“What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful” by Marshall Goldsmith.

  • The author is an executive coach, generally brought in when a high-level professional is in need of “grooming” (ex., someone tagged as being the next CEO, but isn’t quite ready.)
  • The book outlines the author’s peer-review process for identifying personality traits that are holding executives back in the career advancement.
  • Lists and describes the common issues:
    1. Winning too much — ex., wanting to “win” an argument just for the sake of winning
    2. Adding too much value — ex., always trying to add to the conversation
    3. Passing judgement — ex., quickly reacting in approval/disapproval when hearing new ideas. It’s better to listen with “complete neutrality” and make a decision later.
    4. Making destructive comments — ex., the facial expressions and under-the-breathe comments that generally serve only a negative purpose.
    5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However” — ex., saying “that’s a good idea, but…” You’ve now shot down the idea.
    6. Telling the world how smart we are — ex., responding with an “I already knew that” when someone brings information.
    7. Speaking when angry — pretty self-explanatory, but yelling at your staff is no way to keep top-talent.
    8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work” — a devil’s advocate is generally more destructive then helpful. Don’t shoot down ideas, or people will stop bringing them to you.
    9. Withholding information — when you withhold information you put your colleagues at a disadvantage, which naturally, they won’t like. (And eventually, when the don’t like you enough, they’ll stop working for you.) Keep in mind the lessons of the information age — information becomes more valuable (and powerful) when shared. Practice transparency.
    10. Failing to give proper recognition — if you don’t give credit where credit’s due, your staff will resent you.
    11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve — this is a short-term gain, for a long-term fail. Taking credit for someone else’s achievements is a great way to make people dislike you.
    12. Making excuses — they just hold you back.
    13. Clinging to the past — like making excuses, but with historical precedent. Again, it’s holding you back.
    14. Playing favorites — the favorites like you, the other’s hate you.
    15. Refusing to express regret — apologize so everyone can move forward.
    16. Not listening — and specifically, not listening well (ie., not engaging or paying attention.) Not listening is a great way to get people to stop bringing you information.
    17. Failing to express gratitude — saying “Thank you” and recognizing other’s achievements make people feel good, and thus, makes them enjoy being around you.
    18. Punishing the messenger — a negative reaction to bad news will make the messenger feel bad for having brought it (thus limiting your access to information in the future.) Listen with neutrality, thank the messenger, and deal with the problem separately.
    19. Passing the buck — ex., blaming someone (or something) else for our mistakes.
    20. An excessive need to be “me” — ex., letting some mental model of your personality dictate how you work. Doing something because it’s “in character”, rather then doing what’s right.
    21. Goal Obsession — driving so hard to achieve a goal that we lose sight of why we’re doing it.
  • Walks the reader though the discovery process, and addresses how to successfully recover from a bad personality trait. (ie., it’s not enough that you simply get better — what matters, in fact, the only thing that matters, is how your peers perceive you, and your changes.)

The book occasionally comes across as “selling his services”, but it works. It’s well written, easy to read, and offers many opportunities for self-reflection. Goldsmith describes his process in-depth so that it can be replicated. The book even concludes with an example peer-review worksheet.

My overall take-away was positive, and I’d recommend the book to someone wanting to advance in their career (particularly in a managerial direction.) It’s a good reminder that once you’ve mastered your craft, interpersonal skills may be what’s keeping you from climbing to the top of your field.