What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How successful people become even more successful [Paperback]

What Got You Here Won't Get You There is an intriguing look into the nuances between those who climb to the top of the corporate ladder and those who fall just short, while everyone applauds their fall. We all have trouble seeing ourselves as others see us. Marshall Goldsmith takes dead aim at that problem by describing his unique methods for coaching candidates for top jobs into the corner offices.

While that's intriguing in and of itself, Dr. Goldsmith also reveals what he usually finds in such detail that you'll see the shadow of yourself spread out across the pavement in front of you. He does this so well that I felt truly mortified to think of the times when I fell for the many bad habits (that stall career and company progress) that he so eloquently describes here.

What are these bad habits? I've paraphrased them below:

Letting winning get in the way of relationships you need

Dropping too many ideas on those who work for you

Being judgmental rather than helpful

Slamming people in public or behind their backs

Making comments that indicate you disagree with everyone that's just been said

Showing off how smart you think you are

Saying anything in anger

Being negative

Keeping secret what others need to know

Not recognizing the contributions others make

Claiming undeserved credit

Refusing to take responsibility for bad results

Being focused on the past

Favoring those who agree with you

Not apologizing

Ignoring what others are saying or shutting them up

Being ungrateful

Shooting the messenger who brings bad news

Blaming others for everything

Insisting on sticking with you bad habits after you're aware of them

Dr. Goldsmith also tells a lot of stories about how he struggles in some of these areas; I thought the best lessons came from those examples. It's clearly a lot easier to describe what needs to be done than to do it.

For those who are or want to be top executive coaches, here's a chance to learn a lot about how a master does it. He relies on lot of 360 degree interviews which are repeated to test for progress (or regression). Dr. Goldsmith also tries to open up bosses, peers, and subordinates so that they try to support the executive who is trying to change.

I was particularly impressed by Dr. Goldsmith's compensation plan: He only gets paid if an executive improves in the eyes of those who work with the executive.

Realize that his perspective is on those who have great technical and leadership skills . . . but who have interpersonal bad habits that are killing performance. Turn some of these negatives into neutrals or less negatives, and great results may follow.

In a sense, this book is a good companion to Know-How by Ram Charan who looks at those who have great interpersonal skills as leaders but don't have the technical ability to know what to do. If you pay attention to the lessons in both books, you'll probably do better.

Ultimately, I was, however, skeptical of Dr. Goldsmith's suggestions for how you might duplicate his process on your own. I suspect you'd be better off to give this book to someone who is a coach and ask them to help you by playing the Marshall Goldsmith role.

Fans of Buddhism will enjoy reading Dr. Goldsmith's many perspectives on executive life drawn from those sources.

I wasn't looking for it, didn't think I could use it, and thought I had reached a place where I didn't really NEED another book to point out the way to success. I've always respected Marshall Goldsmith for his consistently impressive coaching techniques, but like most people, I'm not the CEO of anything. I liked where my career had taken me, loved what I was doing, felt I had the ideal job, and stopped wondering what my next step would be. So when I saw this book, I was not expecting it to have the impact it did - I knew it was going to be good - but it was so much more than that!

Dr. Goldsmith gave me some very useful insight about things I thought I was clear on but apparently not - no glaring character flaws, but what he calls "behavioural tics" or habits we repeat many times a day in the workplace. The key, he says, is the fact that we seldom have any idea how we are coming across to other people. We tend to view our behaviour in one way, while others see it as something else.

He presents his concepts in such a conversational way that they don't seem preachy, in fact when I picked up the book and started reading, I found myself well into it before I realised that I didn't want to stop and put it down! There aren't many books about self-improvement I think anyone could say that about. The title intrigued me and the content of the book delivered more than it promised. I think it offers something for everyone, from the newest members of the workforce with their eyes on the next rung up the ladder to those who have had many decades to carve out a place for themselves and notice an inkling that there might just be one more step they'd like to take to make it even better.

Buy this book and actually read it. You will emerge from the experience with an appreciation of what you've done to get yourself here and some tools to develop a gameplan that will get you "there." I think this book is great.

The first half of the book presents 21 bad habits, so unless your superhuman there's a good probability you're going to be doing at least one of the habits that you know you shouldn't be doing but are.

The second half content includes how to change these bad habits and includes better ways of receiving feedback, apologising, reminders on listening and thanking and practicing feedforward.

This book is a very easy read and you are sure to benefit from something in it. However my quest for that magical book that really changes my practices must continue!