What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter

Author:Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter [Goldsmith, Marshall & Reiter, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Finance, Business
ISBN: 9781401301309
Amazon: 1401301304
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2007-01-09T08:00:00+00:00

1. Let go of the past.

2. Tell the truth.

3. Be supportive and helpful—not cynical or negative.

4. Pick something to improve yourself—so everyone is focused more on “improving” than “judging.”

Almost every coworker agrees to my four requests. In a couple of cases, coworkers have just said “no.” They felt that they could not “let go” of the past and help my client try to get better. In these cases they had psychologically “written off” my client. Since all of the interviews are confidential, I don’t tell this to my client. I only request that the coworkers not participate in the final feedback report. If we aren’t going to try to help our colleagues, why should we be allowed to judge them?

As you contemplate changing your behavior yourself—without my hands-on assistance—you will need to do the same with your colleagues. Here’s how you can get the people you know to commit to helping you.

First commitment: Can they let go of the past? Whatever real or imagined sins you have committed against people in the past, they are long past correction. You can’t do anything to erase them. So, you need to ask people to let go of the past. This is simple, but it is not easy. Most of us have never forgiven our mothers and fathers for not being the perfect parents. We cannot forgive our children for not being the ideal kids. We don’t forgive our spouse for not being the perfect partner. Quite often, we can’t forgive ourselves for not being the perfect us. But you have to get this first commitment. Without it, you can’t shift people’s minds away from critic toward helper. As a friend wisely noted, “Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past!”

Second commitment: Will they swear to tell the truth? You don’t want to work your butt off for a year, trying to get better based on what people have told you that you were doing wrong—and then find out that they didn’t really mean it. That they were jiving you, that they were only saying what they thought you wanted to hear. That’s a waste of time. I’m not naive. I know people can be dishonest. But if you solicit—no, demand—honesty from people, you can proceed with the confidence that you’re going in the right direction—and that you won’t get a rude surprise at the end.

Third commitment: Will they be supportive, without being a cynic, critic, or judge? This is asking a lot of people, especially if they are in a subordinate position to you. People are just as likely to suspect or resent their superiors at work as respect and admire them. So you have to remove any and all of their judgmental impulses from the equation. Do that and people are much more inclined to be helpful. At some point, they realize that if you get better, they have won something too. They get a kinder, gentler, better boss.

Fourth commitment: Will they pick one thing they can improve

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