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| Authors: Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
Publisher: Hyperion
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $16.47
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
Rating:  210 reviews
Sales Rank: 416
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 1401301304
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9781401301309
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Marshall Unplugged- and at his best January 24, 2007
19 out of 25 found this review helpful
What Got You Here Won't Get You There is Marshall Goldsmith at his best and unplugged- written from his heart. Reading the book is easy because it is just like sitting down and talking to Marshall- which is always fun and never dull. (Full disclosure- I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Marshall as part of a dynamic coaching duo over the past 9 months; and I have been informally mentored and coached by Marshall for nearly three years.) Marshall has honed a system to teach people to identify and implement the actions and the attitudes required to really go for it- to run full tilt at the goals that have previously been only daydreams- the goals that seemingly required just "too much"- too much time, too much effort, too much risk of failure- so they remained sidelined and life remained on simmer. This book offers a winning playbook- Marshall's proven coaching methods and tips- for getting off the sidelines and back into the game which is, after all, your one and only life.
You will want to read this book- it is user-friendly- and it will get you laughing. You can read it on a plane trek because even though it is substantive, it is entertaining and it is cut-to-the-chase. In every page, you can feel Marshall's energy, his passion, his nonjudgmental attitude, and his enthusiasm about how we can all, Marshall included, get better at whatever it is that we want to pursue. Plus it is funny- Marshall's humor shines through especially in his stories of how he can, just like the rest of us, forget his own advice and end up having to backpedal to apologize and to commit to getting better. Marshall gets you to laugh at and with him; and that makes it easier to laugh at your own human nature in those passages when he describes instances in which you may have regressed to those human levels that keep us all from being our best. And then you will realize that you really can choose change and make it happen with the any one or all of the simple action steps contained in this book.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There is a bargain- for the price of a cheeseburger, you can change your life. The book provides the cliff notes of Marshall's coaching methodology- a system for which top global leaders seek out, pay top dollar, and wait for availability- because it is that effective. When (not `if') you put Marshall's coaching tips into play in your own life, you will have a shot at getting off the sidelines and running full tilt to reach out and grab your own professional and personal goals. You will learn what it is that got you where you are- and why it isn't going to be enough to get you past the plateau on which you sit. And you will learn, best of all, how to get yourself off of your current resting spot- off of the sidelines and moving forward full speed ahead and enjoying the ride.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There really is Marshall unplugged and in top form. I admit it- I am a nerd who loves to read; I have read most of what Marshall has written; and he is a prolific writer. But this book is better because it captures the magic of being with Marshall. The stories he tells about his own lapses into being human- instances in which he neglects to follow his own best advice- are true Marshall. Use this as your playbook for life- the simple instructions provide a tried-and-true system that can be put to use to engage yourself to bring the best that you have to offer to any challenge and to step up for the next level of play.
Insightful thoughts based on proven approaches January 5, 2007
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I have had the pleasure of working with Marshall on several projects. His simple, insightful and practical solutions offered in this book are right on target. He and I worked on a project and article based on 85,000 responses and all of the solutions that he offers are entirely consistent with our findings in that study. He has taken the research and made it easy to understand and, in the usual practical approach offered by Marshall, highly relevant and implementable. Well done Marshall.
 Lots of Value, Lots of Work March 29, 2007
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
This is not a book for reading or devouring. It is a book for mining.
There is a lot of value here. This book can be the centerpiece of your personal and successful self-development. But it won't be simple and it won't be easy.
Remember that this book is written for a person who has already achieved a high position in a large corporation. Those are Marshall Goldsmith's clients. You will have to decide what you have in common with them at this stage in your life. You will have to filter some of the advice so that it fits your situation.
There's plenty here for you no matter where you are or what your current situation is. But, you need to take time to understand how your situation differs from the intended audience. And you need a strategy for getting the most out of the book.
Late in the book, writing about the rules for success, Goldsmith advises that "You can only hit one target at a time." That should have been way up front instead of way in the back.
If you read this book in the normal way, from front to back, you are likely to get overwhelmed or bored or both. So, here's my suggestion about how to get the most out of it.
Read the first couple of chapters if you want to, but if you start getting a little tired of the flat prose or if you can't identify with the corporate stars that Marshall coaches, jump to Section Three:, How We Change for the Better. Skim that section.
Then go back to Section Two: What's holding us back. Review the list of Annoying Habits, el al. Pick one to work on. Return to Section Three for guidance in how to do that most effectively.
This strategy will work. But beware, this book could become the most dog-eared one on your shelf while you use it for a lifetime of self-improvement.
This was eye opening February 7, 2007
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
Reality strikes you quickly when reading this book. Many success books focus on mantras like "You're in it to win" and "Toot your own horn" and "Never regret only learn". While these are good suggestions, they appear shallow after reading Marchall Goldsmith's book. For example he suggests that you can win too much, you can talk too much about yourself and you can focus too much on learning from your mistakes and not enough on admitting them to your peers and employees. This is valuable advice.
The author separates goal obsession as a distinct problem because many people become so focused on accomplishing a goal that they forget the mission. This can easily happen. For example, you may want to become a manager or executive manager some day and so you decide to go back to college. However, ten months later, when you are making decisions about the classes to take, you find yourself selecting classes you think you would enjoy instead of classes that will give you the skills you'll need as an executive manager. Why? You're focugin on the goal of getting that advanced degree and not on the mission of becoming an exectutive manager.
