VISUAL BOOK SUMMARY

Introduction
This week we start with a riddle. Whats the
difference between George Washington and Adolf
Hitler? Give up? Well you have to keep listening
for the answer, but first, a few things before we
jump into the show this week.
Number one, a big Thank You to Blair Goldberg
for recommending this weeks book the 8th
Habit. Blairs a marketing strategist in DC, hes
for hire and you can reach him a couple of ways.
On linkedin his name is Blair Goldberg and on
twitter his name is lamabfg, thats l-a-m-a-b-f-g
Number two, you can now find this show on
iTunes, go to the iTunes store and search for
readitfor.me and there are two options there, you
can get the audio, or you can get the video.
Number three, if youve used the principles and
ideas in this book in your life or if this show
sparks some creative ideas for you. Or even if you
just need to get something off your chest, please
stop by the blog and leave a comment. Id love to
continue the conversation there.

Okay, time to get on with the show.

7 Habits
Gandhi once said that the difference between
what we are doing and what were capable of
would solve most of the worlds problems. This is
a book about truly learning what youre capable
of and turning it into action. The 8th habit of
highly effective people, Covey says, is this. Find
your voice, and inspire others to do likewise. You
probably have noticed that this is the 8th habit.
So for those of you who havent read Stephen
Coveys best selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People. Here they are.
1. Be proactive.
2. Begin with the end in mind.
3. Put first things first.
4. Think, win, win.
5. Seek first to understand, than to be
understood.
6. Synergize.

7. Sharpen the saw.

8th Habit
The 8th habit is essentially taking those first 7
habits and putting them in to overdrive because
youll know what you want to do with your life
and youre going to be helping others figure it
out as well. Its the seven habits on steroids, if
you will. So, according to Covey, heres the path
you need to take.
The first thing we need to do is to understand
that when we came flying out into this amazing
world of ours, we were given some pretty special
gifts. And heres a couple of them.
One of the most important gifts that we have is
the freedom and power to choose. Covey says,
that no matter what happens in your life, theres a
place between stimulus and response. Its
summed up by a great quote by Dwight D.
Eisenhower, who said this, the history of free
men is never written by chance but by choice,
their choice.
Weve also been given the gift of what Covey calls
the four intelligences, mental, physical,

emotional, and spiritual intelligence. Likewise

there are four areas of our life that we need to
take care of and that we have that choice to take
care of. Heres how we suggest we take care of
them. Number one for the body, assume youve
had a heart attack, now live accordingly. For the
mind, assume that the half life of your profession
is two years, now prepare accordingly. For the
heart, assume everything you say about another,
they can overhear. Now speak accordingly. And
lastly for the spirit, assume that youre going to
have a one on one visit with your creator every
quarter, now live accordingly.
The main point of all of this is that you were born
with some amazing gifts, but its how you are
going to use them.

Find your voice

It makes sense that if youre in control of every
aspect of your life that you also get to decide
what your voice is. Right? Heres where Covey
says youll find your voice. When you engage in
work that taps your talent and feels your
passion,that rises out of a great need in the world
that you feel drawn by conscience to meet, there
in lies your voice, your calling, your souls code.
Its such a simple formula but its so very
profound. You certainly arent going to figure it
out today or may be not even this year. But thats
the formula. So struggle with it, debate with
yourself, ask others for help, do whatever you
need to do to find that magic sweet spot thats
the intersection of your talent, passion,
conscience, and a need in the world.
And for those of you who are thinking, awww, Im
too old for this stuff, everything is changing, the
worlds going to pass me by so Im pretty much
done. I got two words for you. Colonel Sanders.
The Colonel didnt find his voice until he was
sixty five years old. So, suck it up and get to
work.

Lets assume that in the last two minutes you

found your voice. Heres what you do next, were
going to talk about expressing your voice.
Because if you have your voice, its not going to
do you much good trapped inside. Heres how
Covey says, you need to get it out.

First
First, you need to continue to be driven by
passion. Were governed by some natural laws in
this world and one of those laws is that youre
going to have to put in the time if you want to
make a difference. Malcolm Gladwell will tell you
that is takes at least 10,000 hours to truly
become an expert at something. Have you ever
seen anybody invest 10,000 hours in something
they arent passionate about? Its not a pretty site.

Second
Second, you need to have a vision. All things are
created twice in this world. First in your mind and
then out in the physical world. So, you need to
have a vision of how your personal voice is going
to effect change in the world and how its going
to be brought to life.

Third
Third, you need to have discipline. Even though
you have a vision that youre passionate about,
there are going to be times when life conspires to
suck the life out of you. And those are the times
that separate those who can from those who
cant. Albert E.N. Grey boils down success to this
very simple point. He says that the successful
person has formed the habit of doing things that
failures dont like to do. Remember that.
Lastly, although vision, discipline, and passion
rule the world. Theres one last piece that
separates those who provide a contribution that
endures and the one that doesnt. Consider these
two historical figures both of whom, had vision,
discipline and passion.
George Washington had the vision of building a
new nation united and free from foreign
interference. He disciplined himself to learn how
to recruit supply and keep people from deserting
the revolutionary army. Angered by discrimination
against Colonial military officers, British land

policies, and restriction on US expansion,

Washington was passionate about the cause of
liberty. Vision, discipline and passion.
Now lets consider Adolf Hitler. Hitler passionately
communicated his vision of a 1000 year reign of
the third reich and a superior aryan race. He built
one of the most disciplined military industrial
machines that the world has ever seen. If youve
ever seen him speak, you cannot question his
passion. So once again, vision, discipline and
passion.
The difference in these two people is simple.
Conscience. Vision, discipline and passion,
without conscience eventually fails. So remember.
In expressing your voice you need to have vision,
discipline, passion, and conscience.

