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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
A good tussle with the law of diminishing returns
The 7 Habits was magnificent. The Power of the 7 Habits was somewhat of a 'cashing in' from a public hungry for more. At first listen I thought the 8th Habit was more of the same. Certainly Covey uses more sales pitch, repeatedly reassuring people that others have found this stuff useful. The 7 Habits stood on it's own two feet and this initially appeared to flounder...
Published on 8 Mar 2005
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Valuable Synthesis Presented Abstractly and Ponderously
If you haven't read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I suggest you read that one before this book. Dr. Covey obviously pulled out all of the stops in trying to make this book as helpful as possible to his readers. The book contains summaries of the material in his other books, repeats many stories from those books, reconciles the material with most of the...
Published on 18 Mar 2005 by Professor Donald Mitchell
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Valuable Synthesis Presented Abstractly and Ponderously, 18 Mar 2005
If you haven't read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I suggest you read that one before this book.Dr. Covey obviously pulled out all of the stops in trying to make this book as helpful as possible to his readers. The book contains summaries of the material in his other books, repeats many stories from those books, reconciles the material with most of the business book best sellers in recent years, contains a DVD full of inspiring videos, provides references to many free materials on his web site, has extensive appendices and contains many thoughtful sections on questions and answers. As a result, the book comes across like an encyclopedia of his teachings . . . rather than as the simple communication that is so delightful in his other books. I suspect that Dr. Covey changed ghostwriters for this one (at least I assume that the other books were ghostwritten because they avoid the ponderous communications style that Dr. Covey uses in person). So what is the 8th habit? Allow me to paraphrase. It'll be quicker that way. You act with integrity as an individual and help others to do the same. In Covey-speak, it's the overlap of personal greatness (applying the 7 habits in the forms of vision, discipline, passion and conscience), leadership greatness (applying the 4 roles of leadership (modeling the 7 habits, path finding, aligning and Empowering), and organizational greatness (turned into a vision, mission and values that bring clarity, commitment, translation, synergy, enabling and accountability). See Figure 14.3 on page 280 for the simplest expression of the 8th habit in Covey-speak. Can you make a book out of that point? Well, if you put in lots of examples, you can . . . which Dr. Covey did. But the basic point is about a magazine article's worth. Most people will come to that realization when they see the entire book's concepts summarized in chapters 14 and 15. If you want to check this book out, read those two chapters and see if you need more at that point. Why do millions of people read his books? Well, the earlier ones were beautifully written. This one isn't. All of his books show unadulterated respect for the reader and a belief in the reader's unlimited potential to improve. So it's inspiring to read someone's high opinion of you. Dr. Covey obviously cares that we live moral and positive lives. He's a sort of secular priest expressing moral values that most will agree with. Would we all like to work for Dr. Covey? Sure! How well will this book translate in the workplace? It'll be a tough row. You can have a company that's good at the 8th habit, but doesn't build the necessary skills to succeed with using the 8th habit. That's because this book is heavy on concepts . . . and light on the practical details. Dr. Covey starts up at about 100,000 feet in the air with his abstract thinking and discussions, and rarely gets any closer. So think of the 8th habit book as helpful . . . but not sufficient in and of itself . . . for creating superior performance. Perhaps it will work better if you employ Dr. Covey's firm to help you (which is abundantly pitched in the book). Dr. Covey humbly points out that his conclusions are aimed at dealing with the problems of poor communication, lousy alignment, misunderstandings about what to do next, lacks of tools and training, and dumbed-down workplaces . . . but is not supported by research (other than anecdotes from his clients) to support that this actually works better. But you'll agree, I'm sure, that even failure would feel a lot better in such an organization. So it's very humanistic, which is a good thing. Few will disagree with the point of this book, and most wonder what this adds to Dr. Covey's work on Principle-Centered Leadership. "Not very much" is my impression. I suspect that this book would have worked a lot better if the material had been simplified and added to the 7 habits book . . . and renamed as "The 8 Habits of Highly Effective People." May God bless you, Dr. Covey! Keep inspiring us to be our best!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting and Inspiring Summary of the Book, 11 April 2006
By A Customer
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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46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Rehash and mish-mash, 21 Mar 2005
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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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Valuable Synthesis Presented Abstractly and Ponderously, 18 Mar 2005
