MIKA KAAKINEN

Born in Helsinki . I am currently 53 years old. My hobbies are collecting DVD movies and watching them, learning languages, jogging and participating in jogging events, Bible reading, diet, leadership as well as playing chess, Go and shogi. I also like building websites and using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, WordPress, Bootstrap, GraphQL, Angular, Node.js, React, MongoDB, Webpack and Gulp. Building websites and studying chess, Go, shogi, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Japanese gives me intellectual challenges.

Christian values are close to my heart. Integrity, honesty and love of the neighbour are values on which my life is based.

Mika Kaakinen

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Welcome to my website. Italy, Nicole Kidman, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Nelson Mandela, Anatoly Karpov, Barack Obama, Judit Polgar, Bob Dylan ...Personally, I agree with John Donne that " No man is an island". Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the entity. This page tells about the people and things that have inspired me.

July's video: Stephen Covey: On Choosing Success

Stephen Covey

VALUES

Psalm 51:10-11

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit withi me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me

My values are based on Christian idea that human value is based on her position as God's image, not on her performance. Values must also be implied in everyday life, otherwise they have no worth.

Values

I am also greatly influenced by American and Italian society. I wholeheartedly support the basic American values such as freedom of expression, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Italian society values of family-centralism and friendliness are also close to my heart.

MY VALUES IN A NUTSHELL

Seeing man as God's image

Compassion and fairness

Personal and professional integrity

Family is the heart of society

Leadership, both personal and professional

7 HABITS/POWERFUL LESSONS IN PERSONAL CHANGE

Leaders are the product of their own choices

Stephen Covey's book "7 Habits of Highly Efficient People" is one of the books that have made the greatest impression on me.

Stephen Covey
7Habits

THE DISCUSSION BETWEEN DONALD VAN DE MARK AND STEPHEN COVEY

  • OK. Let´s start then with the seven principles and the first one obviously is due to be proactive and what fascinates me is that it it jives with this notion that you´re not a captive of your past. Describe that for us. Donald Van De Mark
  • Right... Well... Most people tend to become deterministic that they are a captive of their past, or the present circumstances or of the social weather the surrounds them or their physical weather, their family, their upbringing, what my parents did to me and so forth. Question I often ask is are you a product of nature or nurture? Almost everyone says it is nurture or a combination and I try to make a point it is neither. It´s a product of choice because you can choose your response to both nature and nurture. You can have for instance a genetic disease inside you and never get it simply because you make the lifestyle choices of the proper food and exercise and medicine. Or you could have been abused as a child. You don´t have to abuse your own child. You have the power to reinvent yourself. It´s not so with animal. So that space between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose you response. Stephen Covey
  • Let´s stop for a second and focus on the space between the stimulus if you will or whatever happens to you in your life and then your response. What - is that a minute second in most instances? Is it something we can expand? Donald Van De Mark
  • Absolutely we can expand it, but with some people that have been say powerfully deprived or rejected or think maybe this very little Spacey. With others that have had very affirming, unconditional love growing up and so forth, they could have a very large space. The point is, however small or large the space is, it can get larger if you will take responsibility and initiative and focus on it and use it little by little it gets larger and larger until eventually your response changes the very stimulus of your life. That´s why I say that leaders are not born or made, they are self-made. Stephen Covey

FOREWORD TO 2004 EDITION OF 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT PEOPLE/HOPELESSNESS

The children of blame are cynicism and hopelessness. When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation. "I am a pawn, a puppet, a cog in the wheel and can do nothing about it. Just tell me what to do." So many bright, talented people feel this and suffer the broad range of discouragement and depression that follows. The survival response of popular culture is cynicism-"just lower your expectations of life to the point that you aren't disappointed by anyone or anything." The contrasting principle of growth and hope throughout history is the discovery that " I am the creative force of my life ."

DEPENDENCE/INDEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE

On the maturity continuum, dependence is the paradigm of you - you take care of me; you come through for me; you didn't come through; I blame you for the results. Independence is the paradigm of I - I can do it; I am responsible; I am self-reliant; I can choose. Interdependence is the paradigm of we - we can do it; we can cooperate; we can combine our talents and abilities and create something greater together.

THE SEVEN HABITS

Habits 1, 2 and 3 deal with self-mastery. They are:

(1) Be Proactive,

(2) Begin with the End in Mind, and

(3) Put First Things First.

They move a person from dependence to independence. They are the " private victories ", the essence of character growth. Private victories precede " public victories". As you become truly independent, you have the foundation for effective interdependence. You have the character base from which you can effectively work on the more personality-oriented "public victories" of teamwork, cooperation, and communication in Habits 4,5 and 6. These are:

(4) Think Win/Win,

(5) Seek First to Understand ... Then to be Understood, and ...

(6) Synergize.

Habit 7 (Sharpen the Saw) is the habit of renewal - a regular, balanced renewal of the four basic dimensions of life (mental; physical; social/emotional, and spiritual). It circles and embodies all the other habits. It is the habit of continuous improvement that creates the upward spiral of growth that lifts you to new levels of understanding and living each of the habits as you come around to them on a progressively higher plane.

THE SEVEN HABITS IN A NUTSHELL

  1. BE PROACTIVE
  2. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND
  3. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST
  4. THINK WIN/WIN
  5. SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD
  6. SYNERGIZE
  7. SHARPEN THE SAW
  1. THEY TAKE INITIATIVE
  2. THEY FOCUS ON GOALS
  3. THEY SET PRIORITIES
  4. THEY ONLY WIN WHEN OTHERS WIN
  5. THEY COMMUNICATE
  6. THEY COOPERATE
  7. THEY REFLECT ON AND REPAIR THEIR DEFICIENCIES

THE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER ETHICS

As my study took me back through 200 years of writing about success, I noticed a startling pattern emerging in the content of the literature. Because of our own pain, and because of similar pain I had seen in the lives and relationships of many people I had worked with through the years, I began to feel more and more that much of the success literature of the past 50 years was superficial. It was filled with social image consciousness, techniques and quick fixes -- with social band-aids and aspirin that addressed acute problems and sometimes even appeared to solve them temporarily -- but left the underlying chronic problems untouched to fester and resurface time and again.

In stark contrast, almost all the literature in the first 150 years or so focused on what could be called the character ethic as the foundation of success -- things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is representative of that literature. It is, basically, the story of one man's effort to integrate certain principles and habits deep within his nature.

The character ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.

But shortly after World War I the basic view of success shifted from the character ethic to what we might call the personality ethic. Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction. This personality ethic essentially took two paths: one was human and public relations techniques, and the other was positive mental attitude (PMA). Some of this philosophy was expressed in inspiring and sometimes valid maxims such as "Your attitude determines your altitude," "Smiling wins more friends than frowning," and "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.

THE NATURE OF PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLES OF PRINCIPLES

The principles I am referring to are not esoteric , mysterious, or "religious" ideas. There is not one principle taught in this book that is unique to any specific faith or religion, including my own. These principles are a part of every major enduring religion, as well as enduring social philosophies and ethical systems. They are self-evident and can easily be validated by any individual. It's almost as if these principles or natural laws are part of the human condition, part of the human consciousness, part of the human conscience. They seem to exist in all human beings, regardless of social conditioning and loyalty to them, even though they might be submerged or numbed by conditions or disloyalty.

I am referring, for example, to the principle of fairness, out of which our whole concept of equity and justice is developed. Little children seem to have an innate sense of the idea of fairness even apart from opposite conditioning experiences. There are vast differences in how fairness is defined and achieved, but there is almost universal awareness of the idea.

Other examples would include integrity and honesty. They create the foundation of trust which is essential to cooperation and long-term personal and interpersonal growth.

Another principle is human dignity. The basic concept in the United States Declaration of Independence bespeaks this value or principle. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Another principle is service, or the idea of making a contribution. Another is quality or excellence .

There is the principle of potential, the idea that we are embryonic and can grow and develop and release more and more potential, develop more and more talents.

Highly related to potential is the principle of growth -- the process of releasing potential and developing talents, with the accompanying need for principles such as patience, nurturance, and encouragement.

Principles are not practices. A practice is a specific activity or action. A practice that works in one circumstance will not necessarily work in another, as parents who have tried to raise a second child exactly like they did the first one can readily attest.

While practices are situationally specific, principles are deep, fundamental truths that have universal application. They apply to individuals, to marriages , to families, to private and public organizations of every kind. When these truths are internalized in to habits, they empower people to create a wide variety of practices to deal with different situations.

While practices are situationally specific, principles are deep, fundamental truths that have universal application . They apply to individuals, to marriages , to families, to private and public organizations of every kind. When these truths are internalized in to habits, they empower people to create a wide variety of practices to deal with different situations.

WHAT PRINCIPLES ARE NOT

Principles are not values. A gang of thieves can share values, but they are in violation of the fundamental principles we're talking about. Principles are the territory. Values are maps. When we value correct principles, we have truth -- a knowledge of things as they are.

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. They're fundamental. They're essentially unarguable because they are self-evident. One way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of principles is to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live an effective life based on their opposites. I do doubt that anyone would seriously consider unfairness, deceit, baseness, uselessness, mediocrity, or degeneration to be a solid foundation for lasting happiness and success. Although people may argue about how these principles are defined or manifested or achieved, there seems to be an innate consciousness and awareness that they exist.

THE PC (PRODUCTION CAPACITY) PRINCIPLE AND THE NATURE OF MAN

There are organizations that talk a lot about the customer and then completely neglect the people that deal with the customer -- the employees. The PC principle is to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers .

You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is . You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness .

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

The net effect of opening the "gate of change" to the first three habits -- the habits of Private Victory -- will be significantly increased self-confidence. You will come to know yourself in a deeper, more meaningful way -- your nature, your deepest values and your unique contribution capacity. As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace. You will define yourself from within, rather than by people's opinions or by comparisons to others. "Wrong" and "right" will have little to do with being found out.

