Since its release in 1989, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, been translated into over 33 languages, and is widely considered one of the most popular self-help books of all time.

The book is organized into four main parts: part one “paradigms and principles”; part two “private victory”; part three “public victory”; and part four “Renewal” and is structured around 7 axioms of effective living.

Though Covey is ostensibly writing “lessons in personal change,” the principles that guide the 7 Habits are readily applied to organizations from families to government agencies to the mega-companies that comprise the Fortune 500.

Sandra McCutcheon-Maloney