The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

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.


Rehash and mish-mash   March 21, 2005
 43 out of 45 found this review helpful

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.