What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How successful people become even more successful

by Marshall Goldsmith

That’s what we’re talking about here in the workplace: People who do one annoying thing repeatedly on the job—and don’t realize that this small flaw may sabotage their otherwise golden career. And, worse, they do not realize that (a) it’s happening and (b) they can fix it.

My job is to help them—to identify a personal habit that’s annoying their coworkers and to help them eliminate it—so that they retain their value to the organization. My job is to make them see that the skills and habits that have taken them this far might not be the right skills and habits to take them further.

Then I help them follow up religiously every month or so with their colleagues because it’s the only honest way to find out how you’re doing and it also reminds people that you’re still trying.

I also show them that the only proper response to whatever they hear is gratitude. That is, I teach them how to say ‘Thank you’ without ruining the gesture or embellishing it.

it struck me as a powerful statement about how all of us in the workplace delude ourselves about our achievements, our status, and our contributions.

All of these delusions are a direct result of success, not failure. That’s because we get positive reinforcement from our past successes, and, in a mental leap that’s easy to justify, we think that our past success is predictive of great things in our future.

I have now made peace with the fact that I cannot make people change. I can only help them get better at what they choose to change.

One of the greatest mistakes of successful people is the assumption, ‘I behave this way, and I achieve results. Therefore, I must be achieving results because I behave this way.’

People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.

If you press people to identify the motives behind their self-interest it usually boils down to four items: money, power, status, and popularity.