» What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: For Anyone Who Works With Others
Comment: Over the period of a long career, we are constantly transitioning from one place to another. Over time, we can develop habits that hold us back. The irony is that many of these traits are the ones that can help someone succeed in the short term.

The problem stems from cognitive dissonance, which causes us to overestimate our contributions to the team and underestimate the things we do wrong or the problems we create.

The author argues that our success can actually make us delusional, and that superstition can prevent us from taking the proper action towards change. After all, if it worked before, won't it work in the future? The problem is that as you get higher in the company food chain, the way you behave and the things you say can have a drastically different meaning to others in the organization. Consider something mundane, like preparing slides for a presentation. If one of your peers suggests that the background color should be blue instead of black, you would consider it, and maybe discuss it. If your boss were to make the same suggestion though, you would probably change the color to blue without hesitation.

Traits that might make one person look assertive can make a boss look pushy. Someone who's detail orientated might be considered a micro manager once they're in charge of others. Overall there are 21 habits the author lists that you should be on the lookout for.

Here are the twenty one habits that can hold you back in the workplace:

1. Winning too much

2. Adding too much value

3. Passing judgement

4. Making destructive comments

5. Starting with "no," "but," or "however"

6. Telling the world how smart we are

7. Speaking when angry

8. Negativity

9. Withholding information

10. Failing to give proper recognition

11. Claiming credit we don't deserve

12. Making Excuses

13. Clinging to the past

14. Playing favorites

15. Refusing to express regret

16. Not listening

17. Failing to express gratitude

18. Punishing the messenger

19. Passing the buck

20. An excessive need to be 'me'

21. Goal obsession

The keys to overcoming these obstacles is to determine which ones affect you through feedback from others, make the changes, and then continue to follow up over the following months, both to let others know that you are making progress as well as to let yourself see that you are making progress.

The author lays out how to get feedback, how to apologize, and how to be gracious for the gift of information. He also discusses the power of listening, a subject covered extensively in the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Listening provides two benefits. First, the key to being a good conversationalist is to make the other person feel like they are the most important person in the room. Second, the majority of learning comes from listening. So the only way you can get better is to listen to what others have to say.

Recommendation:

I really enjoyed this book, and I think it's a good read for anyone working on a team, not just managers. Many of these traits, like not listening, passing the buck, or withholding information, can be a huge detriment to a team, no matter what your role is. Beyond that, recognizing areas that you can improve is the key to becoming a strong leader.

The company I work for has a leadership coursework that solicits anonymous feedback from subordinates, peers, and managers. Everyone that has gone to the class has appreciated the learning experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if the course was based on the lessons from this book. Learning from others is usually the fastest way for us to grow as people, and this book will help you to learn from others.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally! Advice You Can Use!
Comment: What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

After wading through the morass of "how to be a better leader" books, Marshall Goldsmith has actually written the gold standard. "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" provides practical and pragmatic tools for examining your leadership vulnerabilites in a way that allows you to actually do something to change them. In his honest and no-nonsense style, Marshall offers the kind of advice that leaders around the world pay hefty fees to receive and puts that advice at your fingertips.

If you think this book is not about you, guess again. In my more than 25 years of working with leaders across continents and industries, I can attest to the fact that many very skilled individuals struggle with recognizing the traits and behaviors that will derail their future success as leaders, especially as they move to higher levels of responsibility. As the game changes with each promotion, potential leadership land mines loom on the horizon that will reveal themselves over time. Marshall's book points these out and provides useful and easy ways to address them. Better to understand these early on in your leadership path. This is not a book to be missed!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Playbook for Any Leader
Comment: This book rates an A+ on total practicality. The best thing about this book is it doesn't waste a lot of time on theory, it gets right to the point and provides clear, straightforward examples of the foibles we are all capable of and what to do about them. All 20 Bad Workplace Habits are instructive and revealing as are the steps for improving. I highly recommend this book to anyone taking on more responsibility, especially new managers or managers facing challenging people issues. This is a leader behavior playbook for becoming a better manager, and a pretty good roadmap for becoming just a plain better person.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: This book WILL get you there
Comment: For so many years I've had the privilege of advising managers and leaders within the private and military sectors about human relations and workplace mastery. I can only imagine how much more effective I would have been had Dr. Goldsmith's book--What Got You Here Won't Get You There--been available as the model; both for me, the advisor, and the leaders I serve.

What Got You Here... is not just another personal/professional development book to help leaders reach the next level; it's the manual. This book, I believe, resonates with the reader because you can't miss the compelling insight and advice...Marshall gives it to you straight! He exposes his coaching effectiveness in that he speaks so profoundly, yet in a simple, practical way. So whether you're a successful corporate executive, a junior exec climbing the ladder of success, or an executive coach, do yourself a favor and read this book.

At a recent international event, I witnessed Marshall deliver a keynote speech. Over the 4-day convention, I listened to many well-known speakers of his caliber. It was Marshall who "raised the roof." Not with flash and glitz (although he's very entertaining), but with his straightforward, tactful, and diplomatic "in your face" words that made us all really think...and think big!

I found the same in this book--profound points, easy to digest. For instance, he raises the point that, in order to take yourself to the next level, be that as a great leader or better person, sometimes you needn't focus on what you should learn or do better (in order to become better). But rather, realize what you need to STOP doing--like being a jerk! There it is...in no uncertain terms. But then he goes on to eloquently elaborate on the point.

Dr. Goldsmith is very thorough and generous with this book. He offers many case studies and scenarios to help put things into practical context. I also found beneficial his integrating of conventional thinking and models (such as Johari's Window). But his new insights are the muscle in this book--such as the 20 "transactional" flaws. These are real flaws to which so many of us find ourselves struggling to identify and correct. The value in reading about them in this book (aka Marshall's unique insight)...is the furthering of one's understanding of the obstacles--and solutions for getting out of one's own way to success.

If you and/or your organization are not achieving the results you want, then read this book. It's like having this master-of-a-coach right in front of your face challenging your thinking and helping you discover new ways to reaching serious success. This book will definitely help get you there!

Kevin Richard McNulty
Founder/CEO, Humadyn-Center for Human Relations, Growth & Achievement

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wisdom in Simplicity
Comment: Having read Marshall's book and a few of the reviewes, both the postive and not so positive I'm left with the thought that people who value relationships and desire to achieve the next level of leadership will love this book.

They will love it for a couple of reasons. First, many years ago I learned that it's the simple things in life that are most profound. His suggestions are simple but possess a great deal of wisdom. Marshall obviously realizes from his experience in coaching and life what is often missing to build the type of relationships that move people to higher levels of achievement. Second, if you are already practicing the suggestions in the book it will reenforce and confirm your behavior. If you are not practicing the behaviors Marshall offers you a plan to do so.

I highly recommend his book. If you put the suggestions into practice it will impact your personal energy and the energy of others. Great work Marshall. Thank you for reminding us of those things that create successful relationships and outstanding leaders.

Dr. Bob Rausch, author of "The Power of Personal Energy" and "The Secret Power in Stress - Unleash Your Energy Potential"

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