1. The 8th Habit by Stephen R. Covey
Find Your Voice
&
Inspire Others to Find Theirs

2. What Makes Up Your Voice?
Task:
In the context of Stephen Covey’s philosophy, define what Voice means to you.

3. What Makes Up Your Voice?
Talent - your natural gifts and strengths.
Passion - those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you.
Need - a hunger, problem, or need in the world.
Conscience - that still, small voice within that assures you of what is right and that prompts you to actually do it.
Covey defines Voice as being made up of these 4 elements.

4. VOICE Talent Need Conscience Passion
As illustrated in this figure, VOICE lies at the nexus of talent, passion, need, and conscience. When you engage all of these elements- you find your voice or your calling.
VOICE
Need
Passion
Conscience

5. Find Your Voice
When you engage in work that uses your talent and fuels your passion, that serves a great need in the world that you feel drawn to by your conscience - there is your VOICE!
Voice is unique personal significance – often revealed as we face our greatest challenges in life.
“There is a deep, innate, almost inexpressible yearning within each one of us to find our voice in life.” ~Covey

6. Find Your Voice A story about finding your voice: (p. 6)
Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank
Saw a need in the poor of Bangladesh during a famine.
What was the purpose of all he had been learning and teaching with his new Ph.D.? He was affected by his conscience.
He applied his talent and passion to meet the need and in doing so, he found his VOICE.
He did this first personally, then in building trust and searching for creative solutions to problems, and finally by institutionalizing the capacity to fill the needs of society through an organization. He found his voice in inspiring others to find theirs; the microcredit movement is now spreading across the world.
The biggest challenge Yunus faced when setting up the bank was getting the loans. In response to this challenge he said, “they would not accept it because they are trained to believe that poor people are not reliable. Luckily, I was not trained that way so I could believe whatever I was seeing, as it revealed itself. But the bankers’ minds, their eyes were blinded by the knowledge they had. Finally, I had the thought, Why am I trying to convince them? I am totally convinced that poor people can take money and pay it back. Why don’t we set up a separate bank?” Two years later, on October 2, 1983 the Grameen Bank was formed.

7. The Power of a Paradigm
A paradigm is similar to a worldview. A paradigm is the model or scheme you use to make sense of events; it is a frame of reference.
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” ~Albert Einstein
If you want to make minor, incremental changes and improvements, work on practices, behavior, or attitude. But if you want to make significant, quantum improvement, work on paradigms.
A paradigm is like a road map: if inaccurate, it will make no difference how hard you try to find your destination or how positively you think- you’ll stay lost. If accurate, then diligence and attitude matter. But not until.

8. The Power of a Paradigm Task:
Work in your groups to identify the paradigm. Is it a good, bad, or just plain different paradigm? Why or why not?
Then, work with your group to come up with another example of a paradigm.
Remember that a good paradigm explains and then guides.
The problem with paradigms is like traditions, they die hard. Flawed paradigms can go on for centuries after a better one is discovered. For example, today many companies still manage people under the Industrial Age Paradigm, that treats their workers like things rather than people. Covey suggests that the Knowledge Age that we are in now requires a new paradigm, what he calls the Whole Person Paradigm.