Review- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Every Friday Free From Money reviews a book you might find useful for your personal or professional life
Over the period of a long career, we are constantly transitioning from one place to another. Over time, we can develop habits that hold us back. The irony is that many of these traits are the ones that can help someone succeed in the short term.
The problem stems from cognitive dissonance, which causes us to overestimate our contributions to the team and underestimate the things we do wrong or the problems we create.
The author argues that our success can actually make us delusional, and that superstition can prevent us from taking the proper action towards change. After all, if it worked before, won’t it work in the future? The problem is that as you get higher in the company food chain, the way you behave and the things you say can have a drastically different meaning to others in the organization.
Consider something mundane, like preparing slides for a presentation. If one of your peers suggests that the background color should be blue instead of black, you would think about it, and maybe discuss it. If your boss were to make the same suggestion though, you would probably change the color to blue without hesitation.
Traits that might make one person look assertive can make a boss look pushy. Someone who’s detail orientated might be considered a micro manager once they’re in charge of others. Overall there are 21 habits the author lists that you should be on the lookout for.
Here are the twenty one habits that can hold you back in the workplace:
1. Winning too much
2. Adding too much value
3. Passing judgement
4. Making destructive comments
5. Starting with “no,” “but,” or “however”
6. Telling the world how smart we are
7. Speaking when angry
8. Negativity
9. Withholding information
10. Failing to give proper recognition
11. Claiming credit we don’t deserve
12. Making Excuses
13. Clinging to the past
14. Playing favorites
15. Refusing to express regret
16. Not listening
17. Failing to express gratitude
18. Punishing the messenger
19. Passing the buck
20. An excessive need to be ‘me’
21. Goal obsession
The keys to overcoming these obstacles is to determine which ones affect you through feedback from others, make the changes, and then continue to follow up over the following months, both to let others know that you are making progress as well as to let yourself see that you are making progress.
The author lays out how to get feedback, how to apologize, and how to be gracious for the gift of information. He also discusses the power of listening, a subject covered extensively in the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Listening provides two benefits. First, the key to being a good conversationalist is to make the other person feel like they are the most important person in the room. Second, the majority of learning comes from listening. So the only way you can get better is to listen to what others have to say.
Recommendation:
I really enjoyed this book, and I think it’s a good read for anyone working on a team, not just managers. Many of these traits, like not listening, passing the buck, or withholding information, can be a huge detriment to a team, no matter what your role is. Beyond that, recognizing areas that you can improve is the key to becoming a strong leader.
The company I work for has a leadership coursework that solicits anonymous feedback from subordinates, peers, and managers. Everyone that has gone to the class has appreciated the learning experience, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the course was based on the lessons from this book. Learning from others is usually the fastest way for us to grow as people, and this book will help you to learn from others.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a part of the Personal MBA reading list under Management and Leadership
