Be proactive; read the book

With the ever increasing demands of work and personal commitments, coupled with the explosion of online entertainment, that tries to fill every second of our free time, the idea of switching off all devices and reading a book for many is no longer such an attractive activity, even when it can have a profoundly positive influence on our work and personal relationships, and thus make us happier.

30 years on from its publication, with over 30 million copies sold in more than forty different languages, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is now more relevant than ever and the sound advice it contains will never go out of fashion.


The book is undoubtedly a worthwhile read for everyone. However, I would particularly recommend it to university students and recent graduates as they are at the starting point of their careers: Developing new effective habits for work is much easier when you don't have to eliminate older negative ones.

The seven habits, which Covey explains in the book, are divided into three categories: Independence, Interdependence and Continuous Improvement, the last of which he cleverly refers to as Sharpening the Saw. You'll be pleased to know that I'm not going to elaborate too much on the contents of the book. Although I do want to briefly comment on Habit 1: Be Proactive.

Proactive is one of those buzzwords overused by managers during team meetings when they want to be positive and encouraging, yet when they say Let's be more proactive, it can too often sound vague and pointless. In recent years, the word has also entered the Italian lexicon and unfortunately it continues to be poorly understood and carelessly used by some managers keen to demonstrate their superficial knowledge of Anglo-Saxon business terms.

University students here in Rome have also come in contact with the word, as I recently discovered when an enthusiastic economics student proudly announced that he had to be proactive, without having any idea of what it meant. Furthermore, I have read up to fifty CVs this year, in which all of them, without exception, included a rather hollow reference to the word proactive.

Despite what I have just mentioned, I am actually a great fan of genuine proactive thought and behaviour. So what does it mean to be proactive?

A proactive person is forward thinking and looks for better ways to do things, even when an existing way is adequate, but not exceptional. In a work perspective, you, the individual, are responsible for your skill levels. As you raise your self-awareness (which I have written about here in a previous post) you can also focus on being more proactive.

Let's look at an example of someone being proactive: You decide to improve your presentation skills in English as part of a medium-term plan to speak at international conferences in the future. You are taking action now in anticipation of a future need or opportunity. You are being proactive. In two years time, you will speak English comfortably and you will feel more capable and self-confident.  Whereas, imagine your colleague John. He has no such plan and instead calls me five days before the conference in a desperate panic. All of a sudden, John wants to miraculously rise from intermediate to advanced level English in just 120 frenetic hours and speak with charisma like Barack Obama. Obviously John is insane and will fail in a spectacularly embarrassing fashion. Clearly John is reacting to sudden circumstances; an emergency. Reactive is the opposite of proactive.

Of course working in a reactive manner is a necessary part of many jobs where planning is simply not an option (for example, if you are a paramedic) and good reactive skills are also very important. Nonetheless, it clearly pays to be proactive whenever possible.

Returning to the example above, as you spoke well at the conference, which resulted in your company gaining new clients, you were promoted and given a nice new BMW company car while your panic stricken over-reactive colleague, John, was fired.

Many successful companies also have a proactive philosophy that influences everything they do. Google is a good example: It's the most successful internet company in the world; employing over 100,000 people and every year it grows stronger. At the same time, it also continues to improve its service to customers, who are the driving force behind Google's strategy of proactive, continuous improvement. The company is constantly looking at ways to enhance existing services, as well as add new ones, for its customers. Over the last ten years, Gmail, Chrome, Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, Android, Search and Blogger have all become leading products in their respective fields. Google's competitive superiority looks set to continue as they prepare for the future by investing in driverless cars, home security, healthcare and who knows what else.

Finally, if you're in the mood to be proactive and invest in yourself, read the book. You won't be disappointed.

PS: Unfortunately, the translated title of Steven R Covey's book in Italian is pretty terrible, Le 7 Regole Per Avere Successo, but it is still a great read. Enjoy!