Ironically, you'll find that as you care less about what others think of you; you will care more about what others think of themselves and their worlds, including their relationship with you. You'll no longer build your emotional life on other people's weaknesses. In addition, you'll find it easier and more desirable to change because there is something -- some core deep within -- that is essentially changeless.

As you open yourself to the next three habits -- the habits of Public Victory -- you will discover and unleash both the desire and the resources to heal and rebuild important relationships that have deteriorated, or even broken. Good relationships will improve -- become deeper, more solid, more creative, and more adventuresome.

The seventh habit, if deeply internalized, will renew the first six and will make you truly independent and capable of effective interdependence. Through it, you can charge your own batteries.

THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

Within the freedom to choose are those endowments that make us uniquely human. In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination -- the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality. We have conscience -- a deep inner awareness of right and wrong, of the principles that govern our behavior, and a sense of the degree to which our thoughts and actions are in harmony with them. And we have independent will -- the ability to act based on our self-awareness, free of all other influences.

PROACTIVITY DEFINED

While the word proactivity is now fairly common in management literature, it is a word you won't find in most dictionaries. It means more than merely taking initiative. It 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.

Look at the word responsibility -- "response-ability" -- the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling .

THE OTHER END OF THE STICK

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct it, and learn from it. This literally turns a failure into a success. "Success," said IBM founder T.J. Watson, "is on the far side of failure."

MAKING AND KEEPING COMMITMENTS

At the very heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

It is also the essence of our growth. Through our human endowments of self-awareness and conscience, we become conscious of areas of weakness, areas for improvement, areas of talent that could be developed, areas that need to be changed or eliminated from our lives. Then, as we recognize and use our imagination and independent will to act on that awareness -- making promises, setting goals, and being true to them -- we build the strength of character, the being, that makes possible every other positive thing in our lives.

It is here that we find two ways to put ourselves in control of our lives immediately. We can make a promise -- and keep it. Or we can set a goal -- and work to achieve it. As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.

The power to make and keep commitments to ourselves is the essence of developing the basic habits of effectiveness. Knowledge, skill, and desire are all within our control. We can work on any one to improve the balance of the three. As the area of intersection becomes larger, we more deeply internalize the principles upon which the habits are based and create the strength of character to move us in a balanced way toward increasing effectiveness in our lives.

ALL THINGS ARE CREATED TWICE

"Begin with the End in Mind" is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT- THE TWO CREATIONS

Habit 2 is based on principles of personal leadership, which means that leadership is the first creation. Leadership is not management. Management is the second creation, which we'll discuss in the chapter on Habit 3. But leadership has to come first.

Management is a bottom-line focus: How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, " Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

ANWAR SADAT

He records that he was almost loath to leave his prison cell because it was there that he realized that real success is success with self. It's not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self.

Sadat was able to use his self-awareness, his imagination, and his conscience to exercise personal leadership, to change an essential paradigm, to change the way he saw the situation. He worked in the center of his Circle of Influence. And from that rescripting, that change in paradigm, flowed changes in behavior and attitude that affected millions of lives in the wider Circle of Concern.

THE PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT

The most effective way I know to Begin with the End in Mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.

Because each individual is unique, a personal mission statement will reflect that uniqueness, both in content and form. My friend, Rolfe Kerr, has expressed his personal creed in this way:

  • Succeed at home first.
  • Seek and merit divine help.
  • Never compromise with honesty.
  • Remember the people involved.
  • Hear both sides before judging.
  • Obtain counsel of others.
  • Defend those who are absent.
  • Be sincere yet decisive.
  • Develop one new proficiency a year.
  • Plan tomorrow's work today.
  • Hustle while you wait.
  • Maintain a positive attitude.
  • Keep a sense of humor.
  • Be orderly in person and in work.
  • Do not fear mistakes -- fear only the absence of creative, constructive, and corrective responses to those mistakes.
  • Facilitate the success of subordinates.
  • Listen twice as much as you speak.
  • Concentrate all abilities and efforts on the task at hand, not worrying about the next job or promotion.

AT THE CENTER

It is here that we deal with our vision and our values. It is here that we use our endowment of self-awareness to examine our maps and, if we value correct principles, to make certain that our maps accurately describe the territory, that our paradigms are based on principles and reality. It is here that we use our endowment of conscience as a compass to help us detect our own unique talents and areas of contribution. It is here that we use our endowment of imagination to mentally create the end we desire, giving direction and purpose to our beginnings and providing the substance of a written personal constitution.

It is also here that our focused efforts achieve the greatest results. As we work within the very center of our Circle of Influence, we expand it. This is highest-leverage PC work, significantly impacting the effectiveness of every aspect of our lives.

Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.

Security represents your sense of worth, your identity, your emotional anchorage, your self-esteem, your basic personal strength or lack of it.

Guidance means your source of direction in life. Encompassed by your map, your internal frame of reference that interprets for you what is happening out there, are standards or principles or implicit criteria that govern moment-by-moment decision-making and doing.

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, an integrated wholeness.

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.

These four factors -- security, guidance, wisdom, and power -- are interdependent. Security and clear guidance bring true wisdom, and wisdom becomes the spark or catalyst to release and direct power. When these four factors are present together, harmonized and enlivened by each other, they create the great force of a noble personality, a balanced character, a beautifully integrated individual .

IDENTIFYING YOUR CENTER

The ideal, of course, is to create one clear center from which you consistently derive a high degree of security, guidance, wisdom, and power, empowering your proactivity and giving congruency and harmony to every part of your life.

A PRINCIPLE CENTER

By centering our lives on correct principles, we create a solid foundation for development of the four life-support factors.

Our security comes from knowing that, unlike other centers based on people or things which are subject to frequent and immediate change, correct principles do not change. We can depend on them.

Principles don't react to anything. They won't divorce us or run away with our best friend. They aren't out to get us. They can't pave our way with shortcuts and quick fixes. They don't depend on the behavior of others, the environment, or the current fad for their validity. Principles don't die. They aren't here one day and gone the next. They can't be destroyed by fire, earthquake, or theft.

Principles are deep, fundamental truths, classic truths, generic common denominators. They are tightly interwoven threads running with exactness, consistency, beauty, and strength through the fabric of life.

Even in the midst of people or circumstances that seem to ignore the principles, we can be secure in the knowledge that principles are bigger than people or circumstances, and that thousands of years of history have seen them triumph, time and time again. Even more important, we can be secure in the knowledge that we can validate them in our own lives, by our own experience.

Admittedly, we're not omniscient. Our knowledge and understanding of correct principles is limited by our own lack of awareness of our true nature and the world around us and by the flood of trendy philosophies and theories that are not in harmony with correct principles. These ideas will have their season of acceptance, but, like many before them, they won't endure because they're built on false foundations.

We are limited, but we can push back the borders of our limitations. An understanding of the principle of our own growth enables us to search out correct principles with the confidence that the more we learn, the more clearly we can focus the lens through which we see the world. The principles don't change; our understanding of them does.

The wisdom and guidance that accompany Principle-Centered Living come from correct maps, from the way things really are, have been, and will be. Correct maps enable us to clearly see where we want to go and how to get there. We can make our decisions using the correct data that will make their implementation possible and meaningful.

The personal power that comes from Principle-Centered Living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people.

The only real limitation of power is the natural consequences of the principles themselves. We are free to choose our actions, based on our knowledge of correct principles, but we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. Remember, "If you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.

Principles always have natural consequences attached to them. There are positive consequences when we live in harmony with the principles. There are negative consequences when we ignore them. But because these principles apply to everyone, whether or not they are aware, this limitation is universal. And the more we know of correct principles, the greater is our personal freedom to act wisely.

By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the center that puts all other centers in perspective.

Remember that your paradigm is the source from which your attitudes and behaviors flow. A paradigm is like a pair of glasses; it affects the way you see everything in your life. If you look at things through the paradigm of correct principles, what you see in life is dramatically different from what you see through any other centered paradigm.

IF YOU ARE PRINCIPLE CENTERED

SECURITY. Your security is based on correct principles that do not change, regardless of external conditions or circumstances. You know that true principles can repeatedly be validated in your own life, through your own experiences. As a measurement of self-improvement, correct principles function with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength. Correct principles help you understand your own development, endowing you with the confidence to learn more, thereby increasing your knowledge and understanding. Your source of security provides you with an immovable, unchanging, unfailing core enabling you to see change as an exciting adventure and opportunity to make significant contributions.

GUIDANCE. You are guided by a compass which enables you to see where you want to go and how you will get there. You use accurate data which makes your decisions both implementable and meaningful. You stand apart from life's situations, and circumstances and look at the balanced whole. Your decisions and actions reflect both short and long-term considerations and implications. In every situation, you consciously, proactively determine the best alternative, basing decisions on conscience educated by principles.

WISDOM. Your judgment encompasses a broad spectrum of long-term consequences and reflects a wise balance and quiet assurance. You see things differently and thus you think and act differently from the largely reactive world. You view the world through a fundamental paradigm for effective, provident living. You see the world in terms of what you can do for the world and its people. You adopt a proactive lifestyle, seeking to serve and build others. You interpret all of life's experiences in terms of opportunities for learning and contribution.

POWER. Your power is limited only by your understanding and observance of natural law and correct principles and by the natural consequences of the principles themselves. You become a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, largely unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, or actions of others. Your ability to act reaches far beyond your own resources and encourages highly developed levels of interdependency. Your decisions and actions are not driven by your current financial or circumstantial limitations. You experience an interdependent freedom.

A PRINCIPLE-CENTERED PERSON

As a principle-centered person, you see things differently. And because you see things differently, you think differently, you act differently. Because you have a high degree of security, guidance, wisdom, and power that flows from a solid, unchanging core, you have the foundation of a highly proactive and highly effective life.

