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The 8th Habit: Express your voice

Teach Others
Chapter 5* details how to express your voice through vision of the mind, discipline of the body, passion of the heart, and conscience of the spirit. To build on the intelligencies/capacities of discovering your voice (C4):

• IQ - mental: prepare for a changing world THROUGH vision (what are the possibilities?)
  
• EQ - emotional/social: speak assuming everything you say about others is overheard; HAVE passion (desire and conviction to achieve)
  
• PQ - phsical/economic: live to live THROUGH discipline (commitment to achieve)
  
• SQ - spritutal: assume your actions are judged every quarter; HAVE conscience (inward moral sense of right & wrong)
  

Vision includes unseen potential of others, and leads to helping others find their own voice.

Discipline includes defining the current reality, subordinating and sacrificing as needed to reach goals. You may not like to do something, or the path to get somewhere, but you do it because of the strength of your purpose.

Passion includes optimism, excitement, determination, enthusiasm. Skills are not always talents. Talents are skills that are combined with your passion. Need + takent + passion = power.

Conscience is your internal voice promoting fairness, honestly, respoect, and contribution. Conscience considers the interdependance of self & others; ego focuses on self-promotion.

Report Results
From this chapter, I see how I often have strong vision and passion, and when I succeed, I also utilize discipline and conscience. I am interested in focusing on improving my discipline and conscience in my personal and professional work.

To improve my discipline, I would like to refocus on my diet and exercise. To improve my conscience, I utilized Gandhi's warnings of reaching an end though unprincipled or unworthy means:

• Wealth without work
  
• Pleasure without conscience
  
• Knowledge without character
• Commerce without morality
  
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice
• Politics without princliple
  

I have been reflecting on these seven things and trying to evaluate and practice higher conscience in my life by being aware of these traits in myself and others.

*from Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness as part of the 8th Habit Challenge

The 8th Habit: Discover your voice

Teach Others
Chapter 4* encourages us to discover our voice through unopened birth-gifts. These are the freedom and power to choose; universal, timeless, and self-evident natural laws (or principles); and four intelligences/capacities.

The freedom to choose lies in the space between stimulus and response. Covey believes nothing is soley decided by nature (genetics) or nurture (environment), but rather those factors contribute to the size of the space between stimiulus and response (how much someone is able choose).

Universal, timeless, and self-evident principles come by either natural or moral (social) authority. Values are social norms, but moral authority is the principled and humble use of freedom and authority to guide our individual choices.

The four intelligences/capacities are:

• IQ - mental: prepare for a changing world
  
• EQ - emotional/social: speak assuming everything you say about others is overheard
  
• PQ - phsical/economic: live to live
  
• SQ - spritutal: assume your actions are judged every quarter
  

Report Results
I definately support the power of choice and have experienced many examples of that in my life and the lives of others.

I have reflected on the four intelligences as sliders on an equalizer that change a bit depending on the day. Some days I feel I need to or do rely on one capacity more than another, and some days I wish I could tap into one more. I definately use each of these daily, to differing degrees.

*from Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness as part of the 8th Habit Challenge

What I'm reading: The Bush survival bible

From Gene Stone's The Bush Survival Bible: 250 Ways to Make it Through the Next Four Years Without Misunderestimating the Dangers Ahead, and Other Subliminable Stategeries:

Groups to join:

• MoveOn
• Democracy for America
• People for the American Way

Media outlets:

• Republicans for Kerry
  
• Andrew Sullivan
  
• Mickey Kaus/Slate
• The Daily Show

Books to read:

• 1984
  
• It Can't Happen Here
  
• The Plot Against America
• Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy
• The Third Chimpanzee
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
  

Movies to watch:

• Farenheit 9/11
  
• Hijacking Catastrophe
  
• Bush Family Fortunes
  
• Bush's Brain
  
• Unprecedented
  
• Uncovered
• Unconstitutional

Games to play:

• Give Bush a Brain
  
• Dress 'M Up Dubya
  
• Bush Aerobics
  
• Dancing Bush
  
• Leader of the Free World
  
• Spank Bush
• Dishonest Dubya Lying Action Figure
  

Prayers:
God, give us frace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. - Reinhold Niebuhr

