Product Description

In the 7 Habits series, international bestselling author Stephen R. Covey showed us how to become as effective as it is possible to be. In his long-awaited new book, THE 8th HABIT, he opens up an entirely new dimension of human potential, and shows us how to achieve greatness in any position and any venue. All of us, Covey says, have within us the means for greatness. To tap into it is a matter of finding the right balance of four human attributes: talent, need, conscience and passion. At the nexus of these four attributes is what Covey calls voice - the unique, personal significance we each possess. Covey exhorts us all to move beyond effectiveness into the realm of greatness - and he shows us how to do so, by engaging our strengths and locating our powerful, individual voices. Why do we need this new habit? Because we have entered a new era in human history. The world is a profoundly different place than when THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE was originally published in 1989. The challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude. We enjoy far greater autonomy in all areas of our lives, and along with this freedom comes the expectation that we will manage ourselves, instead of being managed by others. At the same time, we struggle to feel engaged, fulfilled and passionate. Tapping into the higher reaches of human genius and motivation to find our voice requires a new mindset, a new skill-set, a new tool-set - in short, a whole new habit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205293 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Stephen R. Covey is an internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant and founder of the Covey Leadership Center. He has made teaching Principle-Centred Living and Principle-Centred Leadership his life's work. He is the author of several acclaimed and bestselling books.

Customer Reviews

Valuable Synthesis Presented Abstractly and Ponderously
If you haven't read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I suggest you read that one before this book.

Dr. Covey obviously pulled out all of the stops in trying to make this book as helpful as possible to his readers. The book contains summaries of the material in his other books, repeats many stories from those books, reconciles the material with most of the business book best sellers in recent years, contains a DVD full of inspiring videos, provides references to many free materials on his web site, has extensive appendices and contains many thoughtful sections on questions and answers. As a result, the book comes across like an encyclopedia of his teachings . . . rather than as the simple communication that is so delightful in his other books. I suspect that Dr. Covey changed ghostwriters for this one (at least I assume that the other books were ghostwritten because they avoid the ponderous communications style that Dr. Covey uses in person).

So what is the 8th habit? Allow me to paraphrase. It'll be quicker that way. You act with integrity as an individual and help others to do the same.

In Covey-speak, it's the overlap of personal greatness (applying the 7 habits in the forms of vision, discipline, passion and conscience), leadership greatness (applying the 4 roles of leadership (modeling the 7 habits, path finding, aligning and Empowering), and organizational greatness (turned into a vision, mission and values that bring clarity, commitment, translation, synergy, enabling and accountability). See Figure 14.3 on page 280 for the simplest expression of the 8th habit in Covey-speak.

Can you make a book out of that point? Well, if you put in lots of examples, you can . . . which Dr. Covey did. But the basic point is about a magazine article's worth. Most people will come to that realization when they see the entire book's concepts summarized in chapters 14 and 15. If you want to check this book out, read those two chapters and see if you need more at that point.

Why do millions of people read his books? Well, the earlier ones were beautifully written. This one isn't. All of his books show unadulterated respect for the reader and a belief in the reader's unlimited potential to improve. So it's inspiring to read someone's high opinion of you. Dr. Covey obviously cares that we live moral and positive lives. He's a sort of secular priest expressing moral values that most will agree with. Would we all like to work for Dr. Covey? Sure!

How well will this book translate in the workplace? It'll be a tough row. You can have a company that's good at the 8th habit, but doesn't build the necessary skills to succeed with using the 8th habit. That's because this book is heavy on concepts . . . and light on the practical details. Dr. Covey starts up at about 100,000 feet in the air with his abstract thinking and discussions, and rarely gets any closer. So think of the 8th habit book as helpful . . . but not sufficient in and of itself . . . for creating superior performance. Perhaps it will work better if you employ Dr. Covey's firm to help you (which is abundantly pitched in the book).

Dr. Covey humbly points out that his conclusions are aimed at dealing with the problems of poor communication, lousy alignment, misunderstandings about what to do next, lacks of tools and training, and dumbed-down workplaces . . . but is not supported by research (other than anecdotes from his clients) to support that this actually works better. But you'll agree, I'm sure, that even failure would feel a lot better in such an organization. So it's very humanistic, which is a good thing.

Few will disagree with the point of this book, and most wonder what this adds to Dr. Covey's work on Principle-Centered Leadership. "Not very much" is my impression.

I suspect that this book would have worked a lot better if the material had been simplified and added to the 7 habits book . . . and renamed as "The 8 Habits of Highly Effective People."

May God bless you, Dr. Covey! Keep inspiring us to be our best!

Rehash and mish-mash
This is basically a rehash of previous material with a few bits and pieces thrown in from other authors like Jim Collins et al.
Stephen Covey has had one great idea, the 7 Habits, which he has capitalised on for some time this book adds a bit of substance to that idea but it is poorly written, repetitious and makes some sweeping statements with little evidence to back them up. Covey is fond of saying things like, "the research shows..." but he rarely ever lets you know which research. Stephen Covey has continually advocated principle centred leadership, however his material is vague on how, specifically, one should put this into practice the eight habit adds little by way of clarification.
My recommendation is that if you want a good book on leadership try The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner, Good To Great by Jim Collins or Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard.
One can't help but wonder if Stephen Covey lived for another twenty years would we see a ninth and a tenth habit. Just when I thought I was doing well with seven he comes along and introduces and eighth, bummer, its like learning to drive all over again - help someone, I need a programme to help me kick these crazy habits.

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.