Successful people have little reason to change… makes sense doesn’t it? That’s sort of the gist behind Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There”. It’s a great read for anyone who works with others and/or is a leader so it really hit home for me. As a small business, one of our most important assets is our people, and we’re always striving to make Orange a better place to be.
One of the big sections of the book talks about the faults that can be holding people back. As I read through the list I could identify ones that I have, as well as ones I’ve noted in others. It’s hard to self-analyze so they recommend doing 360 reviews that are confidential. At a smaller company though we don’t have the luxury of having an HR person administer it so we have to make do.
There are also a lot of insightful tips on how you can figure out how people are perceiving you just from casual comments and Goldsmith goes into the importance of listening as well, something that seems to be a common theme in many leadership books. Of course in the end, reading and learning about how to improve are great, but if you don’t actually implement anything then it’s all for naught. So we’re working to implement many of these behavioral changes since as he says in the book, at a certain level, it’s more about behaviors in how you can excel and grow as a leader…
