What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

At the 2007 Vistage International Global Conference, Mr. Goldsmith presented a Keynote Speech which piqued my interest in his views on how successful people become even more successful. His book did not disappoint me.Goldsmith writes in a clear and conversational tone. I had the advantage of having heard his voice and so could "hear him speaking" in my head as I read through his material. From the beginning, he sets a no-nonsense tone about what it takes to evaluate where you are and what you need to do to "get there" - a presumably better place. Goldsmith relies heavily on 360 degree feedback from colleagues and direct reports when he is working with an executive. He encourages his readers to do the same and provides tools in the appendices to help in that regard.The book is logically organized and hits all the leadership growth hot buttons: The trouble with success, The 20 habits that hold you back from the top, How we can change for the better and Pulling out the stops. And not to let things get too predictable, the 20 habits turn into 21 and the 21st habit that holds you back from the top is "Goal Obsession."The short list for "how we can change for the better," is: Feedback, apologizing, telling the world of your discoveries, listening, thanking, following up and practicing feedforward (seeking ideas on how to improve the skill you pick to improve; such as asking a colleague for two ideas on "how I can become a better listener."Besides being concise, well organized, and to the point, Goldsmith regales us with wonderful stories from his many years of coaching experience. It seems that there are at least a couple of "nuggets" in each chapter. For example, from the section on "Be Your Own Press Secretary," there is this statement: "If there's one thing we've learned in this noisy media age, it's that simple, un-nuanced messages break through the clutter and hit home with high impact. (I'm not saying that's always a good thing, but it's a fact of life. Deal with it." Another gem I enjoyed was; "As a friend wisely noted, `Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.' " And on Feedback, Goldsmith had this to say, "It's not hard to see why people don't want to hear negative feedback. Successful people are incredibly delusional about their achievements. Over 95 percent of the members in most successful groups believe that they perform in the top half of their group."This is a must read for any leader who is serious about advancing his or her own career and coaching others along that path. Get it, read it, do it.

A manager at my work recommended I read this book this based on my reviews and feedback. I manage projects and small teams at work and would not consider myself a 'full fledged manager', but a lot of the books contents were applicable to the issues I was running into. The book itself is very easy to read and is targetted more at managers/higher-ups with lots of anecdotes, sports analogies, and a lot of repetition.In a nutshell, this book is about optimizing interpersonal relationships from a leadership level/perspective. It assume you're already good at your job, but you want to get better and 'smooth out' the rough edges. It doesn't guarantee advancement, but more so gives you options on items to work on and improve. He has a lot of stories where improvement was captured in 12-18 months, but also focused on upper management where there is quite a bit of autonomy/control over implementing these sorts of processes.I expect most folks that read this book will not find any of the concepts truly groundbreaking or new, but it does help reinforce how to recognize flaws not just in others, but ourselves, and gives relatively sound advice on how to address the flaws. Again, nothing trutly ground breaking since the work still needs to be done by yourself to identify the flaw, accept it, and then actually do something about it.The good thing for me is that I've known about some of my flaws and have attempted to work on them, but haven't been making much headway on my own. Reading this book helped me think about my behaviour actively so I could work to improve it and gave me ideas on how to improve and avoid other behaviour traps.

The skills and attributes that underpin a successful executive career are subtly different than those that will support a successful board career. This book was written for executives but the lessons apply to the boardroom. Possibly they apply even more in that environment. "The higher you go, the more your problems are behavioural" concludes Marshall Goldsmith after some twenty years of coaching senior executives in Fortune 500 companies.Goldsmith coaches people to make simple changes. These simple changes are difficult to make.His message is delivered simple and straight. It is a difficult read because you recognise yourself in the examples of undesirable behaviours. Goldsmith cuts through the clutter with the simple advice that we all do all of these things from time to time; we only need to fix the behaviours that are holding us back.As Goldsmith only deals with successful people he is working to fine-tune an already high performance. This is not a `self-help 1.01' book. It is for people who have become successful while exhibiting certain behaviours but who are now held back by those behaviours. It is hard to change behaviours that are associated with success. This book is not about a quick fix. It is about a long and consistent process that, if followed, will help to build new habits.Board members struggle to gain entry to the coterie of successful directors. Choosing the right habits to build could accelerate acceptance. Choosing the wrong ones could leave you as you are; only more frustrated. The process relies on external feedback and validation to select the behaviours that need changing. This is daunting for board members given the confidential nature of boardrooms and the team-based nature of the role. Having a third party gather the feedback and qualify the participants to provide feedback makes this easier. If you don't have a professional coach to help you extract the value from this book you will need a trustworthy friend who understands boards and boardroom dynamics.The book is a call to action. It is especially relevant for aspiring directors or those at the start of their career. It is also great for those sudden changes in board careers such as taking on a committee chairmanship or moving into a different sector. When you are new you need to be more adept at the behavioural skills to compensate for your lack of track record.It would be exciting to apply this long process to the board performance review to build a lasting improvement in the quality of board interactions.This is a worthwhile book; it is good but not easy. * Julie Garland McLellan is a professional non-executive director, board and governance consultant and mentor. She is the author of "The Director's Dilemma", "All Above Board: Great Governance for the Government Sector" and numerous articles on corporate strategy and governance.

The only person who knows and understands your value is yourself. Don’t allow anyone else to change your mind about it. You should consider the importance of feedback. However, feedforward is the key for changing. Since you can not change the past, use it as a support to help you fix things that need improvement and reinforce others that defines you as a good professional. You need to set the right feedforward to make the necessary changes “to help you to get you there”.

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This book has easy to understand concepts with high value. Recommendation for everyone that has the feeling not treating the people in his surrounding with a respectful way.

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I like the practical way it was explained about each factor.Very interesting to read each page and was exciting too.Very good guide for life and should read repeatedly at time to refresh