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to Hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let Peace fill our hearts, our wold, our universe. - Satish Kumar

All that we ought to have thought and have not thought,
All that we ought to have said and have not said,
All that we ought to have done, and have not done;
All that we ought not to have thought, and yet have thought,
All that we ought not to have spoken, and yet have spoken,
All that we ought not to have done, and yet have done;
For thought, words, and works, pray we, Oh God, for forgiveness.
And repent with penance. - Muslim from an ancient Persian prayer

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the silent hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and changes of this fleeting world may rest upon thy eternal changlessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Book of Common Prayer

When we live in Doubt, Grant us Faith.
When we live in Despair, Grant us Hope.
When we live in Death, Grant us Love. - Timothy Dobbins

What I'm reading: The naked roommate

From Harlan Cohen's The Naked Roommate:

Harlan Cohen is an advice columnist and speaker for college campuses. The Naked Roommate is one of the best and most practical college advice guide's I've read. It has 101 tips* (apparently 107 in the public release - I read an advance copy) that actual students have asked about, actual students have provided real-world advice on, and Cohen has added his professional perspective on as well.

Cohen and Sourcebooks are launching an on-line companion site, http://www.thenakedroommate.com/, that I look forward to visiting.

The first, very crucial tip (and a staple in Cohen's campus addresses) is: "Relax. Have fun. Enjoy it all. Your job is simple: be your best, meet lots of people, make new friends, make smart decisions, possibly find a career, possibly find love, and take risk after risk after risk so that you can figure out what you love and what you don't love. If you do this, you'll leave college with more than a degree. You'll leave knowing what it takes for you to be happy" (pp. 20-21*).

* NOTE: Quotataions, page numbers, etc. are from an advance reading copy and should be verified with the published edition.

What I'm reading: The elements of teaching

From Banner and Cannon's The Elements of Teaching:

Teaching is a calling that involves:

• Learning - ongoing mastery of a body of knowledge, appreciating the act and process of learning, being open to the knowledge of others
• Authority - command respect through knowledge and presentation, encourage ambition, acknowledge status differnce between teacher(s) & student(s)
• Ethics - do no harm to students, be attentive of their welfare; set and keep high standards; demonstrate and teach ethics; acknowledge students' viewpoints, ways, and beliefs
• Order - use authority and leadership to provide direction and momentum to learning in a tranquil and disciplined classroom, maintain standards of order
• Imagination - use innovative teaching methods and aproaches to subjects, think of how knowledge will be applied in the future
• Compassion - know and understand students as whole persons, maintain high standards, acknowledge struggles and work towards positive future
• Patience - give students time to learn, help them grow and understand, don't loose sight of the goal and award achievement
• Charecter - be yourself, be consistent, acknowledge mistakes, be social
• Pleasure - create an atmosphere where students enjoy learning and teachers enjoy learning and teaching, acknowledge difficulties and recognize past successes

These traits were briefly descibed on pp. 138-139 in The Elements of Learning.

Recommended reading: The freshman year experience

Upcraft, Gardner, et. al. The Freshman Year Experience: Helping Students Survive and Succeed in College

First year success is defined as:

• developing academic/intellectual competence
• establishing/maintaining interpersonal relationships
• developing identity
• deciding on a career & lifestyle
• maintaining personal health & wellness
• developing an integrated philosophy of life

Identity is when the way we see ourselves is consistent with the ways others see us.

During the first-year, students must experience themselves, the campus, higher education.

Consider pre-enrollment variables (personal charecteristics, demographics, culture) and institutional charecteristics and climate.

Education must:

• provide skills and knowledge needed to live in the world
• provide hope
• give a sense of responsibility
• give students feeling of effiacy

Student involvement refers to the amount of physical and psychological energy that the students devotes to the academic experience.

