It’s All a Matter of Perspective

Peter Druker, often called the Father of Modern Management, made the following observation, “We spend a lot of time teaching managers what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching them what to stop. Half the leaders I’ve met don’t need to learn what to do – they need to learn what to stop.” We simply need to adjust our perspective.

Keeping that in mind, an executive coach named Marshall Goldsmith wrote a book in 2007 called What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: 20 Workplace Habits You Need To Break. I recommend this book for your Fall reading list! It’s a chapter by chapter in-depth look at each of the 20 habits we should get rid of as we advance in workplace leadership. Goldsmith offers numerous stories from his own career and his executive coaching experiences to illustrate each habit and keep the content ‘moving along’.

Here is the list of 20 habits. Interestingly, they’re not reflective of a flaw in managerial skills. Nor do these habits reflect a shortcoming in intelligence or a personality flaw. All of them are indicative of challenges in interpersonal behavior. It may take reading the books’ descriptions to gain the right perspective and apply it to your own leadership skill mix, but here they are for your consideration:

1. Winning too much
2. Adding too much value
3. Passing judgment
4. Making destructive comments
5. Starting with “No”, “But”, or “However”
6. Telling the world how smart we are
7. Speaking when angry
8. “Let me explain why that won’t work…”
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”

Goldsmith, M. (2007). What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: 20 Workplace Habits You Need To Break. Hyperion: NYC.