by Sean Covey

 

 

Sean Covey is Stephen Covey’s son and a senior vice president in his company. Covey family is rather evangelical about cleansing the world of all evil with exactly 7 habits of something or the other. Hence this book on 7 habits for teens. 

 

The 7 habits mentioned in this are no different from the 7 habits prescribed for highly effective adults in Stephen Covey’s earlier bestseller. However, this book is much shorter in conveying the same ideas in a clearer language. The writing style is pretty straightforward and the book has lots of anecdotes, stories and illustrations for easier understanding. So if you have been impressed by ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ but have been put off by the convoluted language of the father, pick this. The son does better. 

 

The trouble is that this book has a very condescending tone, as any prescriptive book of its kind is likely to. Do teens really read, leave alone benefit from, reading self-help books? I think not. You cannot help any teen with this book by making the person read it. 

 

Though much of information in the book is quite intuitive (you may arrive at them if you think a bit), the book might help in a slightly different way.

 

If you genuinely care about someone's problems, read through the book yourself - never mind if you are an adult; it is all the same - and try to practice them. Then, the chances are you might be able to get your teen friend to play along. This might also be an opportunity to be reminded of the “effective way” to live your life.

 

There is another option: Get a pre-teen to read the book or better still. read it out to a pre-teen. They may get a kick in reading a book meant for an older age group and may not notice the condescending writing since society has yet to tell them that they deserve to be treated as adults!