highly effective me

For our homeschoolling parents study group we are reading Stephen R. Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This book is a classic example of my tendency to dismiss and/or ridicule things that are embraced by the masses, because, as we all know, "The masses are asses." And I think I've always been put off by the term "effective." What does it mean to be an effective person? And why would I want to be one? I can say that now that I'm about 1/3 through the book, being an effective person sounds pretty good. I know that I would really like to be an effective mother, with all that being such entails. The book focuses on what is necessary to develop true character in order to have success and happiness in life, and contrasts this character to just having a "winning personality." So, while a lot of the book has been excerpted over the years into soundbites and inspirational quotations, I'm finding much of merit in the text. So, I guess I'll have to eat my words. But hopefully I can do so in a highly effective manner.