TWO WAYS TO TAP THE RIGHT BRAIN/EXPAND PERSPECTIVE

There are a number of techniques using your imagination that can put you in touch with your values. But the net effect of every one I have ever used is the same. When people seriously undertake to identify what really matters most to them in their lives, what they really want to be and to do, they become very reverent. They start to think in larger terms than today and tomorrow.

VISUALIZATION AND AFFIRMATION

Personal leadership is not a singular experience . It doesn't begin and end with the writing of a personal mission statement. It is, rather, the ongoing process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most important things. And in that effort, your powerful right-brain capacity can be a great help to you on a daily basis as you work to integrate your personal mission statement into your life. It's an other application of "Begin with the End in Mind."

A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it's personal, it's positive, it's present tense, it's visual, and it's emotional. So I might write something like this: "It is deeply satisfying (emotional) that I (personal) respond (present tense) with wisdom, love, firmness, and self-control (positive) when my children misbehave."

ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION STATEMENTS

I am always intrigued whenever I go to IBM and watch the training process there. Time and time again, I see the leadership of the organization come into a group and say that IBM stands for three things: the dignity of the individual, excellence, and service.

These things represent the belief system of IBM. Everything else will change, but these three things will not change. Almost like osmosis, this belief system has spread throughout the entire organization, providing a tremendous base of shared values and personal security for everyone who works there.

I don't know what costs that involved; my guess would be many thousands of dollars. But IBM believes in the dignity of the individual. That's what the company stands for. To those present, that experience represented its belief system and was no surprise. I was impressed.

That's why creating an organizational mission statement takes time, patience, involvement, skill, and empathy. Again, it's not a quick fix. It takes time and sincerity, correct principles, and the courage and integrity to align systems, structure, and management style to the shared vision and values. But it's based on correct principles and it works.

An organizational mission statement -- one that truly reflects the deep shared vision and values of everyone within that organization -- creates a great unity and tremendous commitment. It creates in people's hearts and minds a frame of reference, a set of criteria or guidelines, by which they will govern themselves. They don't need someone else directing, controlling, criticizing, or taking cheap shots. They have bought into the changeless core of what the organization is about.

PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL MANAGEMENT

But first, let's put Habit 3 in perspective.

Habit 3 is the personal fruit, the practical fulfillment of Habits 1 and 2.

Habit 1 says, "You're the creator. You are in charge." It's based on the four unique human endowments of imagination, conscience, independent will, and particularly, self-awareness. It empowers you to say, "That's an unhealthy program I've been given from my childhood, from my social mirror. I don't like that ineffective script. I can change."

Habit 2 is the first or mental creation. It's based on imagination -- the ability to envision, to see the potential, to create with our minds what we cannot at present see without eyes; and conscience -- the ability to detect our own uniqueness and the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which we can most happily fulfill it. It's the deep contact with our basic paradigms and values and the vision of what we can become.

Habit 3, then, is the second creation -- the physical creation. It's the fulfillment, the actualization, the natural emergence of Habits 1 and 2. It's the exercise of independent will toward becoming principle-centered. It's the day-in, day-out, moment-by-moment doing it.

Habits 1 and 2 are absolutely essential and prerequisite to Habit 3. You can't become principle-centered without first being aware of and developing your own proactive nature. You can't become principle-centered without first being aware of your paradigms and understanding how to shift them and align them with principles. You can't become principle-centered without a vision of and a focus on the unique contribution that is yours to make.

But with that foundation, you can become principle-centered, day-in and day-out, moment-by-moment, by living Habit 3 -- by practicing effective self-management.

Management, remember, is clearly different from leadership. Leadership is primarily a high-powered, right-brain activity. It's more of an art; it's based on a philosophy. You have to ask the ultimate questions of life when you're dealing with personal leadership issues.

But once you have dealt with those issues, once you have resolved them, you then have to manage yourself effectively to create a life congruent with your answers. The ability to manage well doesn't make much difference if you're not even in the "right jungle." But if you are in the right jungle, it makes all the difference. In fact, the ability to manage well determines the quality and even the existence of the second creation. Management is the breaking down, the analysis, the sequencing, the specific application, the time-bound left-brain aspect of effective self-government. My own maxim of personal effectiveness is this: Manage from the left; lead from the right .

THE POWER OF INDEPENDENT WILL

Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what "first things" are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.

WHAT IT TAKES TO SAY NO

I don't mean to imply that you shouldn't be involved in significant service projects. Those things are important. But you have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage -- pleasantly, smiling, nonapologetically -- to say "no" to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger "yes" burning inside. The enemy of the "best" is often the "good."

He was highly disciplined, which is why I went to see him in the first place. " If you want to get something done, give it to a busy man."

THE QUADRANT II TOOL

A Quadrant II organizer will need to meet six important criteria.

COHERENCE. Coherence suggests that there is harmony, unity, and integrity between your vision and mission, your roles and goals, your priorities and plans, and your desires and discipline. In your planner, there should be a place for your personal mission statement so that you can constantly refer to it. There also needs to be a place for your roles and for both short- and long-term goals.

BALANCE. Your tool should help you to keep balance in your life, to identify your various roles and keep them right in front of you, so that you don't neglect important areas such as your health, your family, professional preparation, or personal development. Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas of life. But can it really? Perhaps it can for a limited time in some areas. But can success in your profession compensate for a broken marriage, ruined health, or weakness in personal character? True effectiveness requires balance, and your tool needs to help you create and maintain it.

QUADRANT II FOCUS. You need a tool that encourages you, motivates you, actually helps you spend the time you need in Quadrant II, so that you're dealing with prevention rather than prioritizing crises. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to organize your life on a weekly basis. You can still adapt and prioritize on a daily basis, but the fundamental thrust is organizing the week.

Organizing on a weekly basis provides much greater balance and context than daily planning. There seems to be implicit cultural recognition of the week as a single, complete unit of time. Business, education, and many other facets of society operate within the framework of the week, designating certain days for focused investment and others for relaxation or inspiration. The basic Judeo-Christian ethic honors the Sabbath, the one day out of every seven set aside for uplifting purposes.

Most people think in terms of weeks. But most third-generation planning tools focus on daily planning. While they may help you prioritize your activities, they basically only help you organize crises and busywork. The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. And this can best be done in the context of the week.

A "PEOPLE" DIMENSION. You also need a tool that deals with people, not just schedules. While you can think in terms of efficiency in dealing with time, a principle-centered person thinks in terms of effectiveness in dealing with people. There are times when principle-centered Quadrant II living requires the subordination of schedules to people. Your tool needs to reflect that value, to facilitate implementation rather than create guilt when a schedule is not followed.

FLEXIBILITY. Your planning tool should be your servant, never your master. Since it has to work for you, it should be tailored to your style, your needs, your particular ways.

PORTABILITY. Your tool should also be portable, so that you can carry it with you most of the time. You may want to review your personal mission statement while riding the bus. You may want to measure the value of a new opportunity against so something you already have planned. If your organizer is portable, you will keep it with you so that important data is always within reach.

SCHEDULING

If you set a goal to become physically fit through exercise, you may want to set aside an hour three or four days during the week, or possibly every day during the week, to accomplish that goal. There are some goals that you may only be able to accomplish during business hours, or some that you can only do on Saturday when your children are home. Can you begin to see some of the advantages of organizing the week instead of the day?

ADVANCES OF THE FOURTH GENERATION

The fourth generation of self-management is more advanced than the third in five important ways.

First, it's principle-centered. More than giving lip service to Quadrant II, it creates the central paradigm that empowers you to see your time in the context of what is really important and effective.

Second, it's conscience-directed. It gives you the opportunity to organize your life to the best of your ability in harmony with your deepest values. But it also gives you the freedom to peacefully subordinate your schedule to higher values.

Third, it defines your unique mission, including values and long-term goals. This gives direction and purpose to the way you spend each day.

Fourth, it helps you balance your life by identifying roles , and by setting goals and scheduling activities in each key role every week.

And fifth, it gives greater context through weekly organizing (with daily adaptation as needed), rising above the limiting perspective of a single day and putting you in touch with your deepest values through review of your key roles.

The practical thread running through all five of these advances is a primary focus on relationships and results and a secondary focus on time.

STEWARDSHIP DELEGATION

Stewardship delegation is focused on results instead of methods. It gives people a choice of method and makes them responsible for results. It takes more time in the beginning, but it's time well invested. You can move the fulcrum over, you can increase your leverage, through stewardship delegation.

Stewardship delegation involves clear, up-front mutual understanding and commitment regarding expectations in five areas.

DESIRED RESULTS. Create a clear, mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished, focusing on what, not how; results, not methods. Spend time. Be patient. Visualize the desired result. Have the person see it, describe it, make out a quality statement of what the results will look like, and by when they will be accomplished.

GUIDELINES. Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate. These should be as few as possible to avoid methods delegation, but should include any formidable restrictions. You won't want a person to think he had considerable latitude as long as he accomplished the objectives, only to violate some long-standing traditional practice or value. That kills initiative and sends people back to the gofer's creed: "Just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it."

If you know the failure paths of the job, identify them. Be honest and open -- tell a person where the quicksand is and where the wild animals are. You don't want to have to reinvent the wheel every day. Let people learn from your mistakes or the mistakes of others. Point out the potential failure paths, what not to do, but don't tell them what to do. Keep the responsibility for results with them -- to do whatever is necessary within the guidelines.

RESOURCES. Identify the human, financial, technical, or organizational resources the person can draw on to accomplish the desired results.

ACCOUNTABILITY. Set up the standards of performance that will be used in evaluating the results and the specific times when reporting and evaluation will take place.

CONSEQUENCES. Specify what will happen, both good and bad, as a result of the evaluation. This could include such things as financial rewards, psychic rewards, different job assignments, and natural consequences tied into the overall mission of an organization.

TRUST

Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience, and it doesn't preclude the necessity to train and develop people so that their competency can rise to the level of that trust.

