What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith


 

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith : Book Review

“What got you here won’t get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith concentrates on a crucial aspect of career trajectory. It concentrates on aspects that majority of us or can say as a matter of fact, 80% of workforce miss out on. These are not aspects that are tied to any one organization or any specific designation, it is rather tied to human behavior that we often ignore while concentrating on more technical aspects to work and life.

The book dwells deep into the fact and showcases the key characteristics that successful people use to become more successful. Marshall Goldsmith, the author of this wonderfully written concise book, has worked with more than eighty CEO’s in the world’s top most organization and considered global thought leader. The wisdom and clarity narrated through some crucial corporate examples are insightful and educative.

The book starts at the point wherein one has achieved a reasonable introductory level success and how this success delusion leads one to resist change. This chapter brings out the fact that the ways and methods one had used to achieve success at one level may not be useful to achieve success in the next level, yet, people often resist changing while shifting to the next level. The author insightfully brings out the key beliefs that holds one back and how success makes us superstitious. One wants to replay everything that had got them success but at the next level that doesn’t work out.

The next section in the book states and explains the twenty habits that holds one back from the top or attaining success at the next level.

The twenty habits explained in his section are: Winning too much, adding too much value, passing judgements, making destructive comments, starting with ‘ No’, “but’, ‘However’, telling the world how smart we are, speaking when angry, negativity or let me explain why that won’t work attitude, withholding information, failing to give proper recognition, claiming credit that we don’t; deserve, making excuses, clinging to the past, playing favourite, refusing to express regret, not listening,  failing to express gratitude, punishing the messenger, passing the buck, an excessive need to be “me”.

Each of the habits have been explained in detail with some actual real -life examples showcasing the impact. Reading through this part would be an eye opener for majority of the workforce as they would have committed majority of these mistakes while trying to walk the ladder.

The next section concentrates and advises the reader about a seven- step method with which they can overcome the above-mentioned habits. These are: Feedback, apologizing, telling the word or advertising, listening, thanking, following up, practising feedforward.

Each of the steps have been dealt in detail in individual chapters and showcases the readers the history, impact, advantages and disadvantages of practicing these. The examples used are productive and insightful and instantly connect with the readers.

The next section deals with the concepts of pulling out the stops in an organization in which the leaders learn how to apply the rules of change and the actions that needs to be stopped in an organization.

The author suggests seven rule model for the process of  change;  You might not have a disease that behavioral change can cure, pick the right thing to change, don’t delude yourself about what you really must change, don’t hide from the truth you need to hear, there is no ideal behavior,  if you can measure it you can achieve it, monetize the result and create a solution, the best time to change is now.

These are some really insightful learnings on working at the next level. The wisdom and learning are equivalent to any coaching seminar attended over months.

The subsequent section deals with an interesting aspect to work that is  challenges for people in charge – the key challenges attended to in this section includes- how to handle me, stop letting your staff overwhelm you, stop acting as if you are managing you, stop checking the box, stop being prejudiced about your employees, stop trying to coach people who shouldn’t be coached.

Reading through these narratives, one would realize that in majority of organizations, people in charge commit a good quantum of mistakes out of the above mentioned resulting low productivity results from the team impacting the overall performance of the company. The wonderful learnings from this section can help one develop mechanisms to improve on all the above-mentioned points and many more from the current tech obsessed world.

The last section in this book is perhaps the most productive portion for anyone trying to analyze how their leaders are performing or a company that is in process of reviewing the impact a potential leader can have on the organization. This section showcases a global leadership inventory checklist to review the effectiveness of one as a leader or one’s leader in the areas mentioned in the checklist. The leadership inventory was developed as part of a research project involving 200 selected potential leaders from 120 companies. The pointers mentioned in the global leadership inventory can help one to analyze their own impact on the organization.

The key heading pointers for this inventory checklist includes: Thinking globally, appreciating diversity, developing technological savvy, building partnerships, sharing leadership, creating a shared vision, developing people, empowering people, achieving personal mastery, encouraging constructive dialogue, demonstrates integrity, leading change, anticipating opportunities, ensuring customer satisfaction, maintaining a competitive advantage.

The book on an overall basis is easy to read, filled with examples from corporate organizations, personal commentary of the author and impact analysis for the each of the section. Reading through this book can help fresh mangers and middle managers analyze their impact and also prepare themselves for the next level where in success cannot be achieved following old principles and methods.

A highly recommended productive read.


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