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

by Marshall Goldsmith

hard. It is extremely difficult for successful people to listen to other people tell them something that they already know without communicating somehow that (a) "we already knew that" and (b) "we know a better way." That(s the problem with adding too much value. Imagine you(re the CEO. I come to you with an idea that you think is very good. Rather than just pat me on the back and say, "Great idea!" your inclination (because you have to add value) is to say, "Good idea, but it(d be better if you tried it this way." The problem is, you may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you(ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you(ve taken away my ownership of the idea. My idea is now your idea—and I walk out of your office less enthused about it than when I walked in. That(s the fallacy of added value. Whatever we gain in the form of a better idea is lost many times over in our employees( diminished commitment to the concept. Katzenbach and I had a laugh over this dinner incident later on. As one of the world(s leading authorities on team building, Jon should have known better. But that(s how pernicious the need to win can be. Even when we know better, we fall into its clutches. Don(t get me wrong. I(m not saying that bosses have to zip their lips to keep their staff(s spirits from sagging. But the higher up you go in the organization, the more you need to make other people winners and not make it about winning yourself. For bosses this me...