Book Review - What Got You Here, Won't Get You There - Marshall Goldsmith

I was initially looking around the bookstores for Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith owing to some good reviews given by my Colleagues. Instead I picked up this book and I must say I am not at all disappointed with the book.


The Author is one of the best known trainer/ Leadership developer for some of Fortune 500 companies. The book is divided into 4 parts namely -


1) The trouble with Success : This part of the book focuses on the central idea : How success creates a positive environment around us and how repeated success helps us adapt a handful of beliefs which may not necessarily be true. They begin to believe that they are more responsible for the success of their projects and they begin to believe that their value is much higher than it actually is.


All this is illustrated with good examples that seemed to be of people who are like me and you and not some glory CEO.



2) 20 Habits that hold you back from the top: This is my most interesting part of the book, It has 20 Habits that hold us back from the top. It includes the very basic habits like Passing Judgments , Starting with No, However or But to the very complex Winning too Much to very etiquette based Not Listening to Punishing the Messenger. It is a must read for all executives and managers to get a real world understanding and a something to reflect upon.


He also devotes several pages to the “twenty first” habit, goal obsession. Goldsmith argues that many people lose sight of the here and now because they spend their time plotting out their long term goals, not realizing that the here and now is often the best place to take that first step to whatever you have in mind. In fact, obsession with goals often is the underlying factor in many of these bad habits.


3) How can we change for Better: This part of the book contains a unique plan for how can we change for better.


They are

a) Feedback

b) Apologizing : Seriously the best advise to apologize is by saying " I'm Sorry, I will do better " and then just leave dont add anything no explanation or fancy words to justify your apology.

c)Telling the world or Advertising : This is the next step wherein you list down upon deliverables once you have apologized.

c) Listening : The most important skill needed in corporate today and often the most underrated one.

d)Thanking

e) Following up

f) Practicing Feedforward


4) Pulling Out the stops : This section focusses on issues in the organization such as handling these bad habits as mentioned above when they pop up in superiors or subordinates. Here the author suggests that organizaitons need to focus on honesty and candor while facing these issues.


Inshort the verdict is that this book is a must buy for people working in office environment and almost all the techniques suggested in book are simple. I 've personally found some of the advise to be beneficial. A must for all who are serious in improving themselves.



Thank you so much for your time in reading this!!!