Is Your Plan Based on a "One Hit Wonder?"
by Lisa Nirell, EnergizeGrowth
What do Katrina and the Waves, Roseanne Cash, Deee-Lite,
and The Waitresses all have in common?
These music artists are "flashes in the pan" and
"one hit wonders." (in fact, they are all captured
on www.onehitwondercentral.com).
Resting on our own laurels and previous business successes
are no different from these artists' destinies.
Often, profitable growth and marketing success happen in
spite of our behavior.
Marshall Goldsmith, a globally recognized celebrity
coach, speaker, and seasoned business author, sees old habits
sabotage leadership and company performance all the time.
(Forbes Magazine and The Wall Street Journal rank him among
the top 10 executive educators and business authors.)
Goldsmith's primary insight is that bad habits keep highly
successful people from succeeding even more. When I interviewed
Marshall in 2004, he told me that the biggest differentiator
between consistently successful leaders and "flash
in the pan" leaders has nothing to do with one's abilities,
experience and training -- and everything to do with behavior.
In other words, we often limit ourselves with sabotaging
behaviors that we don't even know we have!
Likewise, successful people tend to assume that the behaviors
that got them this far will, in time, get them further still.
On this last count, we are simply delusional. We fail to
realize either that our success has come in spite of our
behavioral flaws, or that our behavior is preventing us
from realizing our full potential.
Order Marshall's book
through amazon.com here:
In Marshall's latest book, "What
Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successful," he shares insights on the
most common bad habits that hold back leaders. You can order
the book from our website in the Amazon search box.
Here is his "Top 20" list:
1. Winning too much: Goldsmith notes that the hypercompetitive
need to best others "underlies nearly every other behavioral
problem." It is even more painful to see married couples
and sales teams do this in public!
2. Adding too much value: This is when you can't stop yourself
from tinkering with your teams' already viable ideas, you're
behaving this way. "It's extremely difficult," Goldsmith
observes, "for successful people to listen to other people
tell them something where we believe we know a better way
or can improve on their idea. The fallacy is that, while it
may slightly improve an idea, it drastically reduces the other
person's commitment.
3. Passing judgment: It's not appropriate to pass judgment
when we specifically ask people to voice their opinions...
have you found yourself rating their answer? Goldsmith recommends
"hiring" a friend to bill you $10 for each episode
of needless judgment.
4. Making destructive comments: We are all tempted to be critical
and sarcastic from time to time. But when we feel the urge
to criticize, we should realize that needless negative comments
can harm our working relationships. "The question is
not, 'Is it true?' but rather, 'Is it worth it?'" As
one of my advisors once asked, "would you rather be loved
or be right?"
5. Starting with "No," "But," or "However":
Almost all of us do this, and most of us are totally unaware
of it. But Goldsmith says if you watch out for it, "you'll
see how people inflict these words on others to gain or consolidate
power. You'll also see how intensely people resent it, consciously
or not, and how it stifles rather than opens up discussion."
This is another habit that may take fines to break.
6. Telling
the world how smart we are: Driven by our need to win, we
let people know "I already knew that" or "I'm
five steps ahead of you". Being smart turns people on;
announcing it turns them off. Just visit most consulting websites.
Do the principals' bios describe how they have made clients
successful and how they spend their free time, or do they
tout their multiple degrees and years' experience?
7. Speaking when angry: When you get angry, you are usually
out of control. And you may justify it as a "management
tool." That works-if you want to create a command and
control, fear-based culture.
8. Negativity, "yeahbut" responses, or "Let
me explain why that won't work": Goldsmith calls this
"pure unadulterated negativity under the guise of being
helpful."
9. Withholding information: This one is all about power. "We
do this when we are too busy to get back to someone with valuable
information. We do this when we forget to include someone
in our discussions or meetings. We do this when we delegate
a task to our subordinates but don't take the time to show
them exactly how we want it done."
10. Failing to give recognition: When we don't take the time
or remember to do this, we deprive people of the emotional
payoff that comes with success. We may not realize how important
it is to them. In fact, it is one of the top reasons people
quit their jobs and is ranked higher than poor pay.
11. Claiming credit we don't deserve: To catch ourselves doing
this, Goldsmith recommends listing all the times we mentally
congratulate ourselves in a given day, and then reviewing
the list to see if we really deserved all the credit we gave
ourselves. Who else made that success possible?
12. Making excuses: We do this both bluntly (by blaming our
failings on traffic, technical glitches, or something else
outside ourselves) and subtly (with self-deprecating comments
about our inherent tendency to procrastinate, or to lose our
temper).These send the message, "That's just the way
I am."
13. Clinging to the past: "Understanding the past is
perfectly admissible if your issue is accepting the past.
But if your issue is changing the future, understanding will
not take you there." Goldsmith notes that quite often
we dwell on the past because it allows us to blame others
for things that have gone wrong in our lives.
14. Playing favorites: This behavior creates suck-ups; rewarding
suck-ups creates hollow leaders. We all believe we don't like
suck-ups, but maybe it's just the obvious suck-ups we don't
like.
15. Refusing to express regret: When you say, 'I'm sorry,'
you turn people into your allies, even your partners. The
first thing Goldsmith teaches his clients is "to apologize
-- face to face -- to every coworker who has agreed to help
them get better."
16. Not listening: This behavior says, "I don't care
about you," "I don't understand you," "You're
wrong," "You're stupid," and "You're wasting
my time."
17. Failing to express gratitude: "Gratitude is not a
limited resource, nor is it costly. It is abundant as air.
We breathe it in but forget to exhale." Goldsmith advises
breaking the habit of failing to say thank you by saying it
-- to as many people as we can, over and over again.
18. Punishing the messenger: This habit is a nasty hybrid
of 10, 11, 19, 4, 16, 17, with a strong dose of anger added...
like the difference between asking the person "what went
wrong?" and asking "what the ____ went wrong?"
It's also the small annoyed responses we make throughout the
day when we are inconvenienced or don't like the news we are
hearing.
19. Passing the buck: "This is the behavioral flaw by
which we judge our leaders -- as important a negative attribute
as positive qualities such as brainpower, courage, and resourcefulness."
20. An excessive need to be "me": Making a "virtue
of our flaws" because they express who we are amounts
to misplaced loyalty -- and can be "one of the toughest
obstacles to making positive long-term change in our behavior."
We can change our future by changing how we act.
The key to a better future - and multiple peak experiences
-- comes from learning to listen to what others have to tell
us about our behavior. Take the first step by avoiding spending
too much time on "feedback." This crusty old process
in today's organizations focuses on an irrecoverable past,
tends to blame others, creates anxiety and self-justification,
perpetuates judgment, and makes us defensive.
Instead, focus on a "feedforward" process. This
is constructively centered on the future, and takes the form
of helpful advice about things we have the power to change.
When you provide feedforward to others, focus on these key
principles:
-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.
As you learn and apply this process, ask the other person
to select just 2 behaviors from the Top 20 list, and ask them
how they will change, eliminate or improve that behavior in
the future. And remember-the best way to be a "feedforward
catalyst" is to share your own two behaviors with them
first. Ask them how they think you can improve those behaviors.
This simple act of humility helps you break the cycle of leaning
on your old behaviors to predict your future "hit songs."
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