Yes, Covey taught Seek First To Understand.

Good advice!

But, as you follow that advice, do not be confused. In general, people do not understand themselves. Well, they sort of understand themselves...but they really do not understand themselves. The have vague notions about their goals, their deepest desires, their talents & strengths, and many other fundamentally-important things.

You don't agree...

OK.

Prove it.

Prove you understand yourself...

• State your definite purpose in life...your vivid vision
• State your personal values
• State the unique value proposition you bring to the workplace
• State the things you will do that other people will not do
• State what "Integrity" means to you and how you illustrate it
• State how you go about "Influencing" people
• State how you go about building a trusting relationship
• State the things people can rely on you to do 100% of the time

Yes - Seek First To Understand.

And, start with self.

Thought Tweet #900 The more you hurry the more the Opportunities pass you by.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Many people have a self-image of a too-busy person..."I am too busy to do that!" 

When Opportunities seek out people to visit, they pretty much avoid all these too-busy people.

Opportunities prefer to visit with people who have some time to spend with them, some time to get to understand them, some time to hold their hands and walk with them....then run with them.

I say Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations.

My friend Roelf says, "People need to go through different processes to get to the same place."

Roelf's wisdom certainly resonates with me. 

When we arrive in Situations we bring with us our People-stuff. We bring our Self-Image, Our Self-Esteem, and Our Mental Attitude. Here's a link to more on that topic. We bring much more. We bring what we are.  Here's a link to more thoughts on what we bring. 

When you and I meet in a Situation I bring my package of People-stuff and you bring your package of People-stuff. Each package contains the results of the experiences we have had: our people experiences, our process experiences, & our situation experiences, which contain a heavy flavour of People and Process.

Here's the way I picture it...

Just before we meet in a Situation we each have our Packages of People & Process stuff:

When we meet in a Situation our Packages may have much in common: 

Or our Packages may have very little in common:

Regardless of the things we have in common, there is much difference. We are unique People with, at best, some things in common. 

Let's consider personal comfort, an extremely important ingredient for constructive change.

Say we are together in a Situation. You may be very comfortable in it while I may be somewhat comfortable or possibly very uncomfortable.

Situations are snapshots in time. We have a Situation and things continuously happen to change it. Situations are fluid and rapidly changing...like a series of picture frames in a movie film. Except, in real-life Situations a change in each frame influences the contents of next frame. Even little things can create significant/material changes in Situations.

The little thing could be a little piece of Process...for example, the injection of an agenda into a meeting that had no agenda. Visualize a Situation where that happens. Would you be comfortable with the injection of an agenda into a meeting that had always been agenda-free? Assume you are and I am not...or vice-versa. The injection of a process, an agenda, just changed one person's comfort level. The effect is: at least one person has changed. And that could be a huge change, capable of turning the Situation upside-down.

When you and I arrive in a Situation we bring different packages. We cannot assume My Package and Your Package are equally comfortable with the Situation, or equally interested in the Situation, or having the same thoughts about the Situation, or sharing similar feelings or emotions in the Situation. If we assume these things then we may be totally disconnected with one another and not even know it.

If we assume our Packages are the same then we may take the wrong next step...miscommunicating, misinterpreting, misunderstanding, and missing the fact, "People need to go through different processes to get to the same place."

If we assume our \packages are the same then we will miss the facts:

People need to go through different processes to get to the next place.

People need to go through different processes to get to the next Situation.

People need to go through different processes to get to the desired-outcome Situation.

If we miss these facts then we will have little ability to help People achieve their goals.

If we miss these facts then we will have little ability to influence People toward success.