What's blocking your career?

Posted by Mitch McCrimmon Jan 28, 2007

I have just finished reading a great self-help book for managers at all levels. Actually, it is a helpful book for anyone who wants to be better at getting along with people. The book is called What Got You Here Won't Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith. He is a top-rated executive coach whose experience and wisdom are blindingly clear on every page. The focus of this book is on 20 bad habits that stop executives from being as successful as they could be. They include taking all the credit, not listening, always wanting to be right, never apologizing or thanking people and making destructive comments. Goldsmith tells us that all of these habits stem from an excessive need to win, an overdose of competitiveness. He agrees that competitiveness is OK. He just feels that it can be self-defeating when it is excessive. OK so how do you correct these bad habits? For Goldsmith, the key is relentless measurement. This means making a public commitment to change, regularly measuring your progress and getting feedback from important others. Goldsmith makes it clear that stomping all over people is the surest way to derail an otherwise promising career. The difficulty is that the managers who are worst affected by this disease are the last to want to admit they have a problem. Goldsmith confronts them with hard-hitting feedback from important others who live or work with such people. He wisely recognizes that you can't force anyone to change, so the key lever is to find out what they want. Then, if you can make them see how their bad habits are getting in the way of what they want, you have a chance of motivating them to change. New Year's resolutions aren't good enough though. Without relentless measurement, no change will stick however good your intentions.