The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness by Stephen R. Covey
Takes The 7 Habits To The Organizational Level
The world has changed dramatically since the classic, internationally
bestselling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was published,
influencing tens of millions. The challenges and complexity we all face in
our relationships, families, professional lives and communities are of an
entirely new order of magnitude. 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...to greatness.Accessing the higher levels of
human genius and motivation in todays new reality requires a sea change
of new thinking -- a new mind-set, a new skill-set, a new tool-set -- in short,
a whole new habit.
Personal Review: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness by Stephen R. Covey

A Zen master once said:"You go to University and spend time studying
hundreds of books, we prefer to spend all our time studying one book to
get all the essence out of it". If I had to choose one book that I would like to
study again and again it would be this one.
If you have read and applied Stephen Covey's previous books, then don't
expect the 8th Habit to be similar as it is very dense, so not as easy to
apply. However I think it is the best success book I have ever read. Whilst
First Things First and 7 habits are applicable to your daily life, this book is
applicable to the world surrounding you: your community, your
organization and your planet. It gives strategies for turning things around to
success in a much more holistic way and it works!!
This book could be the subject of a PHD on changing the world and
making organizations and communities successful.
Here is one area and example I chose where this book applies (and there
are many others): Managing and Leading Corporations.
Today we are suffering either through lay offs or the dwindling of our
savings from corporations run by CEOs bad at their jobs. Millions of people
are suffering, including the CEOs and board members. Corporations over
a hundred years old are disappearing. People are demotivated in the
workplace, only 5% of their capacities is used and no amount of top down
initiatives can motivate them. Nobody really wants this. So why is it
happening? It could be that capitalism is made of creation and destruction.
But what is key to survival then? Steven Covey's book in my opinion
answers these questions. He gives the key to turning around corporations
to success in a more effective way than 6 Sigma processes, big 5
consulting reorganizations and all the hypes that come and go. As I said
the book is very dense, but here are some highlights:
- S. Covey explains the context: we have moved from an industrial era to a
knowledge era. This changes the rules of how success is achieved.
- What is key now is people and leading them to get the best of them. We
can no longer be lead by specialists in Finance and PR jobs who play lip
service to employees. "Employees are on the forefront of our minds";
- S. Covey explains how to motivate people;
- S. Covey explains the importance of devising synergistic solutions. So
many companies are run through silos. The objective of one department is
defeating the objective of another.
- S. Covey outlines the importance of focus by limiting goals to 3 wildly
important goals;
- S. Covey explains how you cannot change the laws of nature. Ethics is a
cornerstone of his principles and again this is an area where too many
companies just play lip service to. Ultimately whether Ethics is not applied
or is just a PR job the company pays the price.
And so on...extremely powerful concepts. No amount of financial
restructuring and marketing can make up for all these basic concepts.

This book is to be put in the hands of all CEOs (and those who hire
them :)), Presidents and Leaders (and we are all leaders). More
organizations should employ S. Covey's consulting services. S. Covey
should create a research community that brings the edge to these
corporations and devises of simple ways of rolling them out. The proof is in
the pudding old tricks no longer work and in my opinion S. Covey has the
secret.
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