If you don’t have a spare $250K+ lying around to engage Marshall Goldsmith as your coach, I’d suggest you read his new book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”. Reading this book is the next best thing to being coached by him personally. I had the privilege of having him coach me six years ago. He is the most fun, pragmatic, generous person I have ever met and his approach to teaching me how to be a better leader and human being was awesome. He has a unique ability to help people see the absurdity of our own behaviors, laugh at them, understand them better and want to do things differently.
In “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” Marshall starts by explaining why we resist change, describes 20 behaviors that hold people back from success, tells us how to go about choosing what we want to change, and then, how to change.
The part of the book I most enjoyed is the section he calls “The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back from the Top”. He talks about all those annoying habits that interfere with our success. In each and every situation I saw myself, former colleagues/bosses or behaviors highlighted in the successful show, The Office (which, I must say, is almost too painful and realistic to watch). The habits that I found most insightful were:
· Passing Judgment. We ask people for feedback, they give it to us, and then we critique their opinion. This doesn’t necessarily encourage people to help us in the future.
· Clinging to the Past. We over-seek an understanding of the past in order to change the future, often using this as an excuse to procrastinate.
· An Excessive Need to Be “Me”. We rationalize our problem areas as being “part of me”. We even go so far as to sometimes turning our flaws into virtues.
· Winning Too Much. We feel the need to “win” in every conversation and situation, whether it matters or not.
· Adding Too Much Value. We seek to perfect the idea that someone has shared with us. In the process, we’ve added value to the idea, but lost commitment/ownership of the concept from people who will be implementing it. So…how effectively executed will this “perfect” idea be?
Marshall’s examples are things we can all relate to and he encourages us along the way to commit to getting better – a little at a time. Isn’t that what matters, anyway…just getting better? Think of what our business climate would be like if everyone in Corporate America committed to making just one change for the better!
-- Sue Schaefer, Partner, JivaroCXO
