Have you read about The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey?

pic 1: Monkey face flower

( how wonderful the nature is? ) 

Pic: taken on the way to Pangong Tso, Ladakh.

Nature never fail to surprise me! 

Pic: wonderful pattern of the flower! 

Click here to see more photos!

The book’s synopsis promises that The 8th Habit is the answer to the yearning for greatness, the organization’s imperative for significance and superior results, and the human’s search for its “voice”. I believe there are some handy tips to be found in the book, but it is a much less intuitive read than his previous works.

The book is divided into two sections. The first focuses on “finding your voice” and the second on “inspiring others to find theirs”. Here is a synopsis of both parts:

Finding your voice.

The essence of this habit is that you will find your voice when you can say you are 100% involved with what you are doing in your life, so that your body, mind, heart and spirit are all engaged in whatever is important to you. To find your voice, you need to examine your natural talent, what you absolutely love to do, what really interests you. And you must listen to the confirming inner voice of your conscience that tells you what is the right thing to do.

We can discover our voice because of the 3 gifts we are born with:

Gift 1: The freedom to choose

Gift 2: The natural laws or principles – those that dictate the consequences of behavior. Positive consequences come from fairness, kindness, respect, honesty, integrity, service and contribution

Gift 3: The four intelligences – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

Covey talks about great achievers expressing their voice through the use of their intelligences; for example:

Great achievers develop their mental energy into vision

Great achievers develop their physical energy into discipline

Great achievers develop their emotional energy into passion

Great achievers develop their spiritual energy into conscience – their inward moral sense of what is right and wrong and their drive towards meaning and contribution.

Moral authority makes formal authority work towards positive ends. Hitler had vision, discipline and passion, but was driven by a mad ego. Lack of conscience and understanding of “Gift 2” was his downfall. We must control our ego and let our conscience guide our moment to moment behavior. As we develop the 4 intelligences, we will find our voice.

Covey says that the reality in business today is that there are many people who have not found their voices or have lost their voices. We see this every day – people go to work to serve their “bodily” needs, but do not really put their creativity, talent and intelligence into the job. Very true – and losing your voice is a good metaphor for understanding – the question of course is; how do we get our voice back?

Inspiring others to find their voice.

When you have found your voice, you can begin inspiring others to do the same – this is really about leadership. Great leaders have always inspired people to be self-aware, to find themselves and to find their voice – that is the essence of greatness. People and organizations who have truly found their voices go on to become great.

Leadership greatness is about 4 things; modeling the 7 habits, path finding, aligning and empowering. Path finding is about “one voice”, shared vision, values, uniting diverse people into one shared voice, creating order without demanding it. The voice of execution requires you to practice alignment so that the values and strategy are consistently executed without relying on the leader’s continuing presence. Covey goes on to reiterate a point previously made by John Kotter, that most organizations are over managed and under led, and the empowering role of leadership means creating agreements about goals that align with the company’s vision and then holding people accountable for results. He states that true empowerment is the natural result of both personal and organizational trustworthiness, which enables people to identify and then unleash their potential.

Organizational greatness comes from a vision, mission and values that bring clarity, commitment, translation, synergy, enabling and accountability. Covey says that an organization with great leaders (who live the 4 leadership roles of modeling, path finding, alignment and empowering) and great people (who have discovered their gifts and their voice) has hit the “sweet spot” – where the greatest expression of power and potential happens. He leaves us with 4 essential disciplines which, if practiced consistently, can vastly improve our ability to focus on and execute our top priorities:

Focus on what is important – focus only on a few crucial goals

Create a compelling scoreboard – people play differently when they are keeping score

Translate goals into specific actions – weekly and daily tasks

Hold each other accountable, all the time.

This book should be on your short list.