I am convinced that if stewardship delegation is done correctly, both parties will benefit and ultimately much more work will get done in much less time. I believe that a family that is well organized, whose time has been spent effectively delegating on a one-to-one basis, can organize the work so that everyone can do everything in about an hour a day. But that takes the internal capacity to want to manage, not just produce. The focus is on effectiveness, not efficiency.

PARADIGMS OF INTERDEPENDENCE

We're dealing with a very dramatic and very fundamental Paradigm Shift here. You may try to lubricate your social interactions with personality techniques and skills, but in the process, you may truncate the vital character base. You can't have the fruits without the roots. It's the principle of sequencing: Private Victory precedes Public Victory . Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationships with others.

Some people say that you have to like yourself before you can like others. I think that idea has merit, but if you don't know yourself, if you don't control yourself, if you don't have mastery over yourself, it's very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way.

Real self-respect comes from dominion over self, from true independence. And that's the focus of Habits 1, 2, and 3. Independence is an achievement. Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make . Unless we are willing to achieve real independence, it's foolish to try to develop human-relations skills. We might try. We might even have some degree of success when the sun is shining. But when the difficult times come -- and they will -- we won't have the foundation to keep things together.

The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are . And if our words and our actions come from superficial human-relations techniques (the personality ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the character ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.

The techniques and skills that really make a difference in human interaction are the ones that almost naturally flow from a truly independent character. So the place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our Circle of Influence, our own character. As we become independent -- proactive, centered in correct principles, value driven and able to organize and execute around the priorities in our life with integrity -- we then can choose to become interdependent -- capable of building rich, enduring, highly productive relationships with other people.

SIX MAJOR DEPOSITS

Let me suggest six major deposits that build the Emotional Bank Account.

Understanding the Individual

Really seeking to understand another person is probably one of the most important deposits you can make, and it is the key to every other deposit. You simply don't know what constitutes a deposit to another person until you understand that individual. What might be a deposit for you -- going for a walk to talk things over, going out for ice cream together, working on a common project -- might not be perceived by someone else as a deposit at all. It might even be perceived as a withdrawal, if it doesn't touch the person's deep interests or needs.

Attending to the Little Things

The little kindnesses and courtesies are so important. Small discourtesies, little unkindnesses, little forms of disrespect make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

Keeping Commitments

Keeping a commitment or a promise is a major deposit; breaking one is a major withdrawal. In fact, there's probably not a more massive withdrawal than to make a promise that's important to someone and then not to come through. The next time a promise is made, they won't believe it. People tend to build their hopes around promises, particularly promises about their basic livelihood.

I've tried to adopt a philosophy as a parent never to make a promise I don't keep. I therefore try to make them very carefully, very sparingly, and to be aware of as many variables and contingencies as possible so that something doesn't suddenly come up to keep me from fulfilling it.

Occasionally, despite all my effort, the unexpected does come up, creating a situation where it would be unwise or impossible to keep a promise I've made. But I value that promise. I either keep it anyway, or explain the situation thoroughly to the person involved and ask to be released from the promise.

Clarifying Expectations

The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in conflicting or ambiguous expectations around roles and goals. Whether we are dealing with the question of who does what at work, how you communicate with your daughter when you tell her to clean her room, or who feeds the fish and takes out the garbage, we can be certain that unclear expectations will lead to misunderstanding, disappointment, and withdrawals of trust.

Clarifying expectations sometimes takes a great deal of courage. It seems easier to act as though differences don't exist and to hope things will work out than it is to face the differences and work together to arrive at a mutually agreeable set of expectations.

Showing Personal Integrity

Personal integrity generates trust and is the basis of many different kinds of deposits.

Lack of integrity can undermine almost any other effort to create high trust accounts. People can seek to understand, remember the little things, keep their promises, clarify and fulfill expectations, and still fail to build reserves of trust if they are inwardly duplicitous.

Integrity includes but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth -- in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words -- in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations. This requires an integrated character, a oneness, primarily with self but also with life.

One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present. When you defend those who are absent, you retain the trust of those present.

Integrity in an interdependent reality is simply this: you treat everyone by the same set of principles. As you do, people will come to trust you. They may not at first appreciate the honest confrontational experiences such integrity might generate. Confrontation takes considerable courage, and many people would prefer to take the course of least resistance, belittling and criticizing, betraying confidences, or participating in gossip about others behind their backs. But in the long run, people will trust and respect you if you are honest and open and kind with them. You care enough to confront. And to be trusted, it is said, is greater than to be loved. In the long run, I am convinced, to be trusted will be also mean to be loved.

Apologizing Sincerely When You Make a Withdrawal

When we make withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account, we need to apologize and we need to do it sincerely. Great deposits come in the sincere words.

"I was wrong."

"That was unkind of me."

"I showed you no respect."

"I gave you no dignity, and I'm deeply sorry."

"I embarrassed you in front of your friends and I had no call to do that. Even though I wanted to make a point, I never should have done it. I apologize."

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

People with little internal security can't do it. It makes them too vulnerable. They feel it makes them appear soft and weak, and they fear that others will take advantage of their weakness. Their security is based on the opinions of other people, and they worry about what others might think. In addition, they usually feel justified in what they did. They rationalize their own wrong in the name of the other person's wrong, and if they apologize at all, it's superficial.

PRINCIPLES OF INTERPERSONAL LEADERSHIP

Whether you are the president of a company or the janitor, the moment you step from independence into interdependence in any capacity, you step into a leadership role. You are in a position of influencing other people. And the habit of effective interpersonal leadership is Think Win-Win .

SIX PARADIGMS OF HUMAN INTERACTION

Win/Win is not a technique; it's a total philosophy of human interaction. In fact, it is one of six paradigms of interaction. The alternative paradigms are Win-Lose, Lose-Win, Lose-Lose, Win, and Win-Win or No Deal.

WIN-WIN

Win-Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-Win means that agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying. With a Win-Win solution, all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan. Win-Win sees life as a cooperative, not a competitive arena. Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking if fundamentally flawed. It's based on power and position rather than on principle. Win-Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person's success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.

Win-Win is a belief in the Third Alternative. It's not your way or my way; it's a better way, a higher way.

WIN-WIN OR NO DEAL

If these individuals had not come up with a synergistic solution -- one that was agreeable to both -- they could have gone for an even higher expression of Win-Win, Win-Win or No Deal.

No Deal basically means that if we can't find a solution that would benefit us both, we agree to disagree agreeably -- No Deal. No expectations have been created, no performance contracts established. I don't hire you or we don't take on a particular assignment together because it's obvious that our values or our goals are going in opposite directions. It is so much better to realize this up front instead of downstream when expectations have been created and both parties have been disillusioned.

When you have no deal as an option in your mind, you feel liberated because you have no need to manipulate people, to push your own agenda, to drive for what you want. You can be open. You can really try to understand the deeper issues underlying the positions.

With No Deal as an option, you can honestly say, "I only want to go for Win-Win. I want to win, and I want you to win. I wouldn't want to get my way and have you not feel good about it, because downstream it would eventually surface and create a withdrawal. On the other hand, I don't think you would feel good if you got your way and I gave in. So let's work for a win-win. Let's really hammer it out. And if we can't find it, then let's agree that we won't make a deal at all. It would be better not to deal than to live with a decision that wasn't right for us both. Then maybe another time we might be able to get together."

Character

Character is the foundation of win-win, and everything else builds on that foundation. There are three character traits essential to the win-win paradigm.

INTEGRITY. We've already defined integrity as the value we place on ourselves. Habits 1, 2, and 3 help us develop and maintain integrity. As we clearly identify our values and proactively organize and execute around those values on a daily basis, we develop self-awareness and independent will by making and keeping meaningful promises and commitments.

There's no way to go for a win in our own lives if we don't even know, in a deep sense, what constitutes a win -- what is, in fact, harmonious with our innermost values. And if we can't make and keep commitments to ourselves as well as to others , our commitments become meaningless. We know it; others know it. They sense duplicity and become guarded. There's no foundation of trust and win-win becomes an ineffective superficial technique. Integrity is the cornerstone in the foundation.

MATURITY. Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration . If a person can express his feelings and convictions with courage balanced with consideration for the feelings and convictions of another person, he is mature, particularly if the issue is very important to both parties.

If you examine many of the psychological tests used for hiring, promoting, and training purposes, you will find that they are designed to evaluate this kind of maturity. Whether it's called the ego strength/empathy balance, the self-confidence /respect for others balance, the concern for people/concern for tasks balance, "I'm okay, you're okay" in transactional analysis language, or 9.1, 1.9, 5.5, 9.9, in management grid language -- the quality sought for is the balance of what I call courage and consideration.

Respect for this quality is deeply ingrained in the theory of human interaction, management, and leadership. It is a deep embodiment of the P/PC Balance. While courage may focus on getting the golden egg, consideration deals with the long-term welfare of the other stakeholders. The basic task of leadership is to increase the standard of living and the quality of life for all stakeholders.

Many people think in dichotomies, in either/or terms. They think if you're nice, you're not tough. But Win-Win is nice...and tough. It's twice as tough as Win-Lose. To go for Win-Win, you not only have to be nice, you have to be courageous. You not only have to be empathic, you have to be confident. You not only have to be considerate and sensitive, you have to be brave. To do that, to achieve that balance between courage and consideration, is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to Win-Win.

If I'm high on courage and low on consideration, how will I think? Win-lose. I'll be strong and ego bound. I'll have the courage of my convictions, but I won't be very considerate of yours.

To compensate for my lack of internal maturity and emotional strength, I might borrow strength from my position and power, or from my credentials, my seniority, my affiliations.

If I'm high on consideration and low on courage, I'll think Lose-Win. I'll be so considerate of your convictions and desires that I won't have the courage to express and actualize my own.

