Personal effectiveness - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Personal effectiveness is a branch of the self help movement dealing with success, goals, and related concepts. Personal effectiveness integrates some ideas from “the power of positive thinking

Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking... or Positive Thinking may refer to one of two songs:*Positive Thinking *Positive Thinking...

” and Positive Psychology

Positive psychology

Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...

but in general it is distinct from the New Thought Movement. A primary differentiating factor is that Personal Effectiveness proponents generally take a more systematic approach including a number of factors beside simple positive thinking. Some proponents take an approach with similarities to business process management techniques. Others may take a holistic spiritual and physical wellness approach.

Beginnings

Many of the ideas behind the personal effectiveness movement derive from the field of business and management. Such luminaries as Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...

, W. Edwards Deming, and Genichi Taguchi

Genichi Taguchi

is an engineer and statistician. From the 1950s onwards, Taguchi developed a methodology for applying statistics to improve the quality of manufactured goods...

revolutionized business and industry in the mid-20th century by focusing on such concepts as quality, efficiency, and optimization.
In particular, Drucker’s ideas of “Management by Objectives” as explained in his 1954 book 'The Practice of Management' emphasized the importance of clarity of roles, responsibilities, and expectations. They also outlined the framework of SMART goal setting

SMART (project management)

SMART / SMARTER is a mnemonic used to set objectives, for example for project management, employee performance management and personal development.The first known uses of the term occur in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T...

.
In the management field, these advancements branched into the Leadership movement (for examples see Ken Blanchard

Ken Blanchard

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is an American author and management expert. His book The One Minute Manager has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages...

, Jim Collins) and the more technical advancements including lean thinking

Lean manufacturing

Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination...

, and six sigma

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a business management strategy originally developed by Motorola, USA in 1986. , it is widely used in many sectors of industry.Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and...

Overview

Early self-help classics such as Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (first published in 1936) tended to have a specific focus on success in one particular goal. Although this trend continues, with common specializations in weight loss, health, or spirituality, a few contributors are becoming more interdisciplinary in their scope. As the field matured, authors began to integrate ideas gleaned from their peers, and a more comprehensive approach to personal effectiveness began to emerge. A watershed benchmark of the genre was Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. This classic took a principle- centric and broadly applicable approach to effectiveness in business and in personal life and has been called the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century¹

Some key contributors to the field, along with their areas of focus:

Contributor	Focus	Important Works
Tony Robbins Tony Robbins Anthony "Tony" Robbins is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within...	health & energy, overcoming fear, persuasion, relationships	Personal Power
Robin Sharma Robin Sharma Robin Sharma is an author. Sharma has written 11 books; including "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" and "The Greatness Guide". His latest book is "The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable On Real Success in Business and in Life".-His Life:...	leadership, success	The Monk who Sold his Ferrari
Marcus Buckingham Marcus Buckingham Marcus Buckingham is a British-American New York Times bestselling author, researcher, motivational speaker and business consultant best known for promoting what he calls "Strengths." Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from interviews with workers in countries around the world, he...	strengths	First, Break all the Rules First, Break All the Rules First, Break All the Rules, subtitled, What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently is a book authored by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman who try to offer solutions to better employee satisfaction with the help of examples of how the best managers handle employees...
Wayne Dyer Wayne Dyer Wayne Walter Dyer is an American self-help advocate, author, and lecturer.- Early life :Dyer was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Melvin Lyle and Hazel Irene Dyer and spent much of his adolescence in an orphanage on the east side of Detroit. Dr. Wayne Dyer is a 1958 graduate of Denby High School;...	intention, positive thinking	The Power of Intention
Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra is an Indian medical doctor, public speaker, and writer on subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra now runs his own medical center, with a focus on...	health & medicine, physics, spirituality	Quantum Healing, the Third Jesus
Stephen R. Covey Stephen Covey Stephen Richards Covey is the author of the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Other books he has written include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families. In 2004, Covey released The 8th Habit...	vision, alignment, prioritization, love, synergy	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Business model

The business models of various personal effectiveness gurus typically revolve around traditional publishing, but may also include public speaking tours, corporate bookings and/or media appearances. Recently a new trend has emerged which embraces the open-source paradigm of free content. Noteworthy open-source personal effectiveness content sites include Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina is an American self-help author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur. He is the author of the web site and blog , StevePavlina.com and the book Personal Development for Smart People. He writes on a broad range of topics, and his lifestyle experiments Steve Pavlina (born April 14,...

and Level grinding.

Beginnings

Overview

Business model

See also