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Management Decision The seven habits of highly defective people Ken Matejka Richard J. Dunsing Bryce Walat Article information: To cite this document: Ken Matejka Richard J. Dunsing Bryce Walat, (1998),"The seven habits of highly defective people", Management Decision, Vol. 36 Iss 10 pp. 654 - 656 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251749810245309 Downloaded on: 16 December 2014, At: 09:15 (PT) References: this document contains references to 0 other documents. To copy this document: [email protected] The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 930 times since 2006* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: Lori L. Taylor, (2006),"The Labor Market Impact of School Choice: Charter Competition and Teacher Compensation", Advances in Applied Microeconomics, Vol. 14 pp. 257-279 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 235198 [] For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download. Downloaded by University of Waterloo At 09:15 16 December 2014 (PT)

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Page 1: The seven habits of highly defective people

Management DecisionThe seven habits of highly defective peopleKen Matejka Richard J. Dunsing Bryce Walat

Article information:To cite this document:Ken Matejka Richard J. Dunsing Bryce Walat, (1998),"The seven habits of highly defective people", Management Decision,Vol. 36 Iss 10 pp. 654 - 656Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251749810245309

Downloaded on: 16 December 2014, At: 09:15 (PT)References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.To copy this document: [email protected] fulltext of this document has been downloaded 930 times since 2006*

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:Lori L. Taylor, (2006),"The Labor Market Impact of School Choice: Charter Competition and Teacher Compensation",Advances in Applied Microeconomics, Vol. 14 pp. 257-279

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 235198 []

For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors serviceinformation about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Pleasevisit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio ofmore than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of onlineproducts and additional customer resources and services.

Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on PublicationEthics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

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Management Decision36/10 [1998] 654–656

© MCB University Press[ISSN 0025-1747]

The seven habits of highly defective people

Ken MatejkaA.J. Palumbo School of Business, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylva-nia, USARichard J. DunsingManagement Institute, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USABryce WalatDepartment of Communication and English, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, USA

Steven Covey had tremendoussuccess with his seven habitsfor success in business inparticular and life in general.This article takes a light-hearted, irreverent look atanalyzing the habits of thepeople who do not have suchgreat prosperity. Chronicallyless than successful peoplesuffer from seven diseases(or habits) including: playingthe victim, failure to see thebigger picture, a lack ofpriorities, destructive compe-tition, blind spots, a lack ofcreativity and resistance tochange. The article reallyexplores how some peoplestop themselves from becom-ing all that they could be.

Steven Covey’s bestseller The Seven Habits ofHighly Effective People gives good, solid,down-to-earth advice for success in all areasof your life and career. According to Covey,highly effective people consistently engage inseven helpful habits:1 being proactive;2 beginning with the end in mind;3 putting first things first;4 thinking win-win;5 seeking first to understand, then to be

understood;6 synergizing; and7 sharpening their saws, or looking at the

holistic self.

But what about those people who never get tofirst base? What about the people and organi-zations who are “directionally-impaired” andalways in shambles? What are the habits ofhighly defective people? With apologies toCovey, and with tongue planted firmly incheek, we offer our own list of the “sevendeadly habits.”1 Victimitis. Highly-defective people are

always reactive and never proactive; thatis, they avoid initiative like the plague andnever accept responsibility for their ownchoices and actions. They have a “power-less” view of the world and see themselvesas victims of:• their genetics;• their childhood experiences;• their socioeconomic positions;• their astrological signs; and• everything else that happens to them. While not everything that happens to us isunder our control, we can, as author, psy-chiatrist and Holocaust survivor ViktorFrankl tells us in Man’s Search for Mean-ing, choose our stance towards theinevitable. Highly-defective people makeveritable Bibles out of their own particularBooks of Lamentations and their favoritemantra, “If only …” or “If it weren’t forthem (e.g. mother, brother, management,the military, etc.) …” Highly-defectivepeople never fix what is “broken” in theircareers, their organizations, or their livesbecause they are too busy trying to fix the

blame! Worst of all, highly-defective peoplecan spread the victimitis virus and turn ahealthy organization into a “whinery”.

