The 1 Habit Stephen Covey Forgot to Mention That Your Life and Leadership Can’t Afford to Be Without

What one habit or practice could radically change the trajectory of both your professional and personal life? I’ll give you a hint. It’s NOT included in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits for Highly Effective People.

The One Habit of Paul O’Neill

For Paul O’Neill, that habit and #1 priority, was improving workplace safety. When taking the helm as the new CEO of Alcoa in October 1987, Paul didn’t talk about increasing profits, lowering costs, or raising the shareholder value.

Many thought he was nuts! So much so that one investor immediately ran to the phone, called his 20 largest clients, and told them to sell their Alcoa stock. That turned out to be a most foolish decision.

Within a year of O’Neill’s announcement Alcoa’s profits hit a record high. By the time O’Neill retired in 2000, the company’s annual net income was five times larger than when he started. Someone who would have invested one million dollars on the day O’Neill was hired, would have earned another million in dividends when he left.

How did O’Neill accomplish such a feat? By zeroing in on one habit (or area of focus) and then watching the ripple effect throughout his organization.

O’Neill believed that some habits have the power to start an unending chain reaction, changing other habits as they move throughout an organization. In his book (that details the above story), The Power of Habit: Why we do What we do in Life and Business, author Charles Duhigg calls such habits “keystone habits.”

In the personal realm, a keystone habit, as an example, could be regular exercise. Studies have shown that when people started habitually exercising, even just one time a week, they noticed improved changes in other areas of their lives such as: better eating habits, sleeping better, more productivity at work, decreasing depression, etc.

One Habit Stephen Covey Missed

As great as exercise it doesn’t hold a candle to another another habit, above all habits, that WILL radically improve and change the trajectory of your life and leadership, both professionally and personally. This 100% foolproof keystone habit is regularly reading and applying the Bible to your life and leadership.

While Stephen Covey leaves this habit out of his list of seven, he does advocate Putting First Things First in habit #3. His elaboration includes:

“Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what first things are, it is the management that puts them first, day-by-day.”

Interesting isn’t it? If we were to run that statement through a biblical framework as a follower of Christ that would mean:

• That Jesus is our ultimate leader and gets to decide what our “first things” or “keystone habits” should be.
• That we are called to be His managers who effectively prioritize His “first things” in our daily routines.

One such first, as Jesus so wisely and succinctly put it, was that we are to:

“…seek first His kingdom and his righteousness…”  ~ (Matthew 6:33 NIV) 

This is impossible to do without the keystone habit of daily being shaped by the transforming power of God’s Word.

3 Reasons Why You Need This Keystone Habit

There are at least 3 other reasons why your life and leadership cannot afford to be without this one, keystone habit. They are promises based on Psalm 1.

² “But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season.” 

~ (Psalm 1:2-3 NIV)

1. Because it will improve your stability.

Trees planted by streams of water will never lack sustenance, even in times of drought (when the stock market is in an up and down bull to bear frenzy).

2. Because it will increase your productivity.

Think of the uses of a tree: providing shade and shelter, creating oxygen, affording us with lumber to build homes and businesses, producing fruit to energize our bodies, and more. What a picture of a productive life and influential leadership!

3. Because it will impel your prosperity. 

Promised prosperity in every endeavor. That is mind-boggling. Of course it’s necessary to be cautious of how we interpret this. As an example, followers of God are not necessarily promised financial success in all their undertakings.

Jesus Himself, for instance, was completely successful in accomplishing God’s purpose for His time on this earth without achieving financial wealth. In fact, during the last three years of His ministry, He had no physical place to call home (Matthew 8:20).

But, He did have all of His needs met. And, even though His life ended with the horror of crucifixion, God prospered Him through a glorious and powerful resurrection, enabling all who would believe on His name to be reconciled to God and redeemed from the consequences of sin.