He is author of the New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – winