With the economy in a perpetual state of flux, there's probably never been a moment of greater anxiety and uncertainty for business managers. So I was intrigued to hear the latest management advice from Stephen Covey -- author of the best-selling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and co-founder of the personal organizer retail outfit FranklinCovey.

The 8th Habit, Covey's new instant bestseller, offers more than gratuitous capitalization. It presents a managerial system that Covey says can lead to

organizational Nirvana.

The book is full of Covey's standard fare of list-making and goal-setting tools to enhance personal effectiveness (it's even got a DVD of short inspirational films). This part left me underwhelmed -- especially when my phone rang two hours after our interview and it was Stephen Covey, absentmindedly calling to be interviewed again.

OK, so not all management gurus practice what they preach. Still, Covey's core message -- his eighth habit -- is deeply compelling: Look into your heart, figure out what your true inner voice says you should be doing, then go out and do it.

"In most companies," says Covey, "there's little intrinsic meaning in the work and it becomes a means to an end -- making a living and getting as good a pay package as possible. Everyone ends up doing urgent things rather than important things. They don't know what the top priorities are, and they don't even care."

Covey argues that without guiding principles, employees just spin their wheels. They know how to get the product out the door, but never think about what it accomplishes and how it can be made better. Enlightened management isn't about instructing and controlling employees; it's about embracing the whole person, motivating employees mentally and spiritually to contribute to the organization's success.

This is all well and good for a CEO, doctor, lawyer or magazine editor -- anyone whose job has intellectual and ethical challenges built in. But how can anyone find inner meaning cleaning uniforms or gluing silicon chips into cell phones?

Covey insists it's not just possible -- it's essential to saving the soul of American business. "We've taken janitors and involved them in making decisions about quality criteria, vacation time and scheduling, then gotten feedback from customers. In five months their satisfaction goes off the charts."

His favorite example of empowerment is Toyota. "Any worker can shut down that assembly line," he explains. "They think of themselves as part of a major partnership to serve transportation needs. Toyota's using the knowledge-worker model, which is why they're eating Detroit's lunch. Every employee is trained to ask the question: Why? Why aren't we doing it this way? Why do we do it that way?"

It would be awesome if every businessperson in Oregon could take Covey's advice -- but who's got the breathing room between insane market pressures and the demands of personal life? You can't just write "find inner vision, act on it," in the Tuesday 2:00 p.m. slot in your personal organizer and expect it to happen.

Still, Covey speaks with such conviction that it seems like he must have his own inner vision thing nailed down. In fact, he says, he was supposed to go into a successful family business, but his inner voice told him to train leaders and write books instead. We should all be lucky enough to hear our own voice so loud and clear.

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Copyright 2005 Oregon Business magazine