If you haven't read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I suggest you read that one before this book.Dr. Covey obviously pulled out all of the stops in trying to make this book as helpful as possible to his readers. The book contains summaries of the material in his other books, repeats many stories from those books, reconciles the material with most of the business book best sellers in recent years, contains a DVD full of inspiring videos, provides references to many free materials on his web site, has extensive appendices and contains many thoughtful sections on questions and answers. As a result, the book comes across like an encyclopedia of his teachings . . . rather than as the simple communication that is so delightful in his other books. I suspect that Dr. Covey changed ghostwriters for this one (at least I assume that the other books were ghostwritten because they avoid the ponderous communications style that Dr. Covey uses in person). So what is the 8th habit? Allow me to paraphrase. It'll be quicker that way. You act with integrity as an individual and help others to do the same. In Covey-speak, it's the overlap of personal greatness (applying the 7 habits in the forms of vision, discipline, passion and conscience), leadership greatness (applying the 4 roles of leadership (modeling the 7 habits, path finding, aligning and Empowering), and organizational greatness (turned into a vision, mission and values that bring clarity, commitment, translation, synergy, enabling and accountability). See Figure 14.3 on page 280 for the simplest expression of the 8th habit in Covey-speak. Can you make a book out of that point? Well, if you put in lots of examples, you can . . . which Dr. Covey did. But the basic point is about a magazine article's worth. Most people will come to that realization when they see the entire book's concepts summarized in chapters 14 and 15. If you want to check this book out, read those two chapters and see if you need more at that point. Why do millions of people read his books? Well, the earlier ones were beautifully written. This one isn't. All of his books show unadulterated respect for the reader and a belief in the reader's unlimited potential to improve. So it's inspiring to read someone's high opinion of you. Dr. Covey obviously cares that we live moral and positive lives. He's a sort of secular priest expressing moral values that most will agree with. Would we all like to work for Dr. Covey? Sure! How well will this book translate in the workplace? It'll be a tough row. You can have a company that's good at the 8th habit, but doesn't build the necessary skills to succeed with using the 8th habit. That's because this book is heavy on concepts . . . and light on the practical details. Dr. Covey starts up at about 100,000 feet in the air with his abstract thinking and discussions, and rarely gets any closer. So think of the 8th habit book as helpful . . . but not sufficient in and of itself . . . for creating superior performance. Perhaps it will work better if you employ Dr. Covey's firm to help you (which is abundantly pitched in the book). Dr. Covey humbly points out that his conclusions are aimed at dealing with the problems of poor communication, lousy alignment, misunderstandings about what to do next, lacks of tools and training, and dumbed-down workplaces . . . but is not supported by research (other than anecdotes from his clients) to support that this actually works better. But you'll agree, I'm sure, that even failure would feel a lot better in such an organization. So it's very humanistic, which is a good thing. Few will disagree with the point of this book, and most wonder what this adds to Dr. Covey's work on Principle-Centered Leadership. "Not very much" is my impression. I suspect that this book would have worked a lot better if the material had been simplified and added to the 7 habits book . . . and renamed as "The 8 Habits of Highly Effective People." May God bless you, Dr. Covey! Keep inspiring us to be our best!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
A good tussle with the law of diminishing returns, 8 Mar 2005
By A Customer
The 7 Habits was magnificent. The Power of the 7 Habits was somewhat of a 'cashing in' from a public hungry for more. At first listen I thought the 8th Habit was more of the same.Certainly Covey uses more sales pitch, repeatedly reassuring people that others have found this stuff useful. The 7 Habits stood on it's own two feet and this initially appeared to flounder. After the second and third listen however I started to be able to get into the material. The message of this book is more complicated and therefore the sort of catchy sound bites of the 7 Habits were harder to generate. A number of the concepts are articulated with such clarity and economical use of words so as to be very impressive in context. The tone of this is more overtly evangelical than the earlier work. The final sentence has an undisguised religious message which IMHO weakens the non affiliated altruistic humanism that runs through his earlier work. The message of the 8th Habit deepens (to use a 'Covey' word) the understanding of the 7 Habits concepts but almost by necessity the 8th Habit cannot propel your thinking forward in the way his previous work did. Most people who might be considering getting this audiobook will be 'knowledge workers' and some will be at a crossroads trying to make sense of their place within their workplace. For those I couldn't recommend this highly enough. As someone who works as an executive coach this offered me insights and new paradigms that I hadn't previously understood as well as I do now. Impressive as it is though, the brilliance of the 7 Habits makes this excellent audiobook seem ordinary in comparison. Get the 7 Habits first. Get to know it and after several listens get the 8th Habit. Finally, unless you walk the walk suggested this stuff is just fancy talk.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
9th Habit - Be Concise and Get to the Point, 14 Dec 2005
By A Customer
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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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Whats new?!, 18 Feb 2005
I love this guy and am a huge fan of his earlier works, but I can't help feeling he's just running out of steam, and is repeating himself now. Its like listeneing to "that difficult second album" of your favourite band.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Packed with Knowledge !, 23 Feb 2005
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. We recommend this highly for anyone in the workplace.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
This book has changed my life!, 25 Aug 2006
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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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent work on Leadership, 12 Feb 2005
By A Customer
It is 15 years since Covey produced the 7 Habits, now he builds on that work with this learned and readable book. His focus now is leadership and for me, the main lessons of the book are the 4 roles of leadership - pathfinding (vision), modelling, aligning and empowering. There is a lot more in this book too and it makes fascinating reading. There are problems with the book - Covey covers so much ground that sometimes it feels like it lacks focus; also it is a little preachy at times (with a few too many stories about loyal wives staying at home to support their husbands). Overall though, this is a fine book and well worth reading for anyone interested in leadership.
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