If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the exact habits that fueled your early success might be the very obstacles preventing you from reaching the next level?
- Have you ever wondered why even the most brilliant executives often sabotage their own influence by making one of twenty common behavioral mistakes?
- What if you could transform your career trajectory not by learning new technical skills, but by identifying the 'personality flaws' you’ve been mistakenly defending?
Listen to What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
- Understand why successful people mistakenly attribute their achievements to their bad habits, realizing that you likely succeed in spite of your flaws, not because of them.
- Discover why avoiding bad decisions is just as critical to the bottom line as generating new ideas, and learn how to value the act of stopping harmful behaviors.
- Recognize that your personality is not rigidly fixed, and understand how excusing bad behavior with 'that's just who I am' alienates colleagues and limits your growth.
- Master your compulsive need to win in every situation, ensuring your competitive drive doesn't override your common sense or damage your relationships.
- Learn to evaluate how your behavior truly comes across to others, preventing your confidence and past successes from blinding you to the actual needs of your team.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
Mind Map
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
The Delusion of Success
Superstitious Thinking
Fixed Personality Myth
Inflated Self-Assessment
Destructive Habits to Stop
Wanting to Win Too Much
Adding Your Two Cents
Goal Obsession
Ignoring Avoided Mistakes
Tools for Awareness
Tracking Casual Feedback
Monitoring Self-Aggrandizement
360-Degree Feedback
Essential Interpersonal Skills
The Power of Apologizing
Expressing Gratitude
Sustaining Long-Term Change
Consistent Follow-Up
Changing Perceptions
Accepting the Process
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 9
Why do highly successful people often retain bad habits, according to the author?
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: As we reach higher levels of success, many of us become more superstitious.
Chapter 3: Avoiding mistakes is a major part of doing a job well, so let’s recognize that reality at work today.
Chapter 4: Bad behavior tends to linger because many of us think our personalities are unchangeable forever.
Chapter 5: The desire to win drives your success; just don’t let it overpower your common sense ever.
Chapter 6: Learn to listen without attempting to improve on other people’s ideas yourself.
Chapter 7: Obsession with goals can distort your values and obscure your judgment too.
Chapter 8: Welcoming critical feedback will help you change bad habits that still hold you back from even greater success.
Chapter 9: Both saying sorry and expressing gratitude can have powerful effects.
Chapter 10: If you want to change, take your time and ask those around you for consistent feedback regularly.
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There Summary & Overview
Your people skills become increasingly important the further you climb up the ladder of success. What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There (2007) describes some of the bad habits that commonly hold back successful people and explains how to change them.
Who Should Listen to What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There?
- Managers wanting to become more successful
- Anyone who wants to gain respect in the office and improve relationships with coworkers
- Leaders and executives who are proud of their personality flaws
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