Getting There

In his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith (same author who wrote about MOJO), defines 20 bad habits of leaders that hinders their further progress. Our previous experience with success may sometimes prevent us from thinking differently and cause us to resist change. He also mentions seven steps to change for the better. An elaborate review of the book can be read at The Simple Dollar.

Although I could identify with several points raised in the book, I felt that it would be difficult to remember and incorporate all the changes needed. I thought it would be useful to have a small statement which could summarize the key learning for me and serve as an easy reminder.

Acknowledge and offer significant inputs merrily.

Acknowledge: We have to acknowledge what colleagues are saying (16), acknowledge their contributions (10, 14, 17) and not claim credit that we don’t deserve (11). We also have to acknowledge when we make an error (12, 13, 15, 19).

Offer: We should ‘offer’ and not impose our ideas or standards (1,3).

Significant inputs: We should offer positive inputs which add significantly to the topic/matter rather than add our 2 cents to every discussion and on the other extreme we should not withhold valuable information (2, 8, 9).

Merrily: Our contributions should be based on a sense of joie de vivre and our interactions should have a sense of lightness. With a focus on the message (rather than the messenger), the use of destructive comments, negative qualifiers or the use of anger as a management tool is to be avoided (4, 5, 7, 18).