Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11877 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Synopsis
That the world has changed and is continuing to change at a rapid pace is not news. People are much more aware of everything around them. The consumer revolution has accelerated dramatically. But something vital is missing in all of this change. Leadership has not kept up with the changes going on in the world. From boardrooms to classrooms, leadership is being challenged on a daily basis yet now a new leadership model has been given. Dr Covey introduces the four roles of the new leader - modelling, pathfinding, aligning and empowering - and how those qualities can change you and your organisation. He discusses how trust can be lost throughout organisations and how it is imperative that any organisation bring trust back to the company if it is to survive. Covey also shows how to go from what he calls a 'want to' person to a 'can do' person and how doing so can completely transform people and organisations.

Through his ideas, one will discover how to: Use the four vital roles to establish trust and make growth a given; build and sustain an atmosphere of respect and openness; keep and inspire your most talented workers; apply creative co-operation to reach new levels of performance; develop leadership at every level of your organisation; take advantage of strengths and compensate for weakness; reduce cynicism and improve morale.

Customer Reviews

Some valuable cherries of wisdom in this fruit cake of a book
Having found Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" an extremely useful tool for organising my life, I really looked forward to what might lie in store with this "8th Habit" volume.

In many ways, I found reading it very much like eating a fruit cake - insofar as the pearls of wisdom and practical advice that were so densely packed in the "Seven Habits" - (I have my MS Outlook organised into Covey's "Urgent and Important, Important and Not Urgent . . ." system) were still there, but they were mixed more thinly through the dough of the fruit cake.

The subtitle of the book is "Finding Your Own Voice and Teaching Others to Find Their's" and indeed it does have some extremely valuable lessons to give about empowerment and about delegation. But perhaps it's most important message is that we are now in the age of the "knowledge worker" in which everyone, from the most menial worker to the highest paid executive, is an expert in their own field and must be treated with the respect they deserve in order to get the best results.

For me, that insight, and the change it has brought to my own work practices, is easily worth the price of the book and therefore I have no problem in recommending it as an accompanying volume to Covey's other excellent works.

This book has changed my life!
This book has profoundly changed the way I perceive my work, family, and myself. In short, I now have a reverence for the greatness in each of us - and desire to treat others accordingly. As I remember and practice the principles taught so eloquently my Mr. Covey in this book, I find myself at peace with others and myself.

There is a spiritual dimension to our lives, relationships and potential that Mr. Covey taps into. Unfortunately, we have ignored these principles for too long in our families, organizations and society. And we have paid the price. Covey's book is a timely, refreshing and unique contribution that is a must read for everyone who wants to find their talent, passion, need and conscience - their voice!

Interesting and Inspiring Summary of the Book
Stephen Covey's book "The 8th Habit" contains a lot of very good ideas but is rather padded. This audio CD provides a very useful summary of the key points in the book. Although it is still a bit preachy at times, it does avoid most of the homely self-indulgent anecdotes of the book. The audio CD though, has one major weakness in my view - it doesn't spend enough time on what I feel is the most important feature of the book - the 4 Roles of Leadership. Barely 10 minutes of the CD covers this vital development plan for 21st century leaders(and that coverage is fairly poor). So read the book, reinforce the key points with the CD, and skim the book again focussing on the leadership aspects. That should help you get to grips with the material.