Yesterday Stephen R. Covey released the paperback version of The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, a follow-up to his 1989 book, the outrageously successful The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Many have listed the latter as one the most influential business books of the last century––it sold 15 million copies and his consulting organization, FranklinCovey, has since counseled 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies.

The eighth habit is this: “Find your voice, and inspire others to find theirs.” The New York Times said he’s essentially saying, “discovering your voice is the only road to success today.” And since this is as much a business book as it is self-help, there is much space given to teaching leaders how to bring out the voices of their colleagues and employees, making the workplace a more holistic environment that addresses “whole people” and not “things.”

At 432 pages, the eighth trumps the entire seven in combined length, but apparently not in usefulness, according to many reviews, which have been mixed since the hardcover version came out last fall. But almost all seem to agree that it’s less “how-to” and more meandering. One Amazon reviewer wrote, “the basic point is about a magazine article’s worth.” Many others spoke to its snooze factor: “Topical, but tedious,” and “For the systems analyst in all of us!” A common, more cynical theme was encapsulated by: “The 8th Attempt at More Book Royalties.”

Maybe it’s that consumers of self-help books actually want really simple self-help style books, because professional reviewers were more positive: “Meaty, readable, and insightful,” wrote Library Journal.The New York Times said, “Although the writing occasionally veers toward the hyperbolic (’’therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code’‘), it is clear. And Mr. Covey… lays out in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step fashion his recipe for discovering your voice by determining where your talents, passions, conscience and needs lie.” But apparently not step-by-step enough for plenty of readers. Not that Covey’s publishers are crying: According to the Denver Post, from November 2004 (when the book was initially released) to April 2005 the book sold more than 450,000 copies.