The 8th Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness

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It has been a damn long time since the last time I managed to enjoy reading a book. Now that difficult days seem to come at an end, I choose to spend my time reading great books.

Today, I am enjoying The 8th Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen Covey.

Below are some quotes from the book:

Leadership is a choice not a position.

What is most personal is most general (Carl Rogers)

I abandoned the bird's-eye view that let you see everything from above, from the sky. I assumed a worm's-eye views, trying to find whatever comes right in front of you- smell it, touch it, see if you can do something about it (Muhammad Yunus)

Quality knowledge work is so valuable that unleashing its potential offers organizations an extraordinary opportunity for value creation.

If you want to make minor, incremental changes and improvements, work on practices, behaviour and attitude. But if you want to make significant, quantum improvement, work on paradigms (a perception, assumption, theory, frame of references or lens through which you view the world).

At the core, there is one simple, overarching reason why so many people remain unsatisfied in their work and why most organizations fail to draw out the greatest talent, ingenuity and creativity of their people and never become truly great, enduring organizations. It stems from an incomplete paradigm of who we are - our fundamental view of human nature.

Identity is destiny.

People make choices. Consciously or subconsciously, people decide how much of themselves they will give to their work [...]






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