High courage and consideration are both essential to Win-Win. It is the balance that is the mark of real maturity. If I have it, I can listen, I can empathically understand, but I can also courageously confront.

ABUNDANCE MENTALITY. The third character trait essential to win-win is the Abundance Mentality, the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody.

Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life.

People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit -- even with those who help in the production. They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the successes of other people -- even, and sometimes especially, members of their own family or close friends and associates. It's almost as if something is being taken from them when someone else receives special recognition or windfall gain or has remarkable success or achievement.

Although they might verbally express happiness for others' success, inwardly they are eating their hearts out. Their sense of worth comes from being compared, and someone else's success, to some degree, means their failure. Only so many people can be "A" students; only one person can be "number one." To "win" simply means to "beat."

Often, people with a Scarcity Mentality harbor secret hopes that others might suffer misfortune -- not terrible misfortune, but acceptable misfortune that would keep them "in their place." They're always comparing, always competing. They give their energies to possessing things or other people in order to increase their sense of worth.

They want other people to be the way they want them to be. They often want to clone them, and they surround themselves with "yes" people -- people who won't challenge them, people who are weaker than they.

It's difficult for people with a Scarcity Mentality to be members of a complementary team. They look on differences as signs of insubordination and disloyalty.

The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.

The Abundance Mentality takes the personal joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment of Habits 1, 2, and 3 and turns it outward, appreciating the uniqueness, the inner direction, the proactive nature of others. It recognizes the unlimited possibilities for positive interactive growth and development, creating new Third Alternatives.

Public Victory does not mean victory over other people. It means success in effective interaction that brings mutually beneficial results to everyone involved. Public Victory means working together, communicating together, making things happen together that even the same people couldn't make happen by working independently. And Public Victory is an outgrowth of the Abundance Mentality paradigm.

A character rich in integrity, maturity, and the Abundance Mentality has a genuineness that goes far beyond technique, or lack of it, in human interaction.

One thing I have found particularly helpful to win-lose people in developing a Win-Win character is to associate with some model or mentor who really thinks Win-Win. When people are deeply scripted in Win-Lose or other philosophies and regularly associate with others who are likewise scripted, they don't have much opportunity to see and experience the Win-Win philosophy in action. So I recommend reading literature, such as the inspiring biography of Anwar Sadat, In Search of Identity , and seeing movies like Chariots of Fire or plays like Les Miserables that expose you to models of Win-Win.

But remember: If we search deeply enough with in ourselves -- beyond the scripting, beyond the learned attitudes and behaviors -- the real validation of Win-Win, as well as every other correct principle, is in our own lives.

Win-Win is not a personality technique. It's a total paradigm of human interaction. It comes from a character of integrity, maturity, and the Abundance Mentality. It grows out of high-trust relationships. It is embodied in agreements that effectively clarify and manage expectations as well as accomplishments. It thrives in supportive systems. And it is achieved through the process we are now prepared to more fully examine in Habits 5 and 6.

PRINCIPLES OF EMPHATIC COMMUNICATION

Seek first to understand is a correct principle evident in all areas of life. It's a generic, common-denominator principle, but it has its greatest power in the area of interpersonal relations.

Habit 5 lifts you to greater accuracy, greater integrity, in your presentations. And people know that. They know you're presenting the ideas which you genuinely believe, taking all known facts and perceptions into consideration, that will benefit everyone.

SYNERGIZE/PRINCIPLES OF CREATIVE CO-OPERATION

I take as my guide the hope of a saint in crucial things, unity -- in important things, diversity -- in all things, generosity -- Inaugural Address of President George Bush

When Sir Winston Churchill was called to head up the war effort for Great Britain, he remarked that all his life had prepared him for this hour. In a similar sense, the exercise of all of the other habits prepares us for the habit of synergy.

When properly understood, synergy is the highest activity in all life -- the true test and manifestation of all the other habits put together.

The highest forms of synergy focus the four unique human endowments, the motive of win-win, and the skills of empathic communication on the toughest challenges we face in life. What results is almost miraculous. We create new alternatives -- something that wasn't there before.

Synergy is the essence of Principle-Centered Leadership. It is the essence of principle-centered parenting. It catalyzes, unifies, and unleashes the greatest powers within people. All the habits we have covered prepare us to create the miracle of synergy.

What is synergy? Simply defined, it means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It means that the relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself. It is not only a part, but the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting part .

As Carl Rogers taught, " that which is most personal is most general." The more authentic you become, the more genuine in your expression, particularly regarding personal experiences and even self-doubts, the more people can relate to your expression and the safer it makes them feel to express themselves. That expression in turn feeds back on the other person's spirit, and genuine creative empathy takes place, producing new insights and learnings and a sense of excitement and adventure that keeps the process going.

People then begin to interact with each other almost in half sentences, sometimes incoherently, but they get each other's meanings very rapidly. Then whole new worlds of insights, new perspectives, new paradigms that insure options, new alternatives are opened up and thought about. Though occasionally these new ideas are left up in the air, they usually come to some kind of closure that is practical and useful.

NEGATIVE SYNERGY

One of the very practical results of being principle-centered is that it makes us whole -- truly integrated . People who are scripted deeply in logical, verbal, left-brain thinking will discover how totally inadequate that thinking is in solving problems which require a great deal of creativity. They become aware and begin to open up a new script inside their right brain. It's not that the right brain wasn't there; it just lay dormant. The muscles had not been developed, or perhaps they had atrophied after early childhood because of the heavy left-brain emphasis of formal education or social scripting.

When a person has access to both the intuitive, creative, and visual right brain, and the analytical, logical, verbal left brain, then the whole brain is working. In other words, there is psychic synergy taking place in our own head. And this tool is best suited to the reality of what life is, because life is not just logical -- it is also emotional.

SHARPEN THE SAW/PRINCIPLES OF BALANCED SELF-RENEWAL

Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things.... I am tempted to think...there are no little things.

Bruce Barton

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
"What are you doing?" you ask.
"Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree."
"You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?"
"Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work."
"Well, why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen the saw?" you inquire. "I'm sure it would go a lot faster."
"I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm too busy sawing!"

Habit 7 is taking time to Sharpen the Saw. It surrounds the other habits on the Seven Habits paradigm because it is the habit that makes all the others possible.

FOUR DIMENSIONS OF RENEWAL

Habit 7 is personal PC. It's preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have -- you. It's renewing the four dimensions of your nature -- physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional.

Although different words are used, most philosophies of life deal either explicitly or implicitly with these four dimensions. Philosopher Herb Shepherd describes the healthy balanced life around four values: perspective (spiritual), autonomy (mental), connectedness (social), and tone (physical). George Sheehan, the running guru, describes four roles: being a good animal (physical), a good craftsman (mental), a good friend (social), and a saint (spiritual). Sound motivation and organization theory embrace these four dimensions or motivations -- the economic (physical); how people are treated (social); how people are developed and used (mental) ; and the service, the job, the contribution the organization gives (spiritual).

"Sharpen the Saw" basically means expressing all four motivations. It means exercising all four dimensions of our nature, regularly and consistently, in wise and balanced ways.

To do this, we must be proactive. Taking time to sharpen the saw is a definite Quadrant II activity, and Quadrant II must be acted on. Quadrant I, because of its urgency, acts on us; it presses upon us constantly. Personal PC must be pressed upon until it becomes second nature, until it becomes a kind of healthy addiction. Because it's at the center of our Circle of Influence, no one else can do it for us. We must do it for ourselves.

This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life -- investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute . We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways.

The Spiritual Dimension

Renewing the spiritual dimension provides leadership to your life. It's highly related to Habit 2.

The spiritual dimension is your core, your center, your commitment to your value system. It's a very private area of life and a supremely important one. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to the timeless truths of all humanity. And people do it very, very differently .

I find renewal in daily prayerful meditation on the scriptures because they represent my value system. As I read and meditate, I feel renewed, strengthened, centered, and recommitted to serve.

Immersion in great literature or great music can provide a similar renewal of the spirit for some. There are others who find it in the way they communicate with nature. Nature bequeaths its own blessing on those who immerse themselves in it. When you're able to leave the noise and the discord of the city and give yourself up to the harmony and rhythm of nature, you come back renewed. For a time, you're undisturbable, almost unflappable, until gradually the noise and the discord from outside start to invade that sense of inner peace.

The Social/Emotional Dimension

Success in Habits 4, 5, and 6 is not primarily a matter of intellect; it's primarily a matter of emotion. It's highly related to our sense of personal security.

If our personal security comes from sources within ourselves, then we have the strength to practice the habits of Public Victory. If we are emotionally insecure, even though we may be intellectually very advanced, practicing Habits 4, 5, and 6 with people who think differently on jugular issues of life can be terribly threatening.

Where does intrinsic security come from? It doesn't come from the scripts they've handed us. It doesn't come from our circumstances or our position.

It comes from within. It comes from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from Inside-Out congruence, from living a life of integrity in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values.

I believe that a life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth. I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mindset, of attitude -- that you can psyche yourself into peace of mind.

Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.

There is also the intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living. There is security in knowing that win-win solutions do exist, that life is not always "either/or," that there are almost always mutually beneficial Third Alternatives. There is security in knowing that you can step out of your own frame of reference without giving it up, that you can really, deeply understand another human being . There is security that comes when you authentically, creatively, and cooperatively interact with other people and really experience these interdependent habits.

There is intrinsic security that comes from service, from helping other people in a meaningful way. One important source is your work, when you see yourself in a contributive and creative mode, really making a difference. Another source is anonymous service -- no one knows it and no one necessarily ever will. And that's not the concern; the concern is blessing the lives of other people. Influence, not recognition, becomes the motive .

SYNERGY IN RENEWAL

Balanced renewal is optimally synergetic. The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have positive impact in other dimensions because they are so highly interrelated . Your physical health affects your mental health; your spiritual strength affects your social/emotional strength. As you improve in one dimension, you increase your ability in other dimensions as well.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People create optimum synergy among these dimensions. Renewal in any dimension increases your ability to live at least one of the Seven Habits. And although the habits are sequential, improvement in one habit synergetically increases your ability to live the rest.

