BR: The 8th Habit

Book Review: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (1989)

Please add this book to your development library.

 Stephen Covey follows his best selling book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by naming a 8th Habit. Covey wrote the 8th Habit to address changes in the world that took place in the 15 years after he wrote the 7 Habits. Coincidentally, the 7 Habits was released the same year that the Berlin Wall fell (1989). In 1989, the internet was in its adolescence and people were just beginning to use email.
The internet is the perfect symbol of the new world, of the Information/Knowledge economy, and of the dramatic changes that have occurred. By 2004 (the release of the 8th Habit) the internet has become an indispensable tool for life and work. Covey said that being effective as individuals and organizations is no longer optional in today's world, but it is the price of entry to the playing field. If this was true in 2004, it is much more in 2017. Covey wrote

"The 8th Habit is not about adding one more habit to the 7.... It's about seeing and harvesting the power of a third generation to the 7 Habits that meets the central challenge of the new Knowledge Worker Age. This 8th Habit is to FIND YOUR VOICE AND INSPIRE OTHERS TO FIND THEIRS. (p.5)

Covey wrote this book for people that are a apart of an organization--this includes all of us because we are all part of organizations in some fashion. In the introduction, he shares some finding from a poll of 23,000 U.S. residents employed full-time in key industries working in key functions:

• Only 37% said that they had a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why.
• Only 1 in 5 was enthusiastic about their team's and organization's goals.
• Only 1 in 5 workers said they have a clear "line of sight" between their tasks and their team's and organization's goals.
• Only half were satisfied with the work they have accomplished at the end of the week.
• Only 15% felt that their organization fully enables them to executes goals.
• Only 15% felt they worked in high-trust environments.
• Only 17% percent felt their organization fosters open communication that is respectful of differing opinions and that result in new and better ideas.
• Only 10% felt that their organization holds people accountable for results.
• Only 20% fully trusted the organization they work for.
• Only 13% have high-trust, highly cooperative working relationships with other groups or departments.

 To put this into perspective. If a soccer team had these same stats, only four of the eleven players on the field would know which goal was theirs. Only two of the eleven would even care. Only two of the eleven would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but two players would be competing against their own team members in some way.

  Thus, Covey wrote the 8th Habit to help team members get on the same page and succeed: "FIND YOUR VOICE AND INSPIRE OTHERS TO FIND THEIRS"

 Voice is unique personal significance--significance that is revealed as we face our greatest challenges and makes us equal to them. Voice is found where talent, passion, need, and conscience converge.

• Talent is your natural gifts and strengths
• Passion is those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you
• Need is what the world needs enough they will pay you for it
• Conscience is that still, small voice within that assures you of what is right and prompts you to do it

 The 8th Habit is divided into two sections. One on Finding Your Voice and the second on Inspiring Others to Find Their Voices. 

DISCOVERING YOUR VOICE

 Humans are born with incredible potential, but our talents often lay dormant. We have been born with three important gifts through which we can find our voices.

1. The first gift is the freedom and power to choose. We are a product of our choices--not our nature. We are not a product of how people treat us. We choose.

STIMULUS --> CHOICE --> RESPONSE

 An awareness of our freedom to choose is affirming because it can  excite our sense of possibility and potential.

2. The second gift are natural laws or principles. Principles are universal; they do not change; they are self-evident; and anyone can exploit them for personal gain.

3. The third gift are four intelligences or capacities of our nature. 

• A) Mental Intelligence (IQ) is the ability to analyze, reason, think abstractly, use language, visualize, and comprehend.
• B) Physical Intelligence (PQ) are the bodily systems.
• C) Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is self-knowledge, self-awareness, social sensitivity, empathy, and the ability to communicate successfully with others.
• D) Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) is the central and most fundamental of all the intelligences because it becomes the source of guidance for the other three.

 Developing the Four Gifts. You cannot work on one without touching the others. Development of each intelligences begin with an assumption.

• Body
• You have had a heart attack...
• Live accordingly!
• Mind
• The half-life of your profession is 2 years...
• Prepare accordingly!
• Heart
• Everything you say about others is heard by them...
• Speak accordingly!
• Spirit
• You have quarterly meetings with your creator...
• Live accordingly!