How to help your organization

Weve covered how you can find your voice and
express it. Now lets turn to how you can help
your organization, and the people within it unlock
their potential as well. If youre a leader youll
know that modeling the behavior you want to see
in other people is critical. Youre on a stage, every
single day and people take their cues from you. A
leader that inspires others to find their voice
Covey says act with integrity. So how do you act
with integrity? Covey says that this is where the
first seven habits come in and heres the quick
and dirty on those habits.
The first three habits can be summarized simply
as a four word expression. Make and keep
promises. The ability to make a promise is being
proactive, the content of the promise is beginning
with the end in mind and keeping the promise is
putting first things first.
The next three habits can be summarized in a
short phrase as well. Involve people in the
problem and work out the solution together. This

requires mutual respect which is win win, mutual

understanding which is seek first to understand,
than to be understood. And lastly creative
cooperation which is synergizing.

Last Habit
The last habit sharpening the saw is increasing
your competency in the four areas of your life.
Your body, mind, heart, and spirit.
The other big things you can do to be a role
model around you is to build trust. You do that in
two simple but very powerful ways. First, you turn
trust into a verb. Covey puts it best when he says
it like this. Leadership is communicating to
people their worth and potential so clearly, that
they come to see it themselves. People tend to
trust you more when you believe in them. Second,
you always search for the third alternative. If you
find yourself in a situation where youre in a
disagreement with somebody or butting heads on
an issue, ask this simple question. Would you be
willing to search for a solution that is better than
what either of us have proposed? Do all of these
things and youll be well on your way to becoming
a damn good role model and helping others find
their voice.

Okay. You found your voice, youre expressing it

and you become the condiment role model for
your organization, things are cooking. Good for
you. But theres a reality that you cant escape if
youre running an organization. Money. As Covey
says, no margin, no mission. Here the things you
need to do in order to get the entire team
working towards the same goals.
Covey calls the first thing Path Finding. Im going
to make it pretty short and quick because I
hoping that its a self evident thing for you. You
need to include your team in creating your shared
vision your values and youre strategy. Thats
pretty easy.

Alignment
On to the next one, alignment. This is where the
hard stuff begins. Great organizations find ways
to get each and every person pulling in the same
direction, from the corner office to the front line
as they say. The reality is that you cant be there
to guide everybody through each and every
decision that they have to make. Here are four
disciplines that can help you close the gap
between focus and execution. One, focus on the
wildly important. People are naturally wired to be
able to do only one thing at a time to a standard
of excellence. Therefore, have only a few goals
that are critical to your success. Number two,
create a compelling score board for these goals
so that everybody in your organization always
knows the score. A funny thing happens when
people know that the score is being kept. They
play to win. Three, translate those lofty goals into
specific actions. And four hold each other
accountable all the time. Again, what Coveys
done here is boil the formula down to something
very simple the very hard to do. Actually

implementing these four suggestions will take

every ounce of your will power and discipline. But
thats what it takes. Okay, the last thing were
going to talk about today is empowerment. Were
in a time and place that people are calling the
knowledge age and things are different. One of
the biggest differences is how we get the most
value out of our work force. In the industrial age,
it was all about efficiency and boiling down a days
worth of work into a simple work instruction.
However as the work changes our approach has
to change too. Covey argues that with knowledge
workers we have to let go of control and become
a servant leader. Its holding people accountable
for results but not the actions. As a servant leader
he says youd be running along the side your
troops and asking the following five questions.
How is it going, meaning whats the score? What
are you learning? What are your goals? How can I
help you? And how am I doing as a helper/
leader?

Empowerment
Okay, the last thing were going to talk about
today is empowerment. Were in a time and place
that people are calling the knowledge age and
things are different. One of the biggest
differences is how we get the most value out of
our work force. In the industrial age, it was all
about efficiency and boiling down a days worth of
work into a simple work instruction. However as
the work changes our approach has to change
too. Covey argues that with knowledge workers
we have to let go of control and become a servant
leader. Its holding people accountable for results
but not the actions. As a servant leader he says
youd be running along the side your troops and
asking the following five questions.
How is it going, meaning whats the score? What
are you learning? What are your goals? How can I
help you? And how am I doing as a helper/
leader?
The biggest thing with empowerment is to
understand that you dont have a monopoly on

the best ideas or on the best ways to get

something done. You can hold their feet to the
fire when it comes to the results but when it
comes to how something gets done let them
decide their own course of action.
And that my friend is how you find your voice and
inspire others to find theirs too.

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