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Issue Date: November 21, 2004
Find your "sweet spot"
7 Habits author Stephen Covey introduces a new key to success.
By Devin Zatorski
Covey says Oprah Winfrey embodies his "8th Habit": Lead by listening -- to yourself.
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NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach once likened Stephen Covey's best-selling book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to a "seven-course meal on how to take control of one's life." Make that eight courses. Fifteen years and 15 million copies later, the USA WEEKEND contributing editor issues a sequel to his personal-leadership bible, which encouraged readers to be proactive and begin with the end in mind. Now, Covey is calling the follow-up, new in stores this month, "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness" (Free Press, $26). But the business guru wants to make one thing clear: His latest book isn't just for the business elite. "It is for everyday people," says Covey, vice chairman of the consulting firm FranklinCovey, which owns more than 100 retail stores. "'The 8th Habit' applies as much to family as to the workplace." We asked him to elaborate:
What is the 8th Habit?
It's basically "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." It's like the third dimension to the other seven. This goes beyond "the 7 Habits" into the area of leadership -- of families, homes, businesses.
Can everyone develop it?
The overwhelming majority of people definitely have leadership potential.
How do you know you're there?
It's kind of like a "sweet spot" in golf or tennis. You just feel energized, enlightened, excited, enthusiastic. You love going to work, or you love an initiative that you're undertaking in the community or your church. You love your parenting role in that you can see your purpose to develop the character of your children. Little things don't beat you up and knock the life out of you. ... He who has a "why" can live with any "what."
Help us understand what all this looks like.
I use a match to illustrate [these ideas]. I just hold the match up and say: Now just look at the potential contained in this little match. It could burn down this whole building. And [the power] is already in there. [Or] you put two matches closer together, and the closer they get, the warmth gradually ignites the other one. Then you light a candle, and it burns during the whole day.
Quite an image. Who embodies it?
I interviewed Oprah, for instance, who is a beautiful illustration of this. ... Her whole approach is to be completely open to what's happening out there with the audience. She's really authentic. She has found her voice. ... She's extremely empathetic and has developed such intuitive skills [with the audience] that she can bring the best out in them.
First "The 7 Habits." Now "The 8th Habit." Will there ever be a ninth?
I don't know. My kids wonder why I have such a fascination with numbers! I don't have any ninth habit in mind. I didn't even have an eighth habit until I became so overpowered by all this research. I really believe that this is a third dimension that is built upon the 7 Habits but that it does deal with realities of the new age.
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