2 Nearsightedness. Highly-effective peopleconcentrate on the big picture. Highly-defective people give up when the cans ofpaint do not open easily for them! What isfor lunch is often their maximum timeframe for planning ahead. Our freeze-dried, microwave, one-hour photo cultureexistence demands instant gratification,short-run rewards, and reinforces myopicthinking and planning. Highly-defectivepeople do not take the time to know them-selves, much less their career goals, theirlife goals, and the goals of their organiza-tion. For them, developing a personalvision is a “mission impossible”. How canyou move yourself or your organization inthe right direction when you are direction-ally-impaired? In short, highly-defectivepeople plan to fail from the get-go becausethey fail to plan.

3 Priority malnutrition. Most highly-defec-tive people do not have distinct priorities,and those who do have priorities addressthem with levels of procrastination. Theynever put off until today what they can dotomorrow, next week, next year, or fiveyears from now. They would rather doanything but the work that needs to bedone. That is why, for example, severalgraduate students we know have spotlessrooms during their deadlines for compre-hensive exams. Highly-defective peoplehave severe role conflicts because theyhave not prioritized their lives. They avoidtaking risks, refuse to set goals, and manage their time ineffectively. They areoften too busy fighting fires and flounder-ing to make any meaningful progress.Highly-defective people may or may nothave an unclear sense of direction andthus no ordered, cohesive list of priorities.Either way, committed to putting off anddiverting life’s energies, procrastinationtotally immobilizes them.

4 Cannibalism. The Japanese approach to management encourages fierce

Some of the ideas found in this article wereoriginally presented in:Matejka, K. (1990), WhyThis Horse Won’t Drink: Howto Win and Keep EmployeeCommitment, AMACOM,New York, NY and Matejka,K. and Dunsing, R.J. (1995),A Manager’s Guide to theMillennium: Today’s Strate-gies for Tomorrow’sSuccess, AMACOM, NewYork, NY.

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Ken Matejka, Richard J. Dunsing and Bryce WalatThe seven habits of highlydefective people

Management Decision36/10 [1998] 654–656

competition between businesses and for-eign competitors. But within the organiza-tion, cooperation and teamwork are cru-cial to staying competitive. Highly-defec-tive people and organizations, on the otherhand, waste time, resources and energycompeting with others on the same team and in the same organization. Theirony here is that today’s world ofincreased external competition requiresmore internal cooperation. Our individu-alistic culture’s unofficial national anthemis “I did it my way”. Therefore, teamworkis seen as “un-American” and is notrewarded. Furthermore, victimitis causeshighly defective people to take a “meagainst the world” stance where everyoneand everything is a potential enemy andonly the strongest (or the most devious)survive. You cannot trust, let alone cooper-ate with people who are out to victimizeyou. The result: these organizational play-ers conserve their own resources and crip-ple the others, creating a destructiveimplosion.

5 Blind spots. Highly-defective people wouldrather find sunspots with their naked eyesthan find their own blind spots or seethings from other perspectives. We all have“blind spots” in our behavior that we arenot aware of but that others see. Some-times, these blind spots can be “blankspots” where we lack the experience,knowledge, or understanding on a subject. Blind spots come from over-spe-cialization, lack of experience, inability orunwillingness to change and learn fromothers, and the erroneous belief that you,your organization, and/or your culture areat the center of the universe. It is easier tosee yourself only as you see yourself andlet other people try to understand you.Highly-effective people, on the other hand,are aware of their own blind spots andblank spots and work to overcome or man-age them. Make sure you see the worldthrough different glasses to keep blindspots from fogging up your vision! Tworelated illnesses of vision are: peripheralimpairment (I cannot see beyond my ownneeds) and myopia (I can only see theworld my way).

6 Creativity anemia. Covey advises us to lookat things creatively and synergize differentideas and experiences to be highly effec-tive. Highly-defective people, on the otherhand, only are concerned with the num-bers and the Spartan demands of the “getit done yesterday” and “no pain, no gain”mentality. They spurn dreaming and plan-ning with lame excuses and trite clichéssuch as “planning takes too much time”,

“it won’t work”, and “what is everybodyelse doing?”. While maintaining an environment and attitude conducive tocreativity requires a good deal of time,money, space, courage, and open-minded-ness, and can require some costs in theshort term, the long-term strategic advantages of nurturing creativity offsetthe costs a hundredfold. Creative dream-ing and venturing into the unknownrequire not just involvement and partici-pation, but a level of commitment and totalpsychological, emotional, and spiritualsynergy that highly defective people finduncomfortable or even frightening. Thekamikaze (Second World War suicide) pilot embarking on his 100th mission isinvolved, but not committed! The source of the anemia is malnutrition of themind, a starvation of new thinking. Thisoften leads to a “hardening of the cate-gories!”.

