What got you here...

Read an amazing book by Marshall Goldsmith, "What got you here won't get you there." I have been recommending it to everyone in our office who will listen. For those who don't truly enjoy reading, it is also available as a graphic novel, a comic-book format if you will.

Anyone who has been working for the last few years and identifies with the ambitious type, ascribing their success to diligent, nose-to-the-grindstone hard work would do well to read the book.

It lists 20 habits of the ambitious, self-motivated, high-potential rapid risers that, while they might have been instrumental in bringing about the growth of the individual all the way to middle management, become not only ineffective but actually counterproductive in the next-level journey from management to leadership. Two of these habits stood out for I have probably been guilty of indulging in them.

The first habit is the need to add value. Notice how MBAs have a tendency to listen to a great idea and then feel compelled to add their two bits 'to make it even better'. Well, people don't like it. It sucks the joy and the sense of ownership out of the person or team who proposed the idea in the first place. It now becomes the boss' idea.

The second habit is the need to win all the time. We had a senior at B-School, a guy who had to win all the time. While this might be a valued trait in a consultant and to his credit he did go on to work for a top tier consulting company, it was quite tiresome on campus. Even in the washroom, he would grab the wash basin with the best working faucet or the one closest to the soap dispenser. He would make others wait, and wouldn't be caught dead waiting in line behind someone. If this can be tiresome in a campus environment where our camaraderie control is usually set to 'high', imagine the angst perpetrated in a corporate setting where people see career success as a win-lose game.

Perhaps both of these habits are indicators of the Alpha-Male gene. As much as it might boost the ego of a Big Swinging 'Dude' at an investment bank, it might probably be a good idea to take a good hard look at how obnoxious one might just be. Time to read the book.