Causes of attrition:

• Boredom
• Irrelevancy
• Limited or unrealistic expectations
• Academic underpreparedness
• Transition/adjustment difficulties
• Lack of certainty aout major/career
• Dissonance/incompatibility

Recommended reading: Beyond tolerance

From Evans & Wall's Beyond Tolerance: Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals on Campus:

• Internalized homophobia can lead to low self-esteem.
• Limited experience with gay, lesbian, or bisexual people may lead to homophobia: many GLB people try to avoid harassment by "passing" as heterosexual in public --> others have no idea how many GLB persons they come in contact with --> stereotypical attitudes are not challenged and the number of homosexuals are severyely underestimated.
• Many students hide their orientation due to the fishbowl effect and fear of roommate's reactions. D'Augelli estimates 80% conceal their identity from roommates, 89% from other undergraduates, 65% from faculty, and 70% from job supervisors.
• Many GLB residential students must find social outlets and other GLB students outside of their residence hall, and may feel like marginal members of the residence hall community.
• Explains Body's programming intervention model (p. 92): awareness, educate, persoanlize, and support.
• Suggestions for services & programs for GLB students (pp. 127-129).
• Limited role models in many careers.
• Guidelines for assessing counseling centers (pp. 172-174).
• GLB student affairs educators often develop as the professional gay (self-seeking opportunities), gay professional (expert for all), and professional who is gay.
• Ways for student affairs educators to assess campus climate (pp. 192-193).
• Benefits of being an ally (p. 203).

Roles of student organizations

• social
• political
• support
• service
• educational
• developmental

Campus strategies to combat homophobia

• Sexual orientation, gender identity/expression included in mission statement
• Assessment of campus services and climate
• Support of student service office and/or student organization(s)
• Training for faculty, staff, and students
• Policy review (harassment, affirmative action, student conduct, housing, benefits, advertising)

Recommended reading: The coming storm

Paul Russell's The Coming Storm
My recent readings of teaching and learning books reminded me of a great novel I read last year. The Coming Storm tells a wonderfully interwoven story about the personal struggles of three generations of teachers and students. This book really calls into question Banner and Cannon's assertion that teaching "requires a formal distance between teachers and students" (The Elements of Teaching, p. 27). If you are looking for a good "ethical teacher", private boarding school, or just an entertaining gay fiction read, I would recommend this book!

What I'm reading: Making the most of college

From Richard Light's Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds

Reasons for academic trouble:

• Poor time management
• Using high school habits
• Course selection
• Studying alone/not seeking help

The one minute essay (a great teaching tool):

1. What is the main thing you've learned today?
2. What is an unanswered question you have after today's class?

How faculty can make a difference

• Teach the importance of word choice and precision
• Share intellectual responsibility
• Connect academic ideas with students' lives
• Engage students in large classrooms
• Teach students to think like professionals
• Encourage disagreement and debate ideas
• Teach the use of evidence
• Don't be predictable
• Integrate ideas from other disciplines

A yearly goal for students: Get to know one faculty member reasonably well, and have that faculty member get to know you. By the end of college, you will have at least four professors you can turn to for help and advice, recommendations, and references.

The colors of the (pride) rainbow

Red : Light
Orange : Healing
Yellow : Sun
Green : Serenity
Blue : Art
Violet : Spirit

l (Lambda) = "an army of lovers cannot lose"

What I'm reading: The elements of learning

From Banner and Cannon's The Elements of Learning:

Learning involves:

• Industry - it is hard work that takes active focus, study, self-reflection, and organization
• Enthusiasm - you must find something interesting or that you enjoy about each subject, even if its simply taking satisfaction in the success of mastering the material
• Pleasure - make learning fun, from delight in the unexpected to pride in a job well done
• Curiosity - eagerly seek knowledge, be open-minded
• Aspiration - have a goal in sight, a lasting honor & reward; use your knowledge well
• Imagination - look through a different perspective, imagination is active & brings knowledge to life
• Self-Discipline - consider your own welfare, live to your high standards and expectations, not others; you may need to postpone immediate gratification for later, greater benefits
• Civility - be a good competitor, be civil to others & respect civility in return; recognize others' right to their own ideas
• Cooperation - help others & learn by teaching, discussion, peer review, and questioning; through cooperation you are able to see others' points-of-view and adds a human component to learning
• Honesty - tell the truth about yourself to yourself and others; be an ethical scholar
• Initiative - take challenges, anticipate what's ahead; become a life-long learner

I am curious to compare the list of teacher's traits on p. 138 with the elements of teaching.

