Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Labor:
Stephen
R. Covey:
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness
excerpts from Mr. Covey's book:
[Editor's note: one of the great books of my life, just tremendous!!]
When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion -- that rises
out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet -- therein lies
your voice, your calling, your soul's code...
I find that vision comes as people sense human need and respond to their
conscience in trying to meet that need...
The great historian Arnold Toynbee said that you could pretty well summarize the
history of society and the institutions in it in four words: Nothing
fails like success. In other words, when you have a challenge and the response
is equal to the challenge, that's called success. But once you have a new challenge, the
old, once-successful response no longer works. that why it's called failure.
We live in a Knowledge Worker Age but operate our organizations in a controlling
Industrial Age model that absolutely suppresses the release of human potential... When all
you want is a person's body and you don't really want their mind, heart or spirit ... you
have reduced a person to a thing [ie something to be managed, part of the Industrial
mind-set]. So many of our modern management practices come from the Industrial Age... It
gave us our view of accounting, which make people an expense and machines assets...
Because many in positions of authority do not see the true worth and potential of their
people ... they manage people as they do things...
... the four basic needs and motivations of all people... to live (survival), to
love (relationships), to learn (growth and development) and to leave a legacy (meaning and
contribution)...
[these correspond to body, heart, mind, spirit]
- Consciously or subconsciously, people decide how much of
themselves they will give to their work depending on how they are treated and on their
opportunities to use all four parts of their nature...
It will be those organizations that reach a critical mass of people and teams
expressing their full voice that will achieve next-level breakthrough in productivity,
innovation and leadership in the marketplace and society...
...
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