The 8th habit of highly effective people is: “Find your voice and inspire others to do likewise”.

This latest habit is not an add-on to the original seven habits, but represents another dimension of effectiveness which will enhance the performance of each of the other seven habits.

engage in work that genuinely taps your talents and fuels your passion. It means to do something significant with your career – to sense an unmet need and then to fully harness all your talents and passion to meet that need. To find your voice means to take the path to greatness rather than settling for mediocrity.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective A&R’s

7. Sharpen the saw

6. Synergize

5. Seek first to understand the artist needs, Then to be understood by the artist

4. Think win/win

3. Put first things first

2. Begin with the end in mind

1. Be proactive

The 8th Habit

Find your voice...and inspire others to do likewise

Find your voice Inspire others to find their voices

FIND YOUR VOICE

Discover your own voice

Express your voice

FOCUS

Expand your influence

Be trustworthy

Build trust

Blend other’s voices

Create a common vision

EXECUTIONFocus Execution

Align goals and systems

Empower

1. Find your voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To find your voice means to engage in work that genuinely taps your talents and fuels your passion. It means to do something significant with your career – to sense an unmet need and then to fully harness all your talents and passion to meet that need. To find your voice means to take the path to greatness rather than settling for mediocrity.

One of the most frustrating things for the majority of people is the fact they rarely have the opportunity to realize a life of greatness and contribution. Instead, people spend the majority of their careers operating at a much lower level. They are aware of the tremendous challenges and problems which exist, but most people have not developed the internal power nor the moral

authority to become a force in solving those problems. To address this challenge, you need to find your own voice. When this happens, a fire will light inside you which will fuel tremendous drive and commitment. To be able to actually find your voice, however, you first need to understand a simple thinking about life.

A whole person has four basic components:

1. A physical body.

2. A mind capable of independent thought and analysis.

3. A heart which can feel emotion.

4. A spirit – your soul or philosophical center.

Each of these components has a corresponding basic need or

motivation:

1. Physical body – “To live”.

2. Mind – “To learn”.

3. Heart – “To love”.

4. Spirit – “To leave a legacy”.

The highest manifestations of these capacities are:

1. Physical body – Discipline

2. Mind – Vision

3. Heart – Passion

4. Spirit – Conscience

As you begin to understand, respect and ultimately balance these highest manifestations for yourself, synergy is created. You become energized as you begin to understand what you’re actually capable of achieving. When you engage in work that taps your talents and fuels your passions, and which fills the need your conscience has drawn you towards, you find your

voice. This is often described as “finding your true calling in life” or “unlocking your soul’s code”.

The human voice is unique and significant because it lies at the

intersection of your own unique:

1. Talents – your natural gifts and strengths.

2. Passion – those things that excite and enthuse you.

3. Needs – the necessity that you earn a living by providing what people are willing to pay for.

4. Conscience – that still, small internal voice or compass which confirms what is right and when you’re doing it.

The challenge of life is to discover your own quite unique voice, which will lie in the potential that was bequeathed to you at birth. When you discover that, no longer will you feel like a victim of your circumstances. Instead, you’ll be in a position of power to move forward with confidence into the future.

2. Inspire others to find their voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Once you’ve found your own voice, the way you can continue to increase your feelings of achievement is by helping others to find their own unique voices as well. Most likely, this will be done through an organization of some kind because most of the world’s work is done by organizations rather than by individuals. To inspire others means to recognize, respect and create meaningful opportunities for others to express their voices. The word inspire is derived from the Latin inspirare which literally means to breath life into another. This is exactly what you do when you encourage and positively influence others within

your own organization to actually find their voices.