Queen Quiz

So I have been going through some old content to see what needs to be added to my website, and found this old favorite:

Queen Quiz

1. If you regularly use the phrase "window treatment," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
2. If your kitchen drawer contains a shrimp deveiner, a mushroom brush, or a lemon reamer, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
3. If you know what a sconce is, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
4. If you have a pet named "Liza," "Gypsy," or "Talullah," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
5. If you know how to spell Barbra's first name, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
6. If you've never felt the need to use Barbra's last name, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
7. If you know whether Rogers or Hammerstein wrote the music, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
8. If you've ever canceled a date because it conflicted with the Tony Awards, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
9. If you know the difference between "seafoam" and "celadon," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
10. If you've ever been to a professional football game, spent the whole time watching the cheerleaders, and critiqued their performance, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
11. If your Christmas stocking as a child contained bronzer or a moisturizer, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
12. If your mother calls you for decorating tips, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
13. If the names Jeff Stryker, Ryan Idol or Casey Donovan mean anything to you at all, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
14. If you know exactly where you were the night that Judy, Ethel or Lucy died, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
15. If Special K means something to you besides breakfast, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
16. If you talk in italics, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
17. If you've ever needed a massage because you'd overworked your eyebrows, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
18. If you know a guy who swears that his brother-in-law was the admitting doctor in the emergency room when Richard Gere came in with a gerbil up his butt, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
19. If someone says "How 'bout them Bulls?" and what you think of are petite picadors in tight pants, then, Miss Thing you're a Queen.
20. If you require two syllables to say "please," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
21. If at eighth grade dances you were the only boy who could stay on the beat, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
22. If you still can't get over the fact that Sunday in the Park with George lost out to La Cage Aux Folles in nearly every category in the 1984 Tony's, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
23. If you know what Lyle Waggoner, Sam J. Jones, Christopher Atkins, Fabian, and Tommy Chong have in common, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
24. If you display in any public forum a reproduction of Michaelangelo's David, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
25. If you've ever trimmed your pubic hair to make "it" look bigger, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
26. If by the time the bus has arrived at your stop, you've given every other passenger a "fashion score," then, Miss Thing you're a Queen.
27. If you'd sooner skip a day at the gym than show up in a workout ensemble that just didn't match, then, honey, you might be gay.
28. If you're the only male sibling in a family of ten and grandmother left you the Limoges, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
29. If you can think of more than five uses for a doily, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
30. If you know who Dorothy Gale is, then, honey, you might be gay.
31. If you've ever bought a pair of jeans because they gave you a nice "basket," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
32. If you've ever turned when someone yelled "Hey, Mary!", then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
33. If you've sworn never ever again to get drunk and do your Bette Davis impersonation, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
34. If you used adverbs before the age of two, then, Miss Thing you're a Queen.
35. If the idea of a car-parts store with the name "Ellis the Rim Man" makes you giggle, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
36. If you've ever coiffed so aggressively that you drew blood, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
37. If you've ever sent anything in black latex as a gift, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
38. If you've ever asked for a sweat towel at the gym, but accidentally said "cum rag" instead, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
39. If your home decor encompasses more than one kind of Chippendale, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
40. If your dog is smaller than a bread box, then, Miss Thing you're a sick Queen.
41. If to you the antonym for "no" is "fabulous," then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.
42. If you've ever entered a house and audibly admired the wainscoting, then, Miss Thing, you're a Queen.

YES ANSWERS:
Over 40 - Queen of the Ball (and you live in the Gay Ghetto)
Over 35 - Gayer than Quentin Crisp
Over 30 - Sassier than Rip Taylor
Over 25 - Nathan Lane!
Under 24 - Honey, you're not hanging out with the right people!

The 8th Habit: The solution

Teach Others
The two-part solution presented in chapter three* is of course, find your voice and inspire others to find their voice. Covey introduces the voice choice diagram used for the remainder of the book and explains that everyone is presented two roads in life - finding your voice along the path to greatness or loosing your voice along the path to mediocrity.

Finding your voice and inspiring others to find their voice is using an inside-out sequential process with creative force to unleash human potential. Losing your voice is following you cultural software, an outside-in quick fix, which keeps others from finding and using their voice and straightjackets human potential. Covey challenges us to take the first path and discover & express your voice by understanding three birth-gifts, developing and using multiple intelligences, and cultivating vision, discipline, passion, and conscience.

