Product Description

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to rise effortlessly to the top, while others are stuck in the same job year after year? Have you ever felt you are falling short of your career potential? Have you wondered if some of the things you do–or don’t do–at work might be hamstringing your ambitions? In The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back, James Waldroop and Timothy Butler identify the twelve habits that–whether you are a retail clerk or a law firm partner, work in technology or in a factory–are almost guaranteed to hold you back.

The fact is, most people learn their greatest lessons not from their successes but from their mistakes. The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back offers the flip side to Stephen Covey’s approach in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, zeroing in on the most common behavior that can impede a career. Based on over twenty years of research as business psychologists, the authors claim that the reasons people fail in their jobs are the same everywhere. Only after these detrimental behaviors have been identified can the patterns that limit career advancement be broken.

Using real-life accounts of clients they have worked with at Harvard and as executive coaches at such companies as GTE, Sony, GE, and McKinsey & Co., Waldroop and Butler offer invaluable–and in some cases, job-saving–step-by-step advice on how readers can change their behavior to get back on track.

For anyone seeking to achieve his or her career ambitions, The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back is a powerful tool for unleashing true potential.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71704 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-16
• Released on: 2001-10-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385498500
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Superbly suited to write an authoritative book on career success, these two Harvard Business School psychologists have developed an Internet-based career assessment program used in business schools and have amassed considerable insight into the realities of workplace behavior patterns through their research and executive coaching. In this comprehensive book, they strive for a tone that's authoritative but not too academic, and succeed in creating a thoughtful book that is helpful, though curiously blandAespecially compared to Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, whose market the authors seem to target. Arguing that people can learn from their failures, Waldroop and Butler focus on personal weaknesses rather than successes, identifying a dozen behaviors and attitudes that can sabotage career growth in otherwise talented individuals, such as feeling inadequate, seeing issues in black and white, trying to be a hero who can do everything, avoiding conflict at any cost, operating out of fear, being a rebel or too much of a risk-taker, and losing focus. They describe these Achilles' heels in colloquial terms before analyzing the psychology behind them, using case studies from their practice to illustrate common patterns and show the effect on organizations. Readers who find themselves or their colleagues depicted here stand to gain insight into dealing with their own weaknesses and handling others who exhibit them. The authors' credentials, along with the book's accessibility and right-on positioning, is likely to propel this book onto business bestseller charts, though some readers may wish for a more compelling presentation. Agent, Kris Dahl at ICM. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Break bad habits before they break you.

Advance Acclaim for Maximum Success

"An intelligent and insightful guide to that essential task: managing your own career."
-Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

"In a world full of self-help books, it is high time someone addressed the issue of identifying and correcting the 'fatal flaws' that derail many executives in the midst of apparently promising careers. Maximum Success takes you step by step through a process to identify and correct the key negative behavior patterns that can throw you or your high-potential employees off track. Invaluable!"
-Stephen R. Mercer, Vice President of Learning and Leadership Development, Boeing

"Dead-on accurate in its diagnoses and enormously helpful in its recommendations. A must-have for every manager and every employee."
-Eileen Grabowski, Vice President, Firmwide Recruiting, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

"Every day I have the privilege of reading about the accomplishments of some of the world's great young leaders. No matter what you aspire to do, this book should help you stay on track and reach your potential. A must read."
-Kirsten Moss, Managing Director, MBA Admissions, Harvard Business School

"Maximum Success is maximally useful. Based upon the authors' many years of experience, this book tells us about the most common mistakes people make and shows how they can correct them. Written in a strong, straightforward style, this book can save careers, save businesses, save individuals from the tragedy of wasting great talent because of a fatal flaw. It shows what to do-before it is too late."
-Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction -- Review

Review
Break bad habits before they break you.

Advance Acclaim for Maximum Success

"An intelligent and insightful guide to that essential task: managing your own career."
-Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

"In a world full of self-help books, it is high time someone addressed the issue of identifying and correcting the 'fatal flaws' that derail many executives in the midst of apparently promising careers. Maximum Success takes you step by step through a process to identify and correct the key negative behavior patterns that can throw you or your high-potential employees off track. Invaluable!"
-Stephen R. Mercer, Vice President of Learning and Leadership Development, Boeing

"Dead-on accurate in its diagnoses and enormously helpful in its recommendations. A must-have for every manager and every employee."
-Eileen Grabowski, Vice President, Firmwide Recruiting, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

"Every day I have the privilege of reading about the accomplishments of some of the world's great young leaders. No matter what you aspire to do, this book should help you stay on track and reach your potential. A must read."
-Kirsten Moss, Managing Director, MBA Admissions, Harvard Business School

"Maximum Success is maximally useful. Based upon the authors' many years of experience, this book tells us about the most common mistakes people make and shows how they can correct them. Written in a strong, straightforward style, this book can save careers, save businesses, save individuals from the tragedy of wasting great talent because of a fatal flaw. It shows what to do-before it is too late."
-Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction

Customer Reviews

Overcoming Bad Thinking Habits to Improve Career Performance
Think of this book as a psychologically-based opposite to Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The authors are both business psychologists, executive coaches for those with career problems, and directors of MBA career development at Harvard Business School. The book is well illustrated with examples of their concepts, drawn from actual cases they have worked on. I suspect you will recognize people you have met, as well as yourself, in these cases.

