Product Description

America's most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladderThe corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They're intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle -- and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small "transactional flaws" performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith's straightforward, jargonfree advice, it's amazingly easy behavior to change.Executives who hire Goldsmith for one-on-one coaching pay $250,000 for the privilege. With this book, his help is available for 1/10,000th of the price.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-09
• Released on: 2007-01-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Goldsmith, an executive coach to the corporate elite, pinpoints 20 bad habits that stifle already successful careers as well as personal goals like succeeding in marriage or as a parent. Most are common behavioral problems, such as speaking when angry, which even the author is prone to do when dealing with a teenage daughter's belly ring. Though Goldsmith deals with touchy-feely material more typical of a self-help book—such as learning to listen or letting go of the past—his approach to curing self-destructive behavior is much harder-edged. For instance, he does not suggest sensitivity training for those prone to voicing morale-deflating sarcasm. His advice is to stop doing it. To stimulate behavior change, he suggests imposing fines (e.g., $10 for each infraction), asserting that monetary penalties can yield results by lunchtime. While Goldsmith's advice applies to everyone, the highly successful audience he targets may be the least likely to seek out his book without a direct order from someone higher up. As he points out, they are apt to attribute their success to their bad behavior. Still, that may allow the less successful to gain ground by improving their people skills first. (Jan. 2)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
To get to the next level, high achievers often need to get over self-aggrandizing beliefs such as thinking that they control everything, believing that all their success is due to their individual efforts, and assuming that future achievements are there for the taking. Narrating his own material, management consultant Marshall Goldsmith sounds so fresh and energetic that his program will motivate listeners to take a personal inventory. However, there are also places where he sounds like he's trying too hard, such as when he delineates the good and bad habits of executives. Nonetheless, all his suggestions about how and what to change are clear, action oriented, and punctuated with examples from his own growth experiences. T.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
By now, the CEO as celebrity is old hat. (Just start counting the books from former company heads.) That goes for the executive-recruiter-cum-president-makers. What has yet to be explored--until now--is the celebrity business coach, the individual who helps C-level executives correct flaws, whether invisible or public. A frequent interviewee in major business magazines like Fortune, Goldsmith, with the sage help and advice of his collaborator Reiter, pens a self-help career book, filled with disguised anecdotes and candid dialogue, all soon slated for bestsellerdom. His steps in coaching for success are simple, honest, without artifice: gather feedback from appropriate colleagues and cohorts, determine which behaviors to change (and remember, Goldsmith specifically focuses on behavior, not skills or knowledge), apologize, advertise, listen, thank, follow up, and practice feed-forward. Admittedly, this shrewd organizational psychologist only works with leaders he knows will listen, follow advice, and change--especially considering that he doesn't receive fees until improvements are secure and visible. On the other hand, these are words and processes anyone will benefit from, whether wannabe manager or senior executive. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Past behavior will not warranty future success
The book provides advice on how to manage your behavior while building your career in the corporate or business worlds. The book title is a reminder that the behavior that lead you to climb the corporate ladder can at some point be against you.

The book invites you to explore and assess your habits and get feedback from your colleagues at different levels. This will give you a reality check on things that you may be failing and will lead you to fail. The list of twenty bad habitsis a starting point to assess yourself and start re-inventing your self.

Highly recommended book to assess individuals building their professional careers and leadership skills.

Must read for high achievers
This book is an absolute must for high achievers. Typically such people are so focused on their immediate goals, that they miss out on the interpersonal aspects & start to stagnate, for no obvious reasons. The first half of the book will open your eyes to the flaws on inter-personal skills & impact it has on your career. The good part is that there are concrete steps to how to control the situation & get past the shortcomings. It is a very well written book and easy to read. I'm practicing some of the suggested techniques and they work!

Full of good ideas.
I usually stay away from self-help books like this because they are most often vague, non-specific and fail to give the "real" secret to success. I did gleen a few good ideas from this book but for the most part this book has been written a thousand times before, and like all the others it doesn't remind the reader that the biggest key to success is simply knowing the right people and relying on connections, connections and connections. All other roads to success are, let's be honest, luck, luck and amazingly great good luck, nothing else.