Leadership

Phillip VonLehmden

September 16, 2007

SUP 102-227

HABITS 1, 2, 3

After reading part two – Private victory it made me realize that some of the things I thought were important to me really may not be that important after all. This section has really made me think and possibly re-evaluate my life goals. I will be honest with you about the fact that I was not looking forward to reading this book. It sounded boring and I thought it would be difficult for me to stay focused long enough to read what I was supposed to read. In all honesty, I am actually enjoying this book because it is making me think about my life and what I would like to do with the rest of my life.

The word Proactivity means “that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.” (Covey, 71) I always thought that I was this kind of person at work and at home in my personal life, but after I continued to read the rest of Habit 1, I realized that I was both proactive and reactive. I am not sure how one person can be both, but somehow I think that I am. Most of the time I do not let situations affect me. If something happens either good or bad, I try not to let it affect me. For example, my supervisor at work one day came up to me while we were out on the floor and told me that there was going to be extra work for me to do on top of my normal Team Leader duties. As a Team Leader where I work, I have to perform quality checks every hour or two hours depending on the part number, keep the presses and assemblies stocked with their materials, maintain the automatic swagers and deflashers, plus retrieve any paperwork necessary for the employees on my line to do their job. At this point I was in charge of 10 presses and one assembly, until my supervisor told me that I was going to be in charge of 2 more presses...