THE 8TH HABIT:  FROM EFFECTIVENESS TO GREATNESS

Being effective is no longer an option in today’s dynamic and ever-changing world. It is a must, a requirement. Things keep changing and without effectiveness, you will end up without the necessary requirement and standard.

In this book, Stephen Covey shows us how to be as effective as we could be. He also makes us understand how we can move from effectiveness to greatness. The first 7 habits form the foundation, while the 8th habit takes us to true fulfillment in the age of knowledge workers as described by Covey.

The book is divided into two sections, 1) Finding your voice and 2) Inspiring others to find theirs.

1) Finding your Voice: The purpose of this habit is to make sure you find your voice to a point that you can be sure you are 100% involved in that which is important to you. Your body, soul, mind and spirit are all engaged in whatever you are doing. To find your voice, you need to understand your natural talents, what really interests you and what you love doing. To understand this, you have to listen and trust your inner voice, your conscience as it tells you what is the right thing to do. We can discover our voice because of these three gifts we possess:

1.    The freedom to choose
2.    The natural law which dictates the consequence of our behavior.
3.    The four intelligences, which are mental, emotional, spiritual and physical.

Covey does not stop at that. He moves on to give insight to great achievers and how they express their voice through their four intelligences. For example, great achievers develop: 

• Their mental energy into vision
• Their emotional energy into passion
• Their spiritual energy into conscience
• Their physical energy into discipline

Hitler had vision, passion and discipline but his downfall came from his lack of understanding about the second gift. He was egoistic. He refused to control his ego and let his conscience guide his behavior. Therefore, we must not fall into that same pit but learn from it.

The truth in business today is that so many people have lost their voice or they have yet to find it. These kind of people go to work every day to satisfy their bodily need and fail to put their natural talents to work and use their creativity and intelligence. They need their voices back or need to find them. We all do. The question now is how do we find our voice? Find out more in the 8th habit.

2) Inspiring others to find their Voice:

When you have successfully found your voice, the next thing is to help others find theirs which is somewhat about leadership. Great leaders have always inspired people to find their voice. Greatness is always the end result of people or organizations who eventually find their voice.

Covey talks about leadership greatness and organizational greatness. He demonstrated that leadership greatness is all about four principal things which are the 7 habits, pathfinding, aligning and empowering. Organizational greatness, on the other hand, comes from vision, mission and core values that bring synergy, commitment, clarity and accountability. An organization with leaders who understand and live the four leadership principles of pathfinding, modeling, alignment and empowerment and great people who have discovered their voice have transformed from effectiveness to greatness.

He finally leaves us with four top disciplines that if consistent with, they will improve your ability to focus and execute your top priorities.

• Focus on what is most important
• Have a compelling board
• Break down your goals into actionable plans
• Be accountable

Having this book on your list should be your priority. Get it and thank me later…

The Big Three – Key Points

Key point #1: The way to step from effectiveness into greatness is by finding your voice.

Key point #2: Maximize the three gifts in finding your voice.

Key point #3: Become a leader that inspires people to find their voice.

One last thing

“People simply feel better about themselves when they’re good at something.”
― Stephen R. Covey