The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is one of my favorite self-help books because it has helped me a lot both in my professional life as for self-management. For being a good CEO in EVE, or pinpointing where and how I could do better, this book has also been a tremendous aid. That is why I felt inspired to write this blog post where I will illustrate how it can help you get the most out of the game, both in a leadership position and outside of it. This is by far not a complete guide, and I’ve not covered everything that falls under each habit as it would get far too detailed. Consider it an extended summary touching upon what I found most important. Should you want more information I recommend buying the book or borrow a copy from your local library.
Habit one: Be pro-active
There are two mindsets you can live by whenever anything happens, or how you view your current situation: Reactive and pro-active.
The reactive mindset we find in people who say things like “I wish I had a lot of ISK”, “I am a terrible PVPer”, “Can-flippers make me so angry I want to quit”, “I need to rat” and “I can’t do fleet command”.
The pro-active mindset believes that we decide what we do and feel, and will work actively on reaching goals. Pro-active people will look into methods of earning ISK and try them, will read a lot on pvp and go out to learn, will realize that letting a can-flipper spoil you game is silly and take measures to counter the practice, will rat because they want to and not because they are told to do so, and will realize that everyone can be a great fleet commander if you want to learn.
EVE is a sandbox where you can do whatever you want, as long as you are prepared to do what it takes to reach your goals. So throw out all those negative thoughts because they are only in the way of success. You choose how you react to stimulus. Don’t sit around and wait, nothing good has ever come of that. Everyone, from the lowest to the highest rank within a corporation, can make a change. Yes, certain things are simply out of our control but even then you decide how you cope with them.
Habit two: Begin with the End in Mind
Everything starts with a vision. Maybe you want to fly capital ships someday, or maybe you want to teach new players about a certain aspect of the game. To succeed in whatever it is we want to do we need a mission statement, which is based upon our personal principles. You might find it important for example that you do not end up sinking too much time into the game because you have a family to look after.
Once you know what it is you want you begin with translating this to long-term goals. To fly capital ships for example you need to buy certain skillbooks. How will you fund these skillbooks? Keep splitting up each goal into steps until you reach what you can start doing today.
Habit three: Put First Things First
Now you have your mission statement, goals and steps to achieve those goals it is time to start working on them. But where do we start?
There are four quadrants in the time-management matrix:
- Important and urgent
- Important and not urgent
- Not important and urgent
- Not important and not urgent
Quadrant one should become as small as possible, and this is where you start. These are things that are a problem right now, or have a deadline. If you leave these things they are bound to create more problems and cause stress and you absolutely do not want that.
Quadrant three is tied to reactivity. It could be other players who interrupt you with a private convo about something really trivial, and you’re bound to spend a lot of time chatting but not really going anywhere. While it is important to keep good relations learn to say no once in a while. If you’re getting distracted you can’t give what your doing, nor the conversation the attention it deserves. Dare to point that out.
Quadrant IV is everything you can do when you are done, or when you’ve worked enough.
Quadrant II is where you want to be. As much as possible from Quadrant I, and everything from Quadrant III that matters should end up in here. Like talking to your friends when you have the time to give them your full attention. Or doing things well in time before they become a problem. Stress will be a thing of the past and you will enjoy doing things because you know they matter.
Habit four: Think Win/Win
Win-win or no deal. There are no other alternatives. Having others lose while you win, or lose and letting the others win are out of the question. The first eliminates future win-win deals, while the latter will make you unhappy as well as eliminate the chance you will want to set up a deal with that party again.
Win-win means that everyone gets something out of a deal. Running an academy corporation for example, where in return for knowledge you gain prospective members. Or even if they move on elsewhere they might still direct people your way or be willing to help you out in the future.
When win-win is not possible then agree on having no deal. An example from my own experience is having a few members under my wing who’d like to see things run differently, to which I could not agree. I could have given in to that resulting in lose-win, or I could have kicked them there and then resulting in win-lose. Instead we agreed to disagree and remained on friendly terms, with them going their own way. While no true win-win the fact that we all remained friends and each are doing what they enjoy still beats any other alternative.
Habit five: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Listening to what others say is not enough. Try to find out why they say it. Let’s say a member complains about a certain rule in the corporation’s code of conduct. Why is he complaining? Maybe he doesn’t understand it and needs some explanation, but it might very well be he sees a future consequence you’ve never thought about.
Put yourself into the other’s shoes rather than reacting from your own experiences. Don’t tell them to follow the rules because over time you’ve found them to be the best possible way to run things, but first listen to why others think they might not work. But listen also when they say they really like certain rules.
The same goes for any type of feedback, directed at you or others. There is as much knowledge in the words we speak as in why we express ourselves like that.
Habit six: Synergize
The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Through trust and understanding solutions can be found that are even better than what you could have come up by yourself. While someone might go about solving a problem differently than you would, try to find the merit in their ways. Maybe you want to do things very structured and detailed, and disagree with a fast solution that will need fine-tuning in the future because it seems inefficient. While the fast solution addresses the aspect that something has to be done right now to make a start and get others involved.
Synergism is about taking the best of both to create something even better. In this situation the solution might be set short-, mid- and long-term goals and make sure that the consequences of each step are taken into consideration, and where goals help with getting others involved because you can delegate specific tasks.
Habit seven: Sharpen the Saw
Take the time to evaluate how you have applied the six habits and continue to improve. Also apply them on all new things, and continue to improve there also. Find a balance and take everything in moderation. Make sure nobody or nothing gets left out. Upon failure, evaluate what went wrong and learn from those mistakes. Don’t give up, because that’d be a waste of what you’ve done, but know when it is time to start walking a new road.
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Great stuff! These are all well said and valuable. It is easy to see that whenever I've lost sight of one or more of them is when things went south quickly.
great post myrhial. i have read the book myself and have found it to be very useful.
and i like the new look of your blog as well.
Habit Eight – Have fun!! This is a game and ensuring that you and your corp mates are enjoying themselves is also a vital part of the EvE experience. That does NOT mean winning every fight, being successful in industry all the time, or scamming/griefing more than any others. It DOES mean having a good time and enjoying this wonderful entertainment venue. Unlike RL, If you're not having fun, it will negatively impact everything you want to accomplish as a leader or as a group member within the game environment. My .02c.
I'd like to point out that in real life employees who enjoy their job are 500% more productive. More and more companies are thankfully beginning to pay attention to this. So I disagree with the phrase "Unlike RL".
Do agree with the rest however! Habit eight is important for all activities you choose to do in your free time. EVE should not be a second job, or even worse.
Nicely done mate, this was a great read. This is making my recommended reading list for anyone who wants to play EVE!
Neat, just noticed your blog post, and I see the trackback system has picked it up as well. Thanks!
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