The more proactive you are (Habit 1), the more effectively you can exercise personal leadership (Habit 2) and management (Habit 3) in your life. The more effectively you manage your life (Habit 3), the more Quadrant II renewing activities you can do (Habit 7). The more you seek first to understand (Habit 5), the more effectively you can go for synergetic win-win solutions (Habits 4 and 6). The more you improve in any of the habits that lead to independence (Habits 1, 2, and 3), the more effective you will be in interdependent situations (Habits 4, 5, and 6). And renewal (Habit 7) is the process of renewing all the habits.

As you renew your physical dimension, you reinforce your personal vision (Habit 1), the paradigm of your own self-awareness and free will, of proactivity, of knowing that you are free to act instead of being acted upon, to choose your own response to any stimulus. This is probably the greatest benefit of physical exercise. Each Daily Private Victory makes a deposit in your personal intrinsic security account.

As you renew your spiritual dimension, you reinforce your personal leadership (Habit 2). You increase your ability to live out of your imagination and conscience instead of only your memory, to deeply understand your innermost paradigms and values, to create within yourself a center of correct principles, to define your own unique mission in life, to rescript your self to live your life in harmony with correct principles and to draw upon your personal sources of strength. The rich private life you create in spiritual renewal makes tremendous deposits in your personal security account.

As you renew your mental dimension, you reinforce your personal management (Habit 3). As you plan, you force your mind to recognize high-leverage Quadrant II activities, priority goals, and activities to maximize the use of your time and energy, and you organize and execute your activities around your priorities. As you become involved in continuing education, you increase your knowledge base and you increase your options. Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce -- to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That's true financial independence. It's not having wealth; it's having the power to produce wealth. It's intrinsic .

The Daily Private Victory -- a minimum of one hour a day in renewal of the physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions -- is the key to the development of the Seven Habits and it's completely within your Circle of Influence. It is the Quadrant II focus time necessary to integrate these habits into your life, to become principle-centered.

It's also the foundation for the Daily Public Victory. It's the source of intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension. It gives you the personal strength to focus on your Circle of Influence in interdependent situations -- to look at others through the Abundance Mentality paradigm, to genuinely value their differences and to be happy for their success. It gives you the foundation to work for genuine understanding and for synergetic win-win solutions, to practice Habits 4, 5, and 6 in an interdependent reality.

INSIDE-OUT AGAIN

One powerful transition person of the twentieth century, Anwar Sadat, left us as part of his legacy a profound understanding of the nature of change. Sadat stood between a past that had created a "huge wall of suspicion, fear, hate and misunderstanding " between Arabs and Israelis, and a future in which increased conflict and isolation seemed inevitable. Efforts at negotiation had been met with objections on every scale -- even to formalities and procedural points, to an insignificant comma or period in the text of proposed agreements.

While others attempted to resolve the tense situation by hacking at the leaves, Sadat drew upon his earlier centering experience in a lonely prison cell and went to work on the root. And in doing so, he changed the course of history for millions of people.

He records in his autobiography:

It was then that I drew, almost unconsciously, on the inner strength I had developed in Cell 54 of Cairo Central Prison -- a strength, call it a talent or capacity, for change. I found that I faced a highly complex situation, and that I couldn't hope to change it until I had armed myself with the necessary psychological and intellectual capacity. My contemplation of life and human nature in that secluded place had taught me that he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.

Change -- real change -- comes from the Inside-Out. It doesn't come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior with quick-fix personality ethic techniques. It comes from striking at the root -- the fabric of our thought, the fundamental, essential paradigms, which give definition to our character and create the lens through which we see the world. In the words of Amiel:

Moral truth can be conceived in thought. One can have feelings about it. One can will to live it. But moral truth may have been penetrated and possessed in all these ways, and escape us still. Deeper even than consciousness there is our being itself -- our very substance, our nature. Only those truths which have entered into this last region, which have become ourselves, become spontaneous and involuntary as well as voluntary, unconscious as well as conscious, are really our life -- that is to say, something more than property. So long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between Truth and us we remain outside it. The thought, the feeling, the desire or the consciousness of life may not be quite life. To become divine is then the aim of life. Then only can truth be said to be ours beyond the possibility of loss. It is no longer outside us, nor in a sense even in us, but we are it, and it is we.

Achieving unity -- oneness -- with ourselves, with our loved ones, with our friends and working associates, is the highest and best and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits. Most of us have tasted this fruit of true unity from time to time in the past, as we have also tasted the bitter, lonely fruit of disunity -- and we know how precious and fragile unity is.

Obviously building character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that creates such unity isn't easy. It isn't quick fix.

But it's possible. It begins with the desire to center our lives on correct principles, to break out of the paradigms created by other centers and the comfort zones of unworthy habits.

Sometimes we make mistakes, we feel awkward. But if we start with the Daily Private Victory and work from the Inside-Out, the results will surely come. As we plant the seed and patiently weed and nourish it, we begin to feel the excitement of real growth and eventually taste the incomparably delicious fruits of a congruent, effective life.

Again, I quote Emerson: "That which we persist in doing becomes easier -- not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased."

By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered in the task of creating effective, useful, and peaceful lives...for ourselves, and for our posterity.

A Personal Note

As I conclude this book, I would like to share my own personal conviction concerning what I believe to be the source of correct principles. I believe that correct principles are natural laws, and that God, the Creator and Father of us all, is the source of them, and also the source of our conscience. I believe that to the degree people live by this inspired conscience, they will grow to fulfill their natures; to the degree that they do not, they will not rise above the animal plane.

I believe that there are parts to human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with. I believe that as human beings, we cannot perfect ourselves. To the degree to which we align ourselves with correct principles, divine endowments will be released within our nature in enabling us to fulfill the measure of our creation. In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

I personally struggle with much of what I have shared in this book. But the struggle is worthwhile and fulfilling. It gives meaning to my life and enables me to love, to serve, and to try again.

Again, T.S.Eliot expresses so beautifully my own personal discovery and conviction: " We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time ."

STEVE JOBS QUOTES

  • YOUR WORK

  • Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
Steve Jobs
  • YOUR LIFE

  • Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
  • TEAMWORK

  • Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.
  • THE TRUST

  • You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
  • LEADER/FOLLOWER

  • Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
  • QUALITY

  • Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
  • THE NATURE OF PEOPLE

  • Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.
  • CREATIVITY

  • Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.
  • DESIGN

  • Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
  • Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
  • APPLE DISMISSAL

  • I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
  • INCREMENTAL/REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE

  • I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed.

VINCE LOMBARDI QUOTES

LEADERSHIP

  • Leadership is based on a spiritual quality --- the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.
  • It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men. Men respond to leadership in a most remarkable way and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere.
Vince Lombardi
  • A leader must identify himself with the group, must back up the group, even at the risk of displeasing superiors. He must believe that the group wants from him a sense of approval. If this feeling prevails, production, discipline, morale will be high, and in return, you can demand the cooperation to promote the goals of the community.
  • Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all of the needed talents that go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.
  • No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battle decides all.

THE LANGUAGES WITH MOST NATIVE SPEAKERS IN THE WORLD / THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD

NATIVE SPEAKERS (MILLION)

  1. Mandarin Chinese 935
  2. Spanish 390
  3. English 365
  4. Hindi 295
  5. Arabic 280
  6. Portuguese 205
  7. Bengali 200
  8. Russian 160
  9. Japanese 125
  10. Punjabi 95

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGES

  1. French
  2. Friulian
  3. Irish
  4. Greek
  5. English
  6. Romanian
  7. Spanish
  8. Portuguese
  9. Swedish
  10. Lithuanian

FRULIAN LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

Copiis

Il puar biat al a copiat il Sior
par dij: “O soi come tc”:
ma il Sior nol a copiat.

Magari chel biat j a vuadagnat,
ma i fis, daspn, cetant ano pajat
no savint jéssi sé?

Il lor destin al c, savéso qual?

Copie de brute copie origjnal!

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

Copy

The simple man tried to copy the gentleman
so he could say, “I’m just like you”,
but the gentleman could not be copied.

Now, maybe that simple man learned a thing or two,
but how much would his sons, later on, have
to pay for not knowing a thing?

The sons’ destiny?

To be a copy of the original rude copy!

ITALIAN LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

La copia

Il poveretto voleva copiare il Signore
per dire: “Io sono come te’,
ma il Signore non ha copiato.

Forse quel poveretto ha guadagnato
ma i figli, dopo, quanto hanno pagato
non sapendo cosa?

Sapete qual’c il loro destino?

Essere copia dell’originale brutta copia!

A SU CHE RIVA

Brano tratto dal CD-DVD Cjantâ Vilotis con Antonella Ruggiero - Canti ladini e villotte friulane della raccolta Gartner (1904-1915) - interpretate e ricreate in chiave word music con Destrani Taràf, MarMar Cuisine, Loris Vescovo & Caia Grimaz - direzione artistica Roberto Colombo info presso Info

PIEDMONTESE LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

A mè manera

Son partì ch'a j'era anco giovo
con ël braje fin sota ij garèt
son partì con en pom en sacòcia
e an sel baston en faudà a quadrèt.

Con la pieuva e la nebia ch'a buta
scarpe rote ma vanta marcé
ma an colein-a la tèra l'é bassa
mej andé ʼn girola che andé a travajé.

òh bondì mia bela madama,
pòrta ocasion a passava da que
j'è da manca 'n bicer ëd barbera
ʼna sòma d'aj ch'as lassa mangé.

òh monsù ch'o s'anséta pura
sota sa màndola bele ʼn si le
ël me masnà son sa pronte a scotela
da già ch'o mangia ch'o ʼs buta a conté.

