University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The 8th Habit
Book

The 8th Habit

From Effectiveness to Greatness

Stephen R. Covey
Free Press, 2004
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

A cynic toward sequels would note that Steven Covey took only a little more than 300 pages to explain his first seven habits, but 409 pages and an accompanying CD to expound on the eighth. Cynicism aside, however, this book - this 8th Habit - is worth every page. Give Covey credit. He could rest on his laurels and just write bland, non-threatening "how to lead" books and they would all be bestsellers. Covey eschews mediocrity, however, and tells it straight. Most employees experience considerable emotional pain working in their organizations, he says, because they are treated as objects, not full human beings. Covey adds his prestige to the notion that the knowledge worker is a new model for change in the unspoken, unwritten contract between employer and worker. He bases this fresh paradigm on respect for the complete person - mind, body, heart and soul - not just the part that works from nine to five. Covey’s voice is powerful and unique. He is committed to helping others find their unique voices as well. getAbstract recommends this highly for anyone in the workplace.

Summary

Modern Bloodletting

The problem with management is that it still works under the flawed Industrial Age paradigm.

Consider that physicians in the Middle Age practiced bloodletting. As barbaric as that may seem today, using leeches to draw blood from a sick person simply followed from the era's paradigm that if you were ill, bad material was in your blood, so the blood must come out. After the advent of germ theory the paradigm shifted, saving millions of lives.

A paradigm is powerful. The old Industrial Age paradigm held that people were an input, akin to raw materials such as steel and energy. People, therefore, were treated as things. They were not managed as whole individuals consisting of heart, mind, body and spirit, but rather as objects to be controlled and rarely trusted. While circumstances certainly have changed since the advent of the Industrial Age, the basic paradigm continues. Workers are objects, to be carefully scrutinized and managed in order to get them to perform effectively.

This approach is increasingly dysfunctional in the Information or Knowledge Worker Age. Under the old approach, employees experience a great deal of pain and...

About the Author

Stephen R. Covey is co-founder and vice chairman of FranklinCovey Co., and founder and former CEO of the Covey Leadership Center. His book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. He is the author of several other books and a teacher of "Principle-Centered Living" and "Principle-Centered Leadership."

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