What Got You Here Won't Get You There By Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

This one makes for an interesting read. Book is 'bout what one needs to do, to be successful in the knowledge era, i.e. the current era of the knowledge worker, where the true assets of any organisation lie entirely and solely in its people.

Goldsmith is an eminent executive coach. Through his own experiences of working with number of leaders from various companies, he brings out a laundry list of 20 bad habits that hold people back and provides a seven step plan for recouping from them.

Forget 'bout being here, getting there, elsewhere etc., just felt if we stopped doing any of the 20, the work place shall become a much better ecosystem to be in.

Over to the list of 20 bad habits. Some of these are effortless and could be unintentional, meaning you needn't have had consciously cultivated and practiced the habits. For eg. speaking while angry or withholding information. You just didn't forward a bunch of official emails to your team ( which of course was not about your own stock option details or pay check or any such super confidential information) and you've actually withheld information. Or you didn't pass on the summary of a meeting you attended to your direct reports. Sounds effortless to do. On speaking while angry, author suggests couple of things - one is just to remain shut up while angry. When you're angry, if you just keep quiet, no one would actually know you're angry and that's just fine. Alternative is to have a ration or toll between what is in the mind to what you speak, instead of you wanting to be spontaneous even while being angry. Before speaking anything, take a pause to think whether what you're going to say is going to be of any help to the person having to receive it or even to yourself. Sounds quite simple. Practicing it, well, might depend on our abilities :-).

And check-out the list of 20. Some of them are awfully bad and the rest, well, anybody can be a prey to them, needn't necessarily be only the bad bosses :-).

1. Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations. 
2. Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion. 
3. Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them 
4. Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty. 
5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”: The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.” 
6. Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are. 
7. Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool. 
8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked. 
9. Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others. 
10. Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward. 
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success. 
12. Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it. 
13. Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past. 
14. Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly. 
15. Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit when we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others. 
16. Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues. 
17. Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners. 
18. Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually trying to help us. 
19. Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves. 
20. An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.

And the seven step plan Goldsmith proposes to fix the bad habits includes steps such as  Feedback,  Apologizing, Telling the World, Listening, Thanking, Following up, Practicing "Feed forward". The book deserves a read if you'd like to go over details of the above steps.

So, what's your score out of 20 :-). Keep it a secret until you get to reach 0 on that.

Best wishes if you're on mission 0 out of 20 and happy reading..