Peui la sèira ʼs raduno ʼnt la stala
ant la paja col bestie davzin
tucc ansema foma o teatro
foma andé via fastidi e sagrin.

Tante cassin-e tante famije
tante listòrie, canson e sonèt
a-i na j'é che i fàn pianze a-i na j'é che i fan rije
son tute quante ant ël mè fassolet.
Tuti diso ch'a son ʼna lingera,
ma a mé manera travaj dërcò me.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

A mè manera

Sono partito che ero ancora giovane
con i pantaloni fin sotto i piedi (più lunghi della mia taglia)
sono partito con una mela in tasca
e sul bastone un fagottino a quadretti.

Con la pioggia e la nebbia che sta salendo
scarpe rotte ma bisogna andare
ma in collina la terra è bassa
meglio andarsene in giro che andare a lavorare.

Oh buongiorno mia bella signora,
occasionalmente passavo da qui
ho bisogno di un bicchiere di barbera
una sòma d'aj (pane e aglio) che si lasci mangiare.

Oh signore, si sieda pure
proprio lì sotto quel mandorlo
i miei bambini sono già pronti ad ascoltarla
mentre mangia si metta a raccontare.

Poi la sera si radunano nella stalla
Sulla paglia con le bestie vicino
Tutti insieme facciamo teatro
Lasciamo andare via fastidi e preoccupazioni.

Tante cascine tante famiglie
tante le storie, canzoni e sonetti
alcune fanno piangere, altre fanno ridere
sono tutte quante nel mio fazzoletto.
Tutti dicono che sono una lingera (1),
ma a modo mio lavoro anch'io.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

A mè manera

I was still young when I left,
my pants hanging below my feet (too long for me)
I took off with an apple in my pocket
and a stick holding a checkerboarded bundle
As the rain falls and the fog is rising
broken shoes but I must keep going
Up on the hills the land is too low,
far better wandering than working
Oh good morning my beautiful lady,
Only by chance I was passing by
I could use a glass of Barbera
and a "soma d'aj" (traditional warm bread and garlic) that I can eat
Oh sir, you are welcome to join us
right there, under the almond tree
my kids are eager to listen to your stories
while you're eating, tell us your tale.
And then in the evening they gather in the barns,
sitting in the hay, next to the stock
All together we make a play
Getting rid of all the hassles and worries.
Many farms, many families
many stories, songs and sonnets
some of them will make you cry, some others will make you laugh
all of them are in my handkerchief.
Everyone says I'm a Lingera (1),
but in my own way I work too.

AMEMANERA - A mè manera

Marica Canavese Marco Soria
Live 18 gennaio 2014 Teatro Toselli (CN)
Testo, musica e arrangiamento Marco Soria
Marica Canavese - voce, chitarra
Marco Soria - chitarra, voce
Claudio Rossi - chitarra
Beppe Lombardi - contrabbasso
Luciano Alì - batteria

QUOTES

  • "Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person." (Warren Bennis)
  • "Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult." (Warren Bennis)
  • "A systems approach begins when first you see the world through the eyes of another." (C. West Churchman)
Dyyni
  • "What one man can do, another can do!" (Hopkins/Baldwin)
  • "Your big opportunity may be right where you are now." (Napoleon Hill)
  • "A good leader is a moral, courageous and competent person." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Let's succeed together, not alone." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "A leader should know everything and be able to do everything." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Think, Think, Think. Read, Read, Read. Lead, Lead, Lead." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Credibility comes from integrity." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Keeping promises is the cornerstone of all integrity." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Be less successful. Treat people better." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "People must be lead intelligently." (Mika Kaakinen)
  • "Art is important." (Nicole Kidman)
  • "Together We Stand, Divided We Fall, but United We Thrive." (April Lynn)
  • "Listen to me, fighting man," Tuek said. He leaned forward over his desk, his shoulders level with his ears, eyes intent. The smuggler's face was suddenly like weathered stone. "My father's water - I'll buy that back myself, with my own blade." Halleck stared back at Tuek. In that moment, the smuggler reminded him of Duke Leto a leader of men, courageous, secure in his own position and his own course. He was like the Duke . . . before Arrakis.
  • A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob. (Stilgar)
  • "The law, that demands our form of choosing a leader is just a law," Stilgar said. "But it does not follow that justice is always the thing a people needs. What we truly need now is time to grow and prosper, to spread our force over more land." What is his ancestery? she wondered. Whence comes such breeding?
  • "Nobody wins, unless everybody wins." (Bruce Springsteen)
  • "It was Bennis who first said leadership is not a set of genetic characteristics, but rather the result of the lifelong process of self-discovery. That process enables people to become fully integrated human beings who know themselves and bring out the best in others." (Paul Sohn)

THE DEFINITION OF INTEGRITY

Integrity: is an internal system of principles which guides our behavior. The rewards are intrinsic. Integrity is a choice rather than an obligation. Even though influenced by upbringing and exposure, integrity cannot be forced by outside sources. Integrity conveys a sense of wholeness and strength. When we are acting with integrity we do what is right - even when no one is watching.

People of integrity are guided by a set of core principles that empowers them to behave consistently to high standards. The core principles of integrity are virtues, such as: compassion, dependability, generosity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, maturity, objectivity, respect, trust and wisdom. Virtues are the valuable personal and professional assets employees develop and bring to work each day.

Bob Czimbal and Michele Brooks in Source

Integrity definition by Dictionary.com:

  1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
  2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
  3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

Integrity definition by Wikipedia:

The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective integer, meaning whole or complete. In this context, integrity is the inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character. As such, one may judge that others "have integrity" to the extent that they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.

Integrity definition by Michael Jensen, Werner Erhard and Muel Kaptein:

Another use of the term, "integrity" appears in the work of Michael Jensen and Werner Erhard in their academic paper, "Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomenon of Morality, Ethics, and Legality". In this paper the authors explore a new model of integrity as the state of being whole and complete, unbroken, unimpaired, sound, and in perfect condition. They posit a new model of integrity that provides access to increased performance for individuals, groups, organizations, and societies. Their model "reveals the causal link between integrity and increased performance, quality of life, and value-creation for all entities, and provides access to that causal link." According to Muel Kaptein, integrity is not a one-dimensional concept. In his book he presents a multifaceted perspective of integrity. Integrity relates to, for example, compliance to the rules as well as to social expectations, with morality as well as ethics, and with actions as well as attitude.

Michael Jensen, Werner Erhard and Muel Kaptein in Wikipedia Source

You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside. (Alan Cohen)

When you have integrity, you become the kind of person that other people like to be around because you know who you are and where you are going. (Rick Warren)

THE COST OF LIVING WITHOUT INTEGRITY

If you live for external achievement, years pass and the deepest parts of you go unexplored and unstructured. You lack a moral vocabulary. It is easy to slip into a self-satisfied moral mediocrity. You grade yourself on a forgiving curve. You figure as long as you are not obviously hurting anybody and people seem to like you, you must be OK But you live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys. Gradually, a humiliating gap opens between your actual self and your desired self, between you and those incandescent souls you sometimes meet.

INTEGRITY IN DESIRES AND VOLITION

Philosopher Harry Frankfurt explains integrity as being fully self-integrated, free from inner-conflict and disagreement; harmonizing what you want and what you do.

The first step is to identify and categorize your desires and volitional acts. Frankfurt uses a hierarchy, listing your desires from most important to least. So, if your first-order desire is to spend more time with your family, your first-order volition needs to be coming home from work earlier. However, if your first order volition is to take on more projects at work, that is a mismatch and violation of your integrity.

The major stumbling block is that you are prone to acting in the moment, viscerally, based on your strongest emotional desire. Writing out a hierarchy of your desires allows you to reason, deliberate, and discriminate between more or less worthwhile desires. Having clarity gives you the ability to endorse certain desires and to outlaw others.

It seems elementary and commonsense, but basic truths are often overlooked. If you are experiencing inconsistency in your life, try this hierarchic model and rank your desires from most important to least. Beside them, write the corresponding actions. And keep in mind that your interests change over time; first-order desires can move to second, or third. Maintaining your integrity requires holding that agreement between your desires and volition, even as you shift and evolve.

INTEGRITY IN IDENTITY

Maintaining integrity in your identity is to possess a sense of authenticity; to act in ways that preserve your deepest beliefs and commitments rather than conform and cave into others expectations.

The balance between your vertical identity and your horizontal identity is crucial in finding and practicing integrity in your identity. Outlined by Andrew Solomon in his book, Far From the Tree: Your vertical identity is made up of the attributes and values you inherited from your parents your ethnicity, religion, language, nationality, and the behavioral norms these entail. Your horizontal identity is made up of traits foreign from your parents, and acquired from a peer group. Solomon notes, Whereas families tend to reinforce vertical identities from earliest childhood, many will oppose horizontal ones. Vertical identities are usually respected as identities; horizontal ones are often treated as flaws.

Integrity starts with deciding which traits to accept and identify with, being free from ambivalence and self-deception. There needs to be an internal agreement between your vertical identity and horizontal identity absolutely independent of your family and peer groups. Maintaining integrity means navigating through the challenges and clashes that arise, both from family and alternative peer groups, and holding to the vertical and horizontal convictions that you have adopted as your own.

INTEGRITY AS A SOCIAL VIRTUE

You’ve heard the adage "no man is an island". Indeed, life is not lived in a vacuum; your acts of integrity should be validated and affirmed by others. Otherwise, integrity solely as a personal virtue can be absent of morals and ethics you may act without inner-conflict, yet your commitments, desires, and volition can all be nefarious in nature.

On the dangers of isolated views of integrity, professor of philosophy at Arizona State University, Cheshire Calhoun gives a great example: The artist who alters his work of genius, making it sale-able to a tasteless public, lacks integrity because he does not regard his best aesthetic judgment as important to anyone but himself.

