“The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.”

Original title: "He’s Baaaaaaaaack. . . ."

Copyright © 2006 by Jim Mahood. All rights reserved.

He made a fortune from his best-selling book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

He’s a personal adviser not only to the heads of three-quarters of all Fortune 500 companies but also to the presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay, and South Korea.

He’s a highly successful motivational and leadership speaker who commands $65,000 an appearance and is in such demand he accepts only 1 in 100 invitations to speak.

He’s a 73-year-old Mormon grandfather from Salt Lake City who shaves his head.

He attended Harvard Business School, began writing, and hit upon the idea of the following seven strategies for success:

1. Be proactive. “We are responsible for our own choices and have the freedom to choose, based on principles and values rather than moods and conditions. Proactive people choose not to be victims or to blame others.”

2. Begin with the end in mind. “Individuals, families, and organizations shape their own future by first creating a mental vision for any project, large or small, personal or interpersonal.”

3. Put first things first. “Organize and execute your most important priorities. Whatever the circumstances, live and be driven by the principles you value most, not by the forces around you.”

4. Think win-win. “Think in terms of abundance and opportunity rather than scarcity and adversarial competition. Don’t think selfishly (win-lose) or like a martyr (lose-win). Think ‘we,’ not ‘me’.”

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. “When we listen with the intent to understand others, rather than the intent to reply, we begin true communication and relationship-building.”

6. Synergize. “Look for the third alternative—not my way, not your way, but a third way that is better than either of us would come up with individually. It’s the fruit of respecting and celebrating one another’s differences.”

7. Sharpen the saw. “We need constantly to renew ourselves in the four basic areas of life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.”

After 15 years of success with his 7 habits, he decided the world needs an 8th, so he wrote an entire book about it called “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.”

Why an eighth habit? Because, he says, “we have moved from an industrial model into a knowledge-worker economy that needs a new habit.” There has been a shift so “profound and so pervasive and so impactful” it affects everybody’s lives. While, previously, workers were considered mere cogs in machines, and effectiveness was the goal, today, in the new information age, “everybody has become truly important.”

In a nutshell, he says “The Eighth Habit is about finding your voice—and inspiring others to find theirs. What people want is significance. They want their voices to be heard.”

He cites a group of downtrodden and disenfranchised janitors who are suddenly handed the power to manage themselves. “You know what they do? They find their voice and motivate themselves. You don’t have to hover over them or check up on them, and you have eliminated layers and layers of bureaucracy.”

To him, “rules, regulations, and bureaucracy are a prosthesis that stands in the place of trust.” You still need supervisers to “set up the conditions for empowerment,” but, essentially, “you’re making the janitors the leaders.”

He is, of course, Stephen R. Covey, whom some writers call “the American Socrates.”