As the authors are well aware, a major flaw can sink someone who is otherwise a top performer. Improving an area where the person is strong will do less good than getting the substandard area up to normal or better.

Based on their years of experience they note, 'The ways people fail in their careers, however, are quite limited. People fail in the same ways, for the same reasons, over and over again, from one industry to another, from the lowest level to the highest . . . Moreover . . . many . . . people are amazingly unaware of the patterns of behavior they exhibit that are resulting in failure.' Talk about unconscious incompetence!

Part I of the book identifies 12 behaviors that can hold you back.

1. Never Feeling Good Enough (acrophobia or fear of career progress)

2. Seeing the World in Black and White (meritocrat or not seeing the relevance of loyalty, self-interest, or personality)

3. Doing Too Much, Pushing Too Hard (a hero, with an Achilles heel from overdoing it)

4. Avoiding Conflict at Any Cost (peacekeeper, who avoids even healthy conflict such as that required to overcome misconceptions)

5. Running Roughshod over the Opposition (bulldozer, a male role similar to an offensive lineman in football)

6. Rebel Looking for a Cause (rebels, who want attention more than results)

7. Always Swinging for the Fences (a home run style swinger who strikes out most of the time)

8. When Fear Is in the Driver's Seat (a pessimistic worrier, a naysayer out of fear)

9. Emotionally Tone Deaf (Mr. Spock from Star Trek, low emotional intelligence)

10. When No Job Is Good Enough (Coulda-been, who moves on because they feel inadequate, but don't want to face up to that)

11. Lacking a Sense of Boundaries (People who talk out of school)

12. Losing the Path (Alienated people who have lost their career vision of what they want from a career)

Each chapter in Part I contains a description of the dynamics of each pattern, how that role plays out in an organization, what the origins of the pattern are, and how to break the pattern. In the last case, the advice is sometimes different if the pattern is your own versus when you are trying to help someone else (such as a subordinate or peer) to do so. These are at least two examples in each section, evenly balanced between women and men.

In Part II, the authors look at the four psychological causes of these 12 behavioral problems:

1. Having a negatively-distorted self-image.

2. Not seeing the perspectives of others.

3. Not coming to terms with authority.

4. Not being comfortable with using power.

The authors describe in the chapters of Part I which of these base causes are involved with which patterns, and chapter 16 gives you help with examining your self-image. There is also a good section in Takeaways for ways to make the needed changes. The chapters also contain useful material to understand your own perceptual style from a Jungian perspective.

I found all of this material clear, and usefully directive.

But something more important was missing. I did not feel any strong desire to change, even where I could identify weaknesses. If you are like me, you will need to talk this through with your spouse, a close friend, or a colleague to help create the motivation to change. If you can afford and find an executive coach, that would be a good route also. If you cannot, you will have to rely on self-help. In this regard, you might find it useful to read or reread a book like Anthony Robbin's Awaken the Giant Within, which is excellent for helping to create the necessary self-motivation to change.

My suggestion is that you think about a situation that will probably happen in the future that you will regret for the rest of your life if you do not change. Maybe you'll have to move to another country to get a new job, and be cut off from your parents at a time when they need your help. Or perhaps your struggling teenager will have to move at a bad time in his or her high school years, harming your teenager's development. You know better than I what the risks are in your life and what you would regret. But do take the time to create a specific, realistic fear to replace the unrealistic one(s) you have today.

If you are fired or in a career rut, read this
Some books are Godsent for those who are perplexed and truly want to know the answers to their problems. This is one of them. If you have been recently fired or are in a career rut, and don't completely understand why, then buy this book and read it cover to cover. The odds are VERY high you have more than one of the 12 bad habits which is killing your career.

As always, it takes some humility to admit your own flaws and correct them. This book provides solid basis for starting the path to your own career enlightenment.

A book every manager needs to read
At one time,managers (and the lawyers who represent management,like myself)could be content with one way to handle poor performers---write them up and then fire them.No more,with employees as a company's greatest asset.This book deals with the ones that always drive you nuts---90% of the time they are great employees,but the other 10% of the time they are terrible and harm the organization.The book looks at 12 types,ranging from the emotionally tone deaf(who always seem to end up as key people in information services) to the tank,who gets the hard jobs done but causes intolerable collateral damage.The authors give you practical,implement tomorrow advice on how to turn these employees around,making them more valuable to the company and---just as importantly---helping then realize their full potential.I gave these books to clients as a New Years gift,and the response from almost all was,"where has this been all my professional life."