Another choice is to expand your influence and increase your contribution by inspiring others to find their voice. This is also the basis for the 8th Habit Challenge which was presented in this chapter, to read, teach, live, and report the book's principles.

The chapter closes by reminding us that habits lie at the intersection of knowledge, attitude, and skill; and each dimension must be developed to form/practice a new habit.

Report Results
This chapter serves mainly as a conclusion to the introduction and preface to the remainder of the book, but also presents the 8th Habit Challenge. Obviously, I saw the merit of the challenge and understand how teaching is an effective learning strategy, so I started blogging about the previous chapters in the book and will continue to teach others and report my results after living the remaining chapters here.

I finished the first three chapters on January 21 and have been reading and living chapter four since then. I'll post my teach two reflection and results here soon. I am intrigued in learning more about the concepts Covey presents through the voice choice diagram.

*from Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness as part of the 8th Habit Challenge

The 8th Habit: The problem

Teach Others
Chapter two* is about the transition from the information/knowlegdge worker age to the age of wisdom. The current problem with the information age is viewing knowledge workers' podvctivity as the greatest asset, which is still a mind-set of the industrial age. Covey challenges us to not manage people as things or as they do things, but rather to recognize the whole person (mind, body, heart, spirit). A video clip of a manager controlling an employee the same way he does his hunting dog is included.

The four needs of people are to

• learn - growth and development of the mind
• live - survive (body)
• love - through relationships (heart)
• and leave a legacy - make meaningful contributions (spirit)

Since people choose how much they are willing to put into a job or relationship, try to view a whole person in a whole job or relationship:
Use me creatively (mind), pay me fairly (body), treat me kindly (heart), in serving human needs in principled ways (spirit).

Report Results
As I reflected on this chapter, I can see how I am working to be a whole person. I am satisfied with my mind, body, and heart, and even my contributions in my job, but would like to work more on leaving a personal legacy. I will also try to apply the whole person in a whole job concept to those I supervise at work.

*from Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness as part of the 8th Habit Challenge

The 8th Habit: The pain

Teach Others
The first chapter* talks about the struggle people have to succeed and stay engaged, energized, and able to make contributions in their work and many organizations' inability to focus on and execute their highest priorities. The original 7 habits are still extremely relevant as people use these timeless principles to become highly effective people:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win/win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

But Covey claims being effective is no longer optional, it is simply surviving. To truly excell and lead today requires greatness, and greatness/fulfillment/significance comes from finding your voice and inspiring others to find theirs (the 8th habit).

Voice (or unique, personal significance) is the congruance of:

• talent - natural gifts & strengths
• need - what the world will pay you for
• conscience - voice of assurance & prompt for what's right
• and passion - things that energize, motivate, & inspire you

Report Results
After reflecting on this, I agree with the need for finding you voice and inspiring others, because this seems to make the original 7 habits more personally fulfiling for yourself and your community. Habits 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are mostly other-focused, being an effective person/worker for the benefit of the organizaion (family or workplace); while habits 3, 7, and now 8, speak to me more about self-improvement and making a lasting contribution to family, friends, and society. I see others in my personal and professional life who struggle too much working towards being more effective without the bigger picture of putting first things first, sharpening their saws, and truly finding their voices (or asking why they want to become more effective).

Covey illustrates (p. 4, figure 1.1) the 8th habit as the support to the other habits through dependence, independence, and interdependence. Similar to the 7th habit, I think the 8th habit is necessary and a driving force for the others (and thus, being effective).

After reading this chapter I am curious about my voice (I want to find it now!), and reflecting about what talents and passions are. I have also worked more at putting first things first (roles & goals) and sharpening my saw.

*from Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness as part of the 8th Habit Challenge

What I'm reading: The 8th habit

Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit: From effectiveness to greatness

Thanks Grant for this great gift!

I am reading The 8th Habit and am taking the 8th Habit Challenge. This book is a follow-up to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful lessons in personal change and talks about finding your voice and encouraging others to find theirs. I will be using my blog to teach others about what I'm reading for step two of the challenge and report my results for step four of the challenge. Look for future blog entries like "The 8th Habit: 1-The pain" for each chapter.