IS YOUR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS JUST AN ACCIDENT AND CAN YOU MOVE UPWARDS FROM HERE?

Remember the old adage about how someone will advance just as far as his level of incompetence? Well it is true to some extent, but it does not have to be so says Marshall Goldsmith, who has been guiding and advising executives for many decades. In fact his training and books have helped some 50,000 over that time. The most interesting part of his studies seem to have been with executives where something stopped them from getting to the next level on their corporate ladder- climbing. What he found is that there may be only one little thing blocking them, or many. It could be an annoying little habit for instance, or a small flaw in their manner. Their staffs or superiors often would recognize them, but they themselves could notor even would not.

Marshall has guided some of the luminaries of today’s corporate world upward. As an example Alan Mulally  CEO of Ford Motors, George Borst CEO Toyota Financial, General Eric K. Shinseki former U.S. Army Chief of Staff, J.P. Garnier CEO GlaxoSmithKline, and the list could go on.

Goldsmith’s latest book, of many he has written, is titled "What Got You Here Won’t Get You There". The lessons are priceless and yet are almost always ignored. Many overestimate their contributions; have an elevated opinion of their professional skills; conveniently ignore costly failures and time-consuming dead-ends they themselves may have created; exaggerate their project’s impact on net profits while indicating that costs are someone else’s problem...the success is theirs. If you plan on advancing in your own corporate structure you might first study what Marshall Goldsmith has to teach.