught me the principle that we can choose our emotions and how we respond to outside stimuli. After learning more about this principle, I began to see the truthfulness. As that happened, it was easier for me to slowly develop a new paradigm on how I see myself. It was empowering! I could choose to be happy and not angry. I didn't have to be offended every time someone said unkind things to me. I could choose to see the good around me and in others.
The way this relates to the Sven Habits is simply. As we learn correct principles, it will allow us to accept a new way of seeing things. We can allow a paradigm shift into our lives and see things through new lenses.
