The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Exam Candidates
By Ron Nichoalds
Tech Team, DCL, S.K.I.
Spring 2003
I was recently asked by my employer to read the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. While I will pull the primary concepts from this book and apply it to the PSIA exam preparation process, I strongly recommend this book for anyone who interacts with people on any level. I was supposed to apply this book to my career outside of skiing, but I couldn’t help but draw conclusions about my family life, PSIA, and my relationships with people on the mountain. Also, while reading the Seven Habits, I found that many ideas were expressed very similar to how they are expressed in the Core Concepts Manual. Several of the concepts cross right over; they just have more specific skiing related titles.
Before we get into the Seven Habits, it is important to understand some concepts about different Paradigms and Principles that are expressed in the above mentioned book.
Personality v. Character Ethics
Pre WWII, people based their personal development on what are known as Character Ethics. Character Ethics are core traits that make up a person. Character Ethics consist of a good set of values, a sense of right and wrong, high integrity while treating people fairly and honestly. Post WWII, Personality Traits became the focus. People became more focused on the end result, or the outward image they projected rather than their core development.
In other words, what is the motivation for earning a Level II or III pin? Is it that you really want to be a better instructor so you are embarking on a new journey of personal development and education? Or, do you just want the pin because it will give you the feeling of higher stature in the skiing community? Then…. what happens if you fail? Will you get mad and the examiner and storm out of the exam after telling them that they know nothing? Or, do respond positively to the feedback and start strategizing for your next attempt.
The underlying difference between Personality and Character Ethics lie within your motivation. Is it just the end result you are after, or do you really want to become a better and more knowledgeable instructor? This will make the exam a confirmation of who you are, not a lucky day of something you are unable to live up to in the following days.
Understanding Different Paradigms and Principles
Without going into too much detail, we need to understand that different people see and process things differently. Realizing this, we need to be open enough to understand someone else’s point of view and be willing to see it their way. Our way may not be the right way, and we should be willing to try something new and different. There are also those situations that we are correct and have to work to help someone else to see things differently. Either way it happens, there is a Paradigm Shift taking place.
Habit #1 Be Pro-Active
When I first read this, I thought we were previewing a Nike commercial, get you butt off the couch and “Just Do It.” That concept will come later. This is all about self-awareness and developing an understanding of who you are before figuring out whom you want or think you can be. First let us explore three different social maps that define our behavior:
Genetic Determinism – your grandparents did it to you
Psychic Determinism – your parents did it to you
Environmental Determinism – your environment did it to you
Being Pro-active means is that you are self aware of the things that condition your response to certain stimuli. Being Pro-Active means, in-spite of your social map you are in charge of your attitudes and ultimately your destination. You are no longer blaming your failures on your heritage or personal history. You are now responsible for your actions. You are “response” “able”: able to respond such that you are in control of your actions and ultimate destinations.
How is this related to the exam process? This is where we need a realistic self-evaluation and decide where you really are in your developmental process. Take a look at the National Outcomes Exam Standards and assess yourself against those. Obtain feedback from qualified coaches that you trust and know that they have a good understanding of your development. Ask for feedback from a DCL at a PSIA event. Once you have a starting point and know where you stand, it is time to move onto the next habit.
Habit #2 Begin with the end in Mind
Take a minute and imagine you are sitting in the audience attending your own funeral. Now as you sit in the audience and listen to people speak about you, what are they going to say? What do you want them to say? I am sure we all would like say we positively affected people in our lives. I am also sure that we would like to have people say something good about us when we are gone. Now think about your career as a ski instructor. What do you want your students to say about you after a lesson? What do you want to accomplish with your skiing career? Why are you here and involved in this sport at this level?
This habit is based on the principle that everything is created twice. Before construction ever begins, there must be a perceived end result. So, picture your end result and develop a mission statement of your desired outcome. Make sure you look at the Character Ethics involved in your end result and be realistic about your motivations. This will put some meat behind your desired outcome and offer some ownership and motivation along the way.
Habit #3 Put First Things First
Now that you have a good mental picture of where you want to go, how are you going to get there? This is where the Nike slogan comes in: “Just Do It.” But, don’t just start working, develop a logical progression of development. If a beginner skier wants to learn to ski a double black diamond slope, do you take them straight there? No! You start with a foundation of skills to build on. You also need to set realistic goals that are achievable. The primary concept in this third habit states “Organize and execute around priorities.” Knowing your priorities and how to organize them will help you be more productive.
