Covey, The 8th Habit

Stephen R. Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. Simon and Schuster, 2004.

• Companion volumes: The 8th Habit Personal Workbook (2006) and 8th Habit Miniature Edition (2006).
• Prequel: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (2004).
• Related volume: The Speed of Trust (2006).

Referenced in:

• Empowering Leadership
• Leadership Development through Character Formation
• Leadership Development Through Life Effectiveness

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

Those familiar with Covey will realize the title builds on Covey’s 15-million copy best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One may also see in The 8th Habit a refined echo of his earlier book Principle-Centered Leadership, which has enough unique content to merit a separate read.

In the introduction, Covey says that the chief difficulty in progressing from effectiveness to greatness, both for individuals and organizations, stems from an existential frustration, a painful lack of fulfillment. The problem is that most of our leadership/management models are relics of the Industrial Age which treats people as “things” and are incapable of inspiring their best talent, ingenuity, and creativity. This creates a codependent cycle where people consent to being treated as things, which leads to half-hearted effort, which leads to greater managerial control, which leads to others’ consent, and so on. In such an environment, people either rebel, quit, maliciously obey, or at best willingly comply. “But in today’s Information/Knowledge Worker Age — only one who is respected as a whole person in a whole job — one who is paid fairly, treated kindly, used creatively, and given opportunities to serve human needs in principled ways — will bring cheerful cooperation, heartfelt commitment or creative excitement” to the job. (24) We facilitate this by acknowledging the four-dimensional nature of human beings as body, mind, heart, and spirit and by energizing each dimension with the 8th habit: Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

After the substantive introduction, the book is divided into two main parts: Part One – Find Your Voice, and Part Two – Inspire Others to Find Their Voice.

In Part One, Covey suggests the path to discovering our own voice begins by activating three “birth gifts” (endowments each person possesses by virtue of birth into the human community):

1. Freedom to choose — “We are not merely a product of our past or of our genes; we are not a product of how other people treat us. These factors influence us, but they do not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices. …Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.” (41-42) Covey enthusiasts will hear this as an echo of the proactive vs. reactive principle from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
2. Natural laws or principles — Some principles are universal, timeless, inarguable, and self-evident. These are principles such as fairness, kindness, respect, honesty, integrity, service, and contribution. (46) The universe is created such that those who live by these principles reap the best of life and those who violate them reap negative consequences.
3. The four intelligences — These are mental intelligence (IQ), physical intelligence (PQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), and the one that is superior to all the others, spiritual intelligence (SQ).

Furthermore, Covey suggests that expressing these three gifts requires striving for the highest manifestations of the human intelligences.

1. The mental intelligence best expresses itself in vision — seeing what is possible in people, in projects, in causes, and in enterprises. It’s opposite is victimism. (65)
2. The physical intelligence best expresses itself in discipline — paying the price to bring the vision into reality. It’s opposite is indulgence. (65-66)
3. The emotional intelligence best expresses itself in passion — the fire, desire, the strength of conviction and the drive that sustains the discipline to achieve the vision, and the compassion to relate meaningfully to others within that vision. The opposite is the insecurity and empty chatter of a thousand voices that drive the social mirror. (66)
4. The spiritual intelligence best expresses itself in conscience — the inward moral sense of what is right and wrong, the drive toward meaning and contribution. It is the guiding force to vision, discipline, and passion. It’s opposite is a life dominated by ego. (66)

Part Two discusses how leaders may influence others to find their voice. He defines leadership as communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves. (98) The leadership challenge is to set up all relationships, including organizations, to accomplish this. It does not require a formal position, but simply a choice to deal with people in this way. Leaders do this by taking the four qualities of personal leadership — vision, discipline, passion, and conscience — and writing them large upon the relationship or organization. In so doing, conscience translates into modeling, or setting a good example. Vision translates into pathfinding, or working together with others to determine the course. Discipline translates into aligning, setting up and managing systems that keep everyone on course. Passion translates into empowering, or focusing on results, not methods, and getting out of people’s way and giving help as requested. (114)

The appendices form one of the richest features of the book. They include a practical guide to developing the four intelligences, a literature review on leadership theories and carefully selected quotes that represent each theory, and many other helpful resources.

From the Publisher

In the more than fifteen years since its publication, the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has become an international phenomenon with over fifteen million copies sold. Tens of millions of people in business, government, schools, and families, and, most important, as individuals have dramatically improved their lives and organisations by applying the principles of Stephen R. Covey’s classic book.

The world, though, is a vastly changed place. The challenges and complexity we all face in our relationships, families, professional lives, and communities are of an entirely new order of magnitude. Being effective as individuals and organisations is no longer merely an option — survival in today’s world requires it. But in order to thrive, innovate, excel, and lead in what Covey calls the ”New Knowledge Worker Age“, we must build on and move beyond effectiveness. The call of this new era in human history is for greatness; it’s for fulfillment, passionate execution, and significant contribution.

Accessing the higher levels of human genius and motivation in today’s new reality requires a sea change in thinking: a new mind-set, a new skill-set, a new tool-set — in short, a whole new habit. The crucial challenge of our world today is this: to find our voice and inspire others to find theirs. It is what Covey calls the 8th Habit. So many people feel frustrated, discouraged, unappreciated, and undervalued — with little or no sense of voice or unique contribution. The 8th Habit is the answer to the soul’s yearning for greatness, the organisation’s imperative for significance and superior results, and humanity’s search for its ”voice“. Profound, compelling, and stunningly timely, this groundbreaking new book of next-level thinking gives a clear way to finally tap the limitless value-creation promise of the ”Knowledge Worker Age“. The 8th Habit shows how to solve such common dilemmas as:

• People want peace of mind and good relationships, but also want to keep their lifestyle and habits.
• Relationships are built on trust, but most people think more in terms of “me”—my wants, my needs, my rights.
• Management wants more for less; employees want more of ”what’s in it for me“ for less time and effort.
• Businesses are run by the economic rules of the marketplace; organizations are run by the cultural rules of the workplace.
• Society operates by its dominant social values, but must live with the consequences of the inviolable operation of natural laws and principles.

Covey’s new book will transform the way we think about ourselves and our purpose in life, about our organisations, and about humankind. Just as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People helped us focus on effectiveness, The 8th Habit shows us the way to greatness.

About the Author

Stephen R. Covey is a renowned authority on leadership, a family expert, teacher, organisational consultant, and vice chairman of FranklinCovey Co. The author of several acclaimed books, he has also received numerous honors and awards, including being named one of Time magazine’s twenty-five most influential people. Covey lives with his wife, Sandra, and their family in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

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