EXPRESSING YOUR VOICE

 Covey wrote that there is a pattern for great achievement--> they greatly expanded their four native human intelligences or capacities: mental (vision), physical (discipline), emotional (passion), and spiritual (conscience).

1. Vision / mental capacity is seeing what is possible in people, projects, in causes, and in enterprise. Seeing is the function of mind's eye.
2. Discipline / physical capacity is paying the price to bring the vision into reality. Discipline is willpower embodied.
3. Passion/ emotional capacity is the fire, the desire, the strength of conviction, and the drive that sustains the discipline to achieve the vision. Passion comes from the heart and is manifested as optimism, excitement, emotional connection, and determination.
4. Conscience / spiritual capacity is the inward moral sense of what is right and what is wrong, the drive toward meaning and contribution. It is the driving force to vision, discipline, and passion and stands in stark contrast to a life dominated by ego. Conscience teaches us that means and ends are inseparable. 

INSPIRING OTHERS TO FIND THEIR VOICE

 Inspiring others to find their voice is an act of leadership. Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves. Leadership is the act of helping others find their voice.

 Organizations form so that more can get done efficiently. An organization is made up of individuals who have a relationship and a shared purpose. Companies that outperform industry excel in four management practices.

1. Strategy - devise and maintain a clearly stated and focused strategy.
2. Execution - develop and maintain flawless operation and execution.
3. Culture - develop and maintain a performance oriented culture.
4. Structure - build and maintain a fast, flexible organization. 

 The process of inspiring others to find their voice could be summarized in two words: FOCUS & EXECUTION

1. Focus - Modeling & Pathfinding
• The Voice of Influence
• Modeling is the spirit of any leadership effort.
• Being a model involves finding your own voice first then choosing the attitude of initiative to expand your influence in every opportunity around you.
• Find your voice by developing the four capacities: Vision, Discipline, Passion, and Conscience.
• The Voice of Trustworthiness
• Modeling character and competence lays the foundation for trust in relationships; you cannot have trust without trustworthiness.
• Knowledge of this principle and of the principles underlying the pathfinding, aligning and empowering roles are the doorway to influence.
• The Voice of Speed and Trust
• Modeling also involves developing strong relationship SKILLS that build trust and blending voices.
• Trust and blending voices create third-alternative solutions to your challenges and differences with others.
• Third alternate solutions are "our way", not "my way" or "your way."
• One Voice
• Pathfinding involves creating with others a common (shared) vision about your highest priorities and the values by which you will achieve your priorities.
• Pathfinding creates order without demanding it.
2. Execution - Aligning and Empowering
• The Voice of Execution
• Execution begins with aligning goals and enabling systems for results and institutionalized moral authority.
• Alignment is difficult because it requires constant effort and adjustment because we are dealing with many changing realities.
• The Empowering Voice
• The empowering voice is releasing the passion and talent, clearing the way before them and then getting out of the way.
• Empowerment is where the rubber meets the road in a team and is the culminating fruit of the four roles of leadership (strategy, execution, culture, structure).

Covey wrote

I believe that this millennium will become the age of Wisdom. The Information Age is transforming so rapidly into the Knowledge Worker Age that it is going to take continual investment in our own education and training to stay abreast. Much of this will be done by the school of hard knocks, but people who see what is happening and who are disciplined will systematically continue their education until they acquire the new mind-set and the new skill-set required to anticipate and accommodate the realities of the new age. Hopefully, this will gradually morph into an Age of Wisdom, when information and knowledge are impregnated with purpose and principles. Wisdom is the child of integrity integrated around principles.

 In the 8th Habit and the 7 prior habits, Covey has given us a character building model that builds better people, builds better leaders, builds better followers, builds better organizations, and ultimately builds a better world. The 8th Habit is a book for the ages. The information is timeless. However, The 8th Habit is not an easy read and often hard to comprehend how it all works together. I feel that a Cliff Notes or a Reader's Digest version would be more digestible and render more useful results. In fact, this book could easily be broken into a four or five book series. This book is a treasure chest full of valuable diamonds, but the diamonds are often obscured by the countless gems in the treasure chest.

What is your main take-away that you can apply to your situation? Please leave a comment below! Thanks

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