Running a business successfully takes a lot of time. That’s why it becomes extremely difficult for a leader to invest their time on reading books. But, great leaders know the importance of reading books because they know that they can get the knowledge and strategies to overcome their business challenges by learning books.

Reading is one of the best habits that a leader should have because it improves communication, effectiveness, and intelligence. But, that doesn’t mean that reading is the magic cure that can convert you to a great leader overnight because you have to absorb and apply the strategies that you learn from these books.

Among many successful writers, who write for leaders, Stephen Covey is also a renowned name. Some of his books have actionable advice for leaders, reading them can help leaders reap significant rewards

In this article, we have discussed all the key benefits that the books of Stephen Covey have for leaders so that they can effortlessly convert them from good to great leaders.

1 - The book of Stephen Covey, Leader in Me, is quite effective for leaders because it is based on the principles and practices of personal, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness. Because leadership starts from childhood, keeping this in mind, Covey tells how a student can become self-reliant, create and track goals, take necessary initiatives, set prioritize, so that they can boost their self-confidence and live a successful life in school and life after that.

2 - In the book, Principle-Centered Leadership, there is also a lot of things that can benefit the leaders. Covey, in this book, gives importance to natural laws. These laws include Security, Guidance, Wisdom, and Power. According to him, if these natural laws are used successfully, then they can really open the gates of success for the leaders.

3 - Great leaders are extremely necessary to take an organization to the highest level of success. In the book, Leadership, Covey describes the significance of great leaders, who discovered the top contributors of their team so that they can effectively make use of their talent to lift the performance of their business.

According to Covey, great leaders should have four imperatives in them:

Inspire Trust - Covey emphasizes the importance of building credibility as a leader because it helps employees to trust them. Credibility is something that leaders can’t earn in a single day. They have to work on things like giving respect to the employees that they deserve, showing trust in them, being accountable for their actions, etc.

Clarify Purpose - Defining a purpose is nothing if it’s not clear and compelling. It’s quite useful for leaders because it enables them to transform their purpose to the entire team so that they can offer the best possible solution to achieve it.

Align Systems - Creating a successful system that helps to support the goals and purpose of the organization. It helps leaders to ensure that the entire workforce will deliver the best to meet the targets of the organization.

Unleash Talent - Developing the best possible team. This imperative enables leaders to filter all the talented employees which provide them the benefit of having a group of people that can boost the growth of their business significantly.

4 - The book, Roadmap to Success, is also beneficial for leaders. In this book, Covey describes the key principles of success that help leaders in setting and achieving their personal and professional goals. The tips and strategies, which Covey discusses in this book enable leaders to come up with a better plan to accomplish their goals.

5 - The first habit of highly effective people which is “Be Proactive” Covey gives a strong message to the leaders that they must be proactive because it gives them the power to decide how they should react to a given situation. With proactivity, they can easily acknowledge their responsibility and influence which matters a lot being a leader.

6 - In the second habit of highly effective people “Beginning with the end in mind” Covey tells how important it is for leaders to start things with a clear destination in their mind because it helps them move in the right direction. When leaders define clear long term goals, then it helps employees to lift the performance of the organization with ease because they know the end goals.

7 - As a leader, there are many jobs that need to be taken care of at the same time, but that doesn’t mean that you should get involved in all of them without knowing the priority of tasks. In the third habit “Put first things first” Covey describes the significance of setting priorities among tasks because that’s the perfect way to accomplish important tasks within the deadline.

8 - In the fourth habit which is “Think Win-Win,” Covey tells how a leader can achieve the goals of the business by aligning the reward system with goals instead of offering a competitive environment. To accomplish a win-win situation, it is necessary that the leader should concentrate on results rather than methods and people.

9 - In the fifth habit which is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” Covey describes that understanding other people is quite important as a leader because it provides them a way to offer the best possible advice instead of coming up with a solution without listening to them properly.

10 - In the sixth habit which is “Synergize” Covey gives a strong message to the leader regarding how they can become the most successful leader. According to him, if leaders develop the habit of synergizing in them then they give able to merge multiple people, and companies to work together and overcome the difficult challenges of the industry collectively instead of an individual.

11 - In the seventh habit which is “Sharpening the saw” Covey said that in order to become an effective leader, it is necessary that leaders must devote some time renewing them physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually because by improving them in these areas they can manage things in a much better way.

Conclusion

Learning these books doesn’t mean that you will become the best leader in the world. Because, if you read them and don’t implement the positive outcomes that you get from reading these books, then you can’t expect a miracle to happen. So, in order to improve as a leader, it’s better to not only focus on taking time out reading these books but also work equally to implement the lessons that you learned from them.WeekPlan is inspired by seven habits of highly effective people. It’s a quite popular tool to prioritize your work give a try to keep organize your work and tasks efficiently.

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