The author gives the solution of F\feedback. The suggestion is that we cannot know how we really are in the workplace and life without feedback. This feedback can come from our managers, peers and employees. It can come from our family, friends and neighbors. He suggests that the feedback process should involve four commitments:
-Let go of the past
-Tell the truth
-Be supportive and helpful - not cynical or negative
-Pick something to improve yourself - so everyone is focused more on improving than judging
From here, the author moves on to specific actions such as apologizing and listening that will help you get "there".
Finally, the book reveals change and how to accomplish it in personal ways. Overall, I felt the book was enlightening and well worth the read. It does take the phrase, "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got" to a new level. Tom Carpenter.
Excellent, Truly Excellent - ORIGINAL & DARING!!!!! April 8, 2007
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
Marshall Goldsmith's book is ORIGINAL, and adds strongly to the body of literature dealing with ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. In fact, Goldsmith has a PhD in the subject. When you read a book, you know you are onto something when the author's whole thrust flys in the face of what you the reader personally believe. When this happens, you have to make sure you maintain an OPEN MIND. Goldsmith caused me many problems while trying to absorb his information, but that's a good thing.
NOT A "FEEL GOOD" BOOK but VERY USEFUL
In spite of the title which is both flashy and catchy, this is not a rah, rah, let's go get them feel good book. This one has depth, and there is a lot of meat on the bone. We as readers must be daring enough to work our way through the author's concepts. Goldsmith has credentials though. The Wall Street Journal called him a "top- ten executive educator, while Forbes picked him as one of the five most respected executive coaches. The central theme of this book is simply this:
The CENTRAL CHARACTER TRAIT that you believe got you to the POSITION that you currently hold, may very well be the SAME trait, that is HOLDING YOU BACK from WHERE you want to be.
We should all read the above central theme again, and again. Goldsmith will hammer us with it throughout his work. He doesn't mention this, but he is taking his basic theory from renowned psychoanalyst CARL JUNG. If you are interested, read any of Jung's work regarding the SHADOW. If you are into personal development, nothing is more powerful than Jung's shadow work.
When you read this book, you will find that it is basically divided into 3 parts:
* PART I
In Part I, the author is laying out the psychological underpinning of the "The "Trouble with Success". This is the section where he hammers home that once you achieve a distinct level of success, you need new skills to get you to the next level, hence the title of the book. Some of the key in this section are:
A)"HERE" can be a great place. "THERE" can be a better place
B)He's dead on accurate when he described Chevy Chase's fading career, and attributed it to "Chase's losing touch with what he was projecting to people."
C)A famous journalist taught him that in a long distinguished career, the most important thing he learned was that, "Put a comma in the wrong place, and the whole sentence is screwed up."
D)"Our delusions become a serious liability when we need to change. We sit there with the same godlike feelings, and when someone tries to make us change our ways, we regard them with unadulterated bafflement."
E)"To successful people, past is always prologue." This is an amazing statement because it is profound.
F)The author does have wonderful humor. In this section he talked about a certain belief and said, "This belief makes about as much sense as inheriting money and thinking you're a self-made man."
*PART II
Part II is an attempt to list 20 HABITS that hold you back from the TOP. Let's just mention a few of them.
A)WINNING TOO MUCH - Our need to win overwhelms our common sense. The author believes that it may be built into our DNA, but in the end, it can limit our success
B)STARTING WITH "NO, BUT, or HOWEVER" - In this section, he is saying that whenever somebody says anything, and you respond by beginning a sentence with any of these three words, NO, BUT, or HOWEVER, you are telling the other person that they are WRONG. Goldsmith is taking this from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), another subject you might want to study.
C)SPEAKING WHEN ANGRY - It is not possible to predict another person's reaction to ANGER. People may shut down on you; therefore anger stunts your ability to change.
D)NEGATIVITY - It was one of the great lines of the book, but the author said for some people, "Negativity is their DEFAULT response." Nobody wants to be around anybody who is negative.
E)FAILING TO GIVE PROPER RECOGNITION - Recognition brings CLOSURE, and people need closure. People need the "Emotional payoff that comes with success," and that's RECOGNITION.
*PART III & PART IV
Once you know the 20 habits that are holding you back, you need to institute a program that helps you change. What good is knowledge that is not ACTIONABLE?
Part III and Part IV helps you effectuate change by teaching you 7 behaviors you can institute immediately. The behaviors are:
1)Feedback
2)Apologizing
3)Telling the World, or Advertising
4)Listening
5)Thanking
6)Following Up
7)Practicing Feedforward
CONCLUSION
Goldsmith the author has given us some original material here. It is not reworked jargon, which some other authors are prone to do. I feel the discussion of the 20 Habits that prevent you from getting to the TOP were by themselves worth the price of the book.
For me Part III and IV dealing with specific procedures to deal with our issues were not as well done as Part II dealing with the 20 Habits. This is not a negative, as anyone that has ever been through therapy knows. It's always easier to identify the issues we have to deal with than to actually EFFECTUATE CHANGE. We all know that. In any event, READ this WONDERFUL book, and I wish you GOOD LUCK IN YOUR JOURNEY.
Richard Stoyeck
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