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by Sharif Khan
“The call and need of a new era is for greatness. It’s for
fulfillment, passionate execution and significant
contribution.” -
Stephen R. Covey, from The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness
Making a rare public appearance in Toronto at the Mississauga
Living Arts Centre, world-respected leadership authority and author
of the international bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People, named the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth
Century, Dr. Stephen R. Covey spoke on his latest book, The 8th
Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness to a packed audience.
Having taught principle-centered leadership for over four
decades, this living legend and world icon, with his quiet energy
and grace, epitomized a call to greatness and earned the respect of
the audience -- standing as a grandfather figure for unleashing
human potential in many generations.
A hero to millions, Dr. Covey is known the world over for his
landmark work around helping people take profound ideas,
philosophies, and principles and distilling them into easy-to-use
daily habits that anyone can apply. In his inspirational
presentation at the Living Arts Centre, he conveyed simple yet very
powerful gems of wisdom that I found practical and useful. For
example, if you want your children to develop a love of learning and
never have to rag on them again for not doing their homework and not
getting better grades, simply ask them when they return from school,
“Teach me what you’ve learned today.” By using this one simple
habit, Covey claims he’s never had a problem encouraging his
children to learn because teaching is the best way to learn.
Another gem he talked about is the habit of seeking to understand
before being understood through empathic listening. In the audience
of over 800 people, he asked how many people had any formal training
on listening; only 13 hands went up revealing just how ego-centric
of a me-me-me culture we live in. Covey related how many Native
Indian tribes use what’s called the Talking Stick which is used in
all meetings where the person holding the Talking Stick is the only
person allowed to speak until he or she feels understood; when the
possessor of the Talking Stick feels completely understood, then,
and only then, is the Talking Stick passed on to the next person.
This creates an incredible understanding and synergy among the team.
Every business would do well to have a Talking Stick!
Covey then went on to the crux of his message which is the 8th
Habit of becoming an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity by
finding one’s voice and helping others to find theirs. According
to Covey, the main problem is that businesses are still trapped in
the old paradigm of Industrial Age thinking even though we’re well
into the Knowledge Worker Age. What’s required is a new paradigm
he calls the “whole body paradigm” of integrating body, mind,
heart, and spirit which he respectively equates to the principles of
discipline, vision, passion, and conscience. The Industrial Age is
still very much focused on the body (things, systems, structures,
procedures, efficiency, bottom-line). But Covey estimates that
approximately 80 percent of all the value added to goods and
services now comes from knowledge work versus things. Twenty years
ago that number was the inverse: only 20 percent.
So the key is not behavior – it’s the map. The key is the
accuracy of the map. Once paradigm shifts the behavior will also
shift. Covey clearly illustrated this point by asking everyone to
close their eyes and point “North.” When he asked us to open our
eyes and look around, I noticed everyone was pointing in different
directions! In a similar vein, the majority of organizations have
their people pointing in different directions; sighting a recent
Harris Poll, Covey states that “only 37 percent of workers say
they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying
to achieve and why.” No one knows where true “North” is. There
is no moral compass, no conscience, no guiding spirit.
Part of the solution, according to Covey, is to have a
transcendent goal, what he calls a WIG or Wildly Important Goal,
that serves a greater purpose. Only once this goal is clearly
communicated to everyone in an organization can quantum improvements
begin to happen in the workplace.
Here is my interview with Dr. Covey revealing his latest insights
from his most recent book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness:
What sacrifices have you made to be where you are today?
I have worked very hard to dedicate my personal and professional
life to principlecentered living. I am driven by a passion and
conscience to spread understanding for principles and how to apply
them to reach greatness. To that extent, there is no sacrifice –
only a passionate, relentless commitment to my work, family,
community and church to make a lasting difference.
What in your opinion is the most important attribute of a
leader and why?
