How to make sure you’re winning when it counts

In “What got you here, won’t get you there: How successful people become even more successful”, executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, looks at how leaders can get more from their teams – and themselves.

Despite the consultant-speak on the cover, the book is an easy read, although a more practical title could be: “Shut up and start listening”.

Even though the book seems aimed at chief executives there’s a handy check-list of things to watch out for that will be of use for anybody in a management position. Many of his recommendations are illustrated by anecdotal tales from the, frustratingly often, unidentified chief executives with which he has worked. Goldsmith has an impressive list of clients in the front of the book and bills himself as six-figure price tag consultant. His selling point seems to be: even if you’re a cynic, at the price of a book, this advice is worth it.

Goldsmith argues that many executives are unable to get themselves and their companies past their own limits – set by ingrained habits that have brought them success in the past but now prevent them from seeing new opportunities or listening to the advice of others.

In his foreword, to “The greatest business decisions of all time”, management consultant Jim Collins, points out that while executives frequently get the credit for making the big decisions, they are often the result of fierce debate in management teams. Good chief executives admit they don’t always have the answer and then elicit the best advice they can get. Goldsmith offers a practical guide to getting the best advice from management teams.

The book is divided into three main sections: “The trouble with success” and importantly why we resist change; “The twenty habits that hold you back”; and “How we can change for the better”.

The first of the habits to break is “Winning too much” and it underlies most of the other twenty that need to be dealt with. As Goldsmith puts it: “I’m not disparaging competitiveness, [but] there’s a fine line between winning when it counts, and when no one’s counting”.

Successful people are driven to win, but this becomes a problem when an executive, argues too much to get their view to prevail, puts people down and withholds useful information to come out on top. Leaders sometimes need to let others win.

Hardnosed winners will cringe at section two: “How we can change for the better” – it’s touch-feely. The sub-titles say it all: Feedback, “Apologising”, “Listening” and “Thanking”, among others.

Feedback is basically finding out what you’re doing wrong, by asking colleagues and taking the trouble to observe how people react to you.

Apologising for mistakes is necessary because: “Without the apology there is no recognition that mistakes have been made, of intention to change.”

In “How to change”, Goldsmith points out that most people think of listening as: “the thing we do when we’re not talking” and rather than paying attention, they’re working out what to say next, or what point to score. Good listeners try to understand what is being said – and then think of the most constructive response before they speak.

If you’re hoping to skip the most cringeworthy advice, forget it. Goldsmith is clear that everything works together, or not at all.