"If you consider yourself to be successful, stop it. You may be doing well and your hard work may be paying off, but continuing that doesn't mean you'll reach a new level of greater success, wealth or happiness. In fact, it often means you need to change if you want greater success.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith, is a must-read for every working person today.
Whether you're at the top of the executive level or just starting out, this is a guide that will enrich your life and perhaps even change it. Buy your own copy; you'll want to study it like a workbook, underlining and making notes in the margins.
This is a "coach in a book" at its best. Goldsmith, who regularly gets six-figure fees for one-on-one coaching with executives, captures that experience here with intelligence and wit. He was recently recognized by The American Management Association as one of the 50 great thinkers and business leaders who have impacted the field of management. BusinessWeek lists him as one of the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development. Goldsmith is also a native of Kentucky.
As a coach-writer, Goldsmith is personable, concise, and right on target. His insight into how successful individuals begin to limit their own success is brilliant. Using real-life examples, he helps us to see ourselves as we are and how we can change. He takes us beyond having highly successful habits to be even better.
It's not that successful people don't know what they want to achieve, have low self-esteem or don't know who they are. What they don't know is how their behavior is being conveyed to the people who matter — bosses, colleagues, customers and subordinates. It's not just true at work, but at home as well, Goldsmith says.
Here's an example: A subordinate comes to you with an idea that you think is very good. You praise her: "Great idea!" You then suggest ways in which you think the idea could be even better: "Good idea, but it'd be better if you tried "
In your mind, you are the supportive boss. You wait for her to follow through. But she doesn't.
The problem is, you may have improved the idea by 5 percent, but you've reduced your subordinate's commitment to executing it by 50 percent. Her idea is now your idea — and she is less enthusiastic than she was when she initially approached you. This is a classic case of what Goldsmith calls "adding too much value," one of the 20 habits that hold you back from continuing success. (Does this also sound like something you've done at home?)
What Got You Here Won't Get You There is divided into four sections. In the first, the author discusses resistance to change and how previous success often prevents us from achieving more success. In section two, Goldsmith lists the 20 habits that most limit success and how to handle them. Instead of the usual to-do list, he suggests that you start a "To Stop" list. He also offers us a salve to these noxious flaws: they are often simple to correct once identified.
In section three, the author gives a seven-step method for changing these habits and making the changes permanent. He also provides details on how to effectively give and receive feedback. More importantly, he gives us the secrets for his "special sauce," a method he calls "feedforward." Feedforward focuses on what needs to be done to accomplish a goal in the future rather than what you did right or wrong in the past.
The final section, "Pulling Out the Stops," is all about application — how to make changes last.
The best time to change is now, the author tells us. Most of us believe in the dream that there will be a time when we're not busy, when we will have time to make changes. This is not a dream, he says, but a mirage. Start simply by asking, "What am I willing to change now?"
You can start by picking up a copy of What Got You Here Wont' Get You There. It is a superb tool for eliminating the behavioral flaws that keep you from reaching the next step in becoming a more effective leader, better executive and more productive team member. Consider it an essential part of your navigation system to personal growth and professional success. "