7 Rigor mortis. Benjamin Franklin would be well advised to add change to death andtaxes as the only certainties in life. Resis-tance to change is natural and sometimesuseful, but can be potentially destructiveto your career, your organization, and your life. Highly-defective people resistchange and rally around the battle cry“bend over, here it comes again!”. They aretoo rigid and resistant to allow for thechanges necessary for growth andimprovement. They may be afraid of get-ting the short end of the deal, they mayhave been given the mushroom treatment(kept in the dark), they may have had ahistory of bad experiences with change, orthey may simply lack the needed informa-tion. Whatever the reason for resistance,failure to manage resistance to change andstagnation is a do-it-yourself hangman’skit. The “rigor mortis” of highly defectivepeople also manifests itself in a career,organization, or life that over-emphasizesone area at the expense of others, a phe-nomenon evident in athletes who over-train some muscle groups and neglectothers, leading to fatigue or injury. Themeaningful life is a balanced, flexible one.A highly successful business career canleave you feeling frustrated and disap-pointed 20 years into it if you are “toobusy” to nurture the rest of your life andtoo rigidly focused on one area. Eventually,highly-defective people end up too busytrying to get out of a physical, psychologi-cal, spiritual, or vocational crisis causedby their unbalanced lives. Do not be toostiff or you will end up dead in today’sworld of rapid change and lifelong continu-ous improvement!

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Ken Matejka, Richard J. Dunsing and Bryce WalatThe seven habits of highlydefective people

Management Decision36/10 [1998] 654–656

Conclusion

To summarize, people and organizations witha habit of failure often have at least one ofseven “diseases” that are counterproductiveto success and growth. The key here is thatthese highly-defective behaviors and atti-tudes are learned, not inborn. Poorly alignedorganizational reward systems and less-than-healthy cultural influences have contributedto the spread of victimitis, nearsightedness,priority malnutrition, cannibalism, blindspots, creative anemia, and rigor mortis. Whytake responsibility when whining is so easyand comfortable? Why plan for the long runwhen you can play now and pay later? Whywork together when working against is rein-forced? The corrective surgery for thesedefects, then, is to avoid reinforcing the defec-tive habits and reward the effective ones. Inorder to do this, however, you must firstengage in a thorough inventory of yourself touncover your faulty habits, which is anuncomfortable and scary but important stepalong the road to more effective habits.

The increased demands of today’s organiza-tions, today’s families, and today’s worldrequire us to take responsibility and initia-tive, have a focused sense of direction andmission, prioritize, work together, under-stand ourselves and others more clearly, tapinto the power of creativity, and lead a flexi-ble, balanced life and career. But knowingwhat to do is not enough unless you are will-ing to change your behavior and reinforcehealthier habits. Failing to do so will be haz-ardous to your health. You must remedy thebehavior and thought patterns that are stunt-ing your growth or be left out in the cold. AsJack Welch, CEO of General Electric, put it,“Control your own destiny or someone elsewill!”

Action exerciseWhy not assess your own performanceregarding these seven defective habits? Theassessment instrument shown in Table Iprovides a marvelous opportunity for self-evaluation, self-reflection, and a sharing ofexpectations between you and your boss.

Table IDefective habits assessment form

Defective habits Boss Self

1 Victimitis Low Medium High Low Medium High2 Nearsightedness Low Medium High Low Medium High3 Priority malnutrition Low Medium High Low Medium High4 Cannibalism Low Medium High Low Medium High5 Blind spots Low Medium High Low Medium High6 Creativity anemia Low Medium High Low Medium High7 Rigor mortis Low Medium High Low Medium High

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This article has been cited by:

1. David A. Holdford. 2009. Managing oneself: An essential skill for managing others. Journal of the American PharmacistsAssociation 49:3, 436. [CrossRef]

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