Habits of Interdependence
We have just reviewed the independent habits that apply to us as individuals. We know who we are, where we are going, and have developed a plan on how we are going to get there. Now we need to look at how we will be interacting with others along the way. We cannot depend totally on others in this developmental process; we need to be concerned with their needs too. We need to pay attention to our role and develop interdependent partnerships where more than one person contributes and succeeds.
Habit #4 Think Win/Win
Thinking Win/Win means to seek out mutually beneficial results of your interactions. Even though we have been schooled and raised in athletics to think, “If I win, someone else has to lose.” Not true!
Who do we need to consider in these situations: the people that are acting as your coaches, your ski school management, or other exam candidates. I am sure the list can go on. The important thing to remember is, how is your training and passing an exam going help those that are involved in this process. What about trainers in your ski school? They typically like to invest time in people that are planning to stay with the school for a while. They also like to see people they are working with pass their test. Is their investment in you going to be a positive experience for them too, if not, re-think your motivations? You may be able to gain a great deal of knowledge and information from someone, but if they receive nothing in return, it will be doubtful they will help you out again.
Habit #5 Seek First to Understand then be Understood
Listening is a very important skill. How many of us really are good listeners? Do we listen to understand, or are we formatting our response so we are ready to blurt out our own autobiography as soon as the other person is done talking. There are five levels of listening:
· Ignoring
· Pretending
· Selective listening
· Attentive Listening
· Empathic Listening
The key to this concept is that you diagnose before you prescribe. What would you think of your doctor if you went to his office with a soar throat and he prescribed a laxative for you, not very happy, right? Well, we need to respond to examiners in the same way. How many times to you get out in front of a group and “brain dump”? This happens in exams all the time. A candidate is given a teaching assignment and suddenly everything they ever knew about skiing comes spewing out of their mouth at 110 mph. More often than not, they end up failing because their presentation wasn’t applicable to the assigned task. So, listen carefully and make sure you truly understand your assignment before you start. At this point you will be able to deliver an accurate lesson appropriate to the assigned task.
Even before the exam, listen to everyone along the way. Learn from as many people as possible, assimilate the information and develop your own application of what you have learned. You never know, by the time you reach the exam, you might teach the examiner something.
Habit #6 Synergize
This is where it all comes together, the essence of teamwork and group management. Synergy values the differences of all those around you giving value and respect to their point of view. The sum is greater than the whole. This is important when you are attending a clinic prior to taking an exam because you just might learn something from another person in the clinic. It is especially important when you are in the exam. Be a leader in the group and help facilitate a positive and comfortable environment so everyone succeeds. Remember, this is not a competition, examiners much prefer to tell people they Pass, it is a whole lot easier that telling someone they Fail.
Habit #7 Sharpen the Saw
What do you do when something isn’t working right for you? Try harder, right? Wrong! Ever think about trying a different technique, or trying smarter? The following story taken from Seven Habits spells it out pretty good:
One day you decide to cut down a great big piece of old-growth timber (not really). So you head out to the tree with a handsaw and start sawing. Pretty soon someone comes up behind you and wants to talk to you for a minute about making that job easier. You respond that you are too busy and don’t have time talk to him. He keeps bugging you and you keep ignoring him. He finally gives up and takes his state of the art chainsaw back to his shop and sells it to someone else that was willing to listen to him.
The moral of the story is take time to sharpen the saw. Take time to renew and gain a fresh perspective. This applies too more that just learning how to ski. We all have physical, mental, spiritual and social emotional needs to develop balance in our life. Staying too focused on one task can burn us out. Take time to go to the gym, go to church, go on a hike, go to a movie, or just hang out with non-skiing friends and take a break from your exam prep process.
The two weeks prior to taking my Level III, I free skied and ripped all over the mountain skiing as fast as I could. The day before my exam, I was supposed to go out and take it easy and quit skiing by 1:00 PM. We were going to catch an early dinner and go to bed by 10:00 PM. I got to Mt Hood Meadows it was cold and snowing like gangbusters. I managed to get hooked up with a couple guys and we ripped all over that mountain until the last chair. We didn’t talk about exams once. We just blazed around in the powder remembering why we love to ski and love to be in the mountains.
When I showed up the next day, I was fired up about skiing and ready to take on anything. I was renewed and felt great.
Summary
Hopefully, this will offer a fresh perspective of looking at the exam process. It can be very rewarding if your goals and motivations are aligned correctly. As for the overview of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I didn’t even come close to doing it justice, but, I do think it is a must read for anyone interested in personal development in all aspects of their life.