Some valuable cherries of wisdom in this fruit cake of a book
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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.
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This book has changed my life!
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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!
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Interesting and Inspiring Summary of the Book
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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.
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9th Habit - Be Concise and Get to the Point
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I've been through the 7 Habits and First Things First, now I'm on the 8th Habit. Boy—is this dull! This is mostly a re-hash of the 7 Habits with more of a focus towards teams, leadership and businesses. As someone who works mostly on my own and not in a team, this book did not seem overly relevant to those in a similar position. There are a few new ideas in here but not many. The short films are a nice touch which helps to break things up a little. I listened to this while out walking so couldn't just stop and watch them when instructed. Ironically for a book about “finding your voice,” I found Mr Covey's voice extremely dull, lifeless and uninspiring—not a patch on Tony Robbins’ level of excitement—I often felt myself wandering off into a daydream while listening and then having to rewind to see if I had missed any astounding revelation (which for the most part, I had not). A manual for greatness, this is not—a cure for insomnia, quite possibly.
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Rehash and mish-mash
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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.
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