I believe the most important attribute for a leader is being
principle-centered. Centering on principles that are universal and
timeless provides a foundation and compass to guide every decision
and every act. I’ve based my life’s work on promoting principles
and teaching the power that resides in principle-centered
leadership. Principles are not my invention; they are self-evident
and are found throughout the world. If you look at all enduring
philosophies, religions and thoughts, you will find principles such
as integrity, compassion, trust, honesty, accountability and others
at their core. I simply translated these principles into a framework
of habits, which when followed with consistency and frequency
transforms one’s character and allows one to earn the moral
authority necessary for enduring leadership.
I must also clarify the definition of leadership, which is sadly
and narrowly defined as position, title, status or rank. This is
formal authority and not necessarily leadership. Through years of
study, teaching and working with people all over the world, from all
walks of life, I have determined that leadership is: Communicating
to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see
it in themselves. It is the influence we have with others to help
them discover their own voice, to find their own purpose, to make
their unique contribution, and to release their potential, that
truly defines leadership. Thus, leadership extends to the many
personal and professional roles we play – as workers, parents,
children, teachers, students, swamis, you name it – and the choice
we make to live by principles to help others find their voice.
In your book, 8th Habit, you talk about finding one’s voice and
developing one’s “unique personal significance.” How does one
begin doing that?
To achieve greater heights each person must be challenged to find
their voice – their unique personal significance and purposeful
meaning – and help others to find theirs. Voice lies at the nexus
of talent, passion, need and conscience. When anyone engages in work
that taps into their talent and fuels their passion – that rises
out of a great need in the world that they feel drawn by conscience
to meet – therein lies their voice in life. The 8th Habit is all
about how to find your voice and help others to find theirs.
What leader do you really admire and why?
One immediate leader who comes to mind is Muhammad Yunus, founder
of the Grameen Bank. His story is one that illustrates the path to
finding one’s voice and helping others find theirs. Muhammad saw a
need, felt his conscience move him to try and fill that need and
applied his talents and passion to fill it. In the process, he found
his voice and helped others to find theirs.
Muhammad wanted to help his impoverished fellow citizens in
Bangladesh. He met a woman who made bamboo stools only to make two
U.S. pennies each day. He inquired about her work and found that the
woman had no money to buy the necessary bamboo, so she was forced to
borrow money from a trader on condition that she sell him her
finished product at a price he dictated. This poor woman in essence
was held hostage by this trader.
This woman was not alone, there was an entire village of 42 hard
working people working in unbearable circumstances and Muhammad
calculated that it only required $27 U.S. dollars to help them out.
He immediately gave the money to the people and told them it was a
loan to be re-paid when they were able.
Muhammad even went further to ask the local bank to loan these
villagers additional money and offered himself as a guarantor. Much
to the skepticism and surprise of the bankers, the villagers paid
every penny back on several loans.
Muhammad eventually expanded this loan program by creating his
own microcredit lending institution called the Grameen Bank, so he
could help numerous villages.
Grameen Bank now works with more than 46,000 villages giving
micro-loans, lending approximately half a billion dollars a year to
empower the poor (96% of whom are women) to produce and sell their
goods and build housing. So far, the bank has assisted 3.7 million
people. The micro-credit movement has now spread throughout the
world.
What advice would you give youth who will become future
leaders of tomorrow?
In my 8th Habit book I share the idea that everyone chooses one
of two roads in life, whether you’re older or younger, man or
woman, rich or poor. The most traveled road is the one that takes us
to mediocrity and the other less traveled road takes us to greatness
and meaning. The first road limits us and prevents us from realizing
our full potential. This road is often the quick-fix or short-cut
approach to life. It often lures us to it when we don’t take
accountability for ourselves or see ourselves as victims. My advice
to the youth is to avoid the road of mediocrity. It’s probably
hard for them to see into the long-term, but if they will try to see
themselves as human beings with vast potential, and see that next to
life itself their greatest gift is choice – they can choose their
responses to whatever comes to them in life, and take responsibility
for their choices, their behaviors, their feelings and choose to
create their future.
My son, Sean, wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens to
help [young people] become their best selves. He speaks wonderfully
to the youth (much better than I), and I would recommend his book to
anyone wanting to start good habits at a young age
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