What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Marshall Goldsmith

Last weekend I attended an inspiring leadership workshop with top executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, the author of the book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”. If you’re a successful person and want to become even more successful, I highly recommend you read this book and soak up whatever you can of Marshall’s wisdom. The man had me crying, laughing, and taking a deep dive into my psyche.

In my opinion, Leadership is the most important quality for a product manager to have. In this workshop, I learned some common behaviors that most executives (including myself) exhibit that are no no’s, and a process for improving these behaviors in myself. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

• Adding too much value. The desire to add our two cents to every discussion.The moment you do this to a direct report, you’ve swiped their ownership of the project.
• Winning too much. The need to win at all costs and in all situations – when it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s totally beside the point.
• Starting with “No”, “But”, or “However”. The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”
• An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.

If you are interested to learn more, check out Marshall’s free resource website, or pick up his book. You rock Marshall Goldsmith.