Total Performance Scorecard

PERSONAL BALANCED SCORECARD VERSUS STEPHEN COVEY’S 7/8 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about personal leadership with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity as the key words. His new book, The 8th Habit adds that every individual has within himself the means for perfection, if only they can manage to balance the four human attributes: talent, need, conscience and passion. According to Stephen Covey, we face in today’s era of the eighth habit, a more complex and challenging world than in the last decade (era of the seven habits). Independence, individualism and autonomy are constantly increasing in all facets of our lives. According to him, this implies the need to manage oneself more and more and not rely on others. Covey’s approach is focused on personal leadership without any concrete and measurable reference framework. The Personal Balanced Scorecard (PBSC) picks up where Stephen Covey leaves off. Specifically, the PBSC translates the personal vision into concrete personal targets and actions for improvement, providing the basis for balancing personal aspirations with personal behavior. Additionally, the PBSC is the foundation for linking the individual with the organization. Through the PBSC the individual’s aspirations are integrated with a collective ambition, embedding ethical behavior and holistically linking capabilities with collective talent management. The consequences of neglecting any of these are personal and organizational sub-optimization with only temporary improvement. Without a holistic approach, the personal foundation will not be stable or sustainable enough to support the acceptance of new challenges and the development of skills related to these challenges. Pleasure at work, more effective use of free time and a good work/life balance are compromised. The PBSC is a continuing journey of discovery towards perfection, personal integrity, self-mastery, engagement, and happiness, at work as well as in people’s personal lives, so as to amalgamate both lives into one fulfilling and integrated whole. Despite the above criticism the 7/8 habits is a splendid concept that makes a most useful contribution to the formulation and implementation of a PBSC. The introduction of the PBSC is almost like launching an integrated ninth habit that has been proven in practice to produce better and sustainable results, not only for the individual but also for the collective or organization.