The individual notion of good is a shared one. Connecting your ideals of integrity with a community gives you the corporate accountability of checks and balances. Your own reasoning can easily manipulate and justify your hypocrisy. A person who practices integrity as a social virtue considers the impact and outcome of their actions on others.

In a world bent toward instant gratification and getting ahead, it is easy to forgo the commitment to act with integrity. But choosing to hold to your values and principles will bring you double-reward, adding the layer of meaning and inner-fulfillment to your external achievements.

INTEGRITY IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD

The scientific method assumes that a system with perfect integrity yields a singular extrapolation within its domain that one can test against observed results. Where the results of the test match the expectations of the scientific hypothesis, integrity exists between the cause and effect of the hypothesis by way of its methods and measures. Where the results of the test do not match, the exact causal relationship delineated in the hypothesis does not exist. Maintaining a neutral point of view requires scientific testing to be reproducible by independent parties.

INTEGRITY IN ETHICS

In ethics when discussing behavior and morality, an individual is said to possess the virtue of integrity if the individual's actions are based upon an internally consistent framework of principles. These principles should uniformly adhere to sound logical axioms or postulates. One can describe a person as having ethical integrity to the extent that the individual's actions, beliefs, methods, measures and principles all derive from a single core group of values. An individual must therefore be flexible and willing to adjust these values in order to maintain consistency when these values are challenged; such as when an expected test result fails to be congruent with all observed outcomes. Because such flexibility is a form of accountability, it is regarded as a moral responsibility as well as a virtue.

An individual's value system provides a framework within which the individual acts in ways which are consistent and expected. Integrity can be seen as the state or condition of having such a framework, and acting congruently within the given framework.

One essential aspect of a consistent framework is its avoidance of any unwarranted (arbitrary) exceptions for a particular person or group - especially the person or group that holds the framework. In law, this principle of universal application requires that even those in positions of official power be subject to the same laws as pertain to their fellow citizens. In personal ethics, this principle requires that one should not act according to any rule that one would not wish to see universally followed. For example, one should not steal unless one would want to live in a world in which everyone was a thief.

OTHER INTEGRITIES

Popular psychology identifies personal integrity, professional integrity, artistic integrity, and intellectual integrity.

THE BENEFITS OF LIVING WITH INTEGRITY

Successful people live with integrity. They say what they do and they do what they say. They are trusted by those whom they interact with and they build healthy relationships with consummate ease. These relationships then help them to achieve bigger and better things.

When you live with integrity, you influence, inspire and motivate others; not just with your words but with your actions too. Others see the positive example that you are and attempt to emulate you. When you choose to live with integrity you will experience a number of benefits, including:

  • You become more valuable both as a person and as an achiever. People see your importance and the value you add.
  • You get better opportunities. You become seen as somebody who gets things done. People are more willing to trust you and want to include you in the bigger projects.
  • As the respect and value you command increases, you are better able to pick and choose the projects you wish to work on.
  • The positive relationships which you build, lead to more people being willing to work with you. This allows you to get more done.
  • You get bigger and better rewards both in terms of personal fulfilment and pay and remuneration.
Coaching Positive Performance in Source

HOW TO LIVE WITH INTEGRITY; WITH 4 SIMPLE HABITS

(1) MAKE BETTER CHOICES

You make thousands of decisions every day, some big but many small ones. The bigger decisions often get your full attention, allowing you to make a higher quality of decision. Do the small decisions get your full attention too? Usually not, but when you regularly make the wrong decision, it starts to add up to some big problems.

To ensure that you make better decisions on a daily basis, you need to have a clear vision for your life; a clear sense of purpose, and effective goals which will help you to realise your vision and fulfil your purpose. Life is not a set and forget process; you need to consistently remind yourself of your values, purpose and goals. When you do this, they are at the forefront of your mind, allowing you to make smarter decisions which are consistent with the person that you are and the life which you are trying to create.

(2) DEVELOP POSITIVE HABITS

Many of the bad decisions you make on a daily basis will be down to force of habit. Over the years, you will have done things in a certain way until they have become second nature to you. When the situation arises, you don�t think about it, you just resort to habit. Maybe you are always late for appointments, or you consistently work late. In some cases your bad habits might not appear to be a problem for you, but they are usually a problem for others. If you want to live with integrity, you need to replace the bad habits with positive habits.

To develop positive habits, you first need to identify your bad habits. Take a few moments to list all of the bad habits of which you are aware. I would also suggest asking some trusted friends, or family, to help you identify any bad habits whcih you may have missed. Once you feel you have a completed list, go through each habit and write down the long term effects of sticking with this habit. Then, identify a positive habit which you are going to implement in its place and make a plan for how you are going to implement that new habit.

(3) KEEP YOUR AGREEMENTS

Every day you make agreements, both with yourself and with others. At the time of making agreements, you will generally intend on keeping that agreement but in a busy life that often proves to be easier said than done. It may not seem like a big thing when you fail to keep an agreement but every time you break an agreement, you erode a little of the trust between you and the other person. To live with integrity, requires that you keep your word so that you can build trusting and healthy relationships.

(4) RAISE OTHERS UP

If you want to build a healthy relationship with another person, the best place to start is by finding some way in which you can help them. It could be something as simple as taking a few minutes to listen to their needs. It seems counterintuitive as you probably focus on what you need to get done. But, when you have helped somebody, they see that you have value to offer and you can be trusted. With one quick action you will have taken giant strides towards creating a healthy, new relationship.

To live with integrity is to live as your best self. Each relationship must be seen as bidirectional. By helping others, you help them to feel good about themselves, and you are also helping yourself by creating a healthy new relationship.

Coaching Positive Performance in Source

INTEGRITY AND LIFE

When you live with integrity, you live your best life. You respect yourself by living in a manner which is consistent with your values, purpose and goals. These factors guide each decision that you make, thus allowing you to achieve more. You know that you can never truly succeed on your own so you offer the same level of respect to others. You focus on building healthy, supportive relationships which are based on mutual trust and respect. There will be moments when it seems like living with integrity is the most difficult thing but in reality, when you practice the 4 steps, above, the easiest thing you can do is to live with integrity. You will have a great deal of clarity in your life, allowing you make clear, effective decisions and ensuring the important stuff gets done. When you live with integrity, the benefits and the possibilities are endless.

EXPERTISE

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king

Expertise consists of many different factors. I would like to talk about three of them:

Mental: Ability to understand other people, to give meanings and values to things, and to understand life's causes and effects.

Intellectual: Skills acquired through formal education or self contemplation.

Spiritual: Relationship with God and the consequent values.

I think that all these factors are of equal importance and they should not be valued against each other.

The Vitruvian Man

MY SKILLS IN A NUTSHELL

  • Good cooperation and interaction skills. Inner awareness and emotional intelligence.
  • Master of Science from the Helsinki University of Technology (energy technology).
  • Postgraduate degree (Licentiate of Technology), Helsinki University of Technology and Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University (Sweden), (energy technology). Despite my qualifications, I do not consider myself talented enough to do research work; which, even at the national level, requires a lot of experise and work. I estimate that only about 5-10% of graduates are suitable for a research position.
  • Good knowledge of several languages (Finnish, Swedish, English and Italian) and good computer skills.
  • Some erudition about leadership issues.
  • Accounting basics.

Press the button below to see my postgraduate degree (Licentiate of Technology) content.

Course name Study weeks Grade
Wind power technology 2 4
Processintegration 2 4
Power plant technology seminarium 5 Passed
Kehlhofer, R: Combined-Cycle Gas&Steam Turbine Power plants, Haywood R.: Analysis of Engineering Cycles, Wilson, D.G.: The Design of High-Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines 8 Passed
Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University: Internal Combustion Engines 3 3
Frederiksen&Werner: District heating- theory, technology and function 4 Passed
Haywood: Analysis of Engineering Cycles 3 Passed
Nordic Energy Research Program: Seminarium about district heating 4,5 5
Special Course About Nuclear- and Energy Technology 3 Passed
Licensiat Seminarium About Nuclear- and Energy Technology 3 Passed
Frank M. White: Fluid Mechanics 5 4
Chalmers University of Technology: Ph.D.- course about Pinch-technology 5 Passed

IT-SKILLS

PROGRAM/PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE SKILL LEVEL
Microsoft Office Good skills. I know Excel best, and Access less so.
Image Processing I am proficient and experienced with Paint Shop Pro, and have limited experience with Adobe Photoshop.
HTML5 and CSS3 Reasonable/good skills. I've done quite a lot of work on HTML5 and CSS3 and so I have a relatively good understanding of them.
Pascal, C++ and Fortran I am very familiar with Pascal, with interest, but less profiency, in C++ and Fortran.
JavaScript, jQuery, WordPress, Bootstrap 4.0.0 and Flexbox Reasonable skills
Angular 5, React.js, Node.js, MongoDB, PHP and Webpack (Module Bundler) Preliminary skills
SASS (SCSS), Mongoose (Object modeling tool), Nodemon (Restarts automatically the server when changes happen in your Node.js application), Socket.io (Aims to make realtime apps possible in every browser and mobile device), Pug (Template engine for Node.js), Gulp (Task Runner) and CSS Grid Work in progress. After 1-2 years we will be wiser
Designer

LANGUAGE SKILLS

LANGUAGE SKILL LEVEL
Finnish Mother tongue
English Both written and oral are good. I have a rich vocabulary but I need more experience in the use of the language.
Swedish Written and oral are both good. My vocabulary is broad and I speak fluently.
Italian Both written and oral are satisfactory. My vocabulary is quite abundant, but I have not enough experience in the use of the spoken language.
French, Spanish and Portuguese I can read reasonably well, but I can not write or speak either of these languages.
Greek and Japanese Work in progress. After 1-2 years we will be wiser.

CHESS LIVE RATINGS TOP-10 PLAYERS

2700chess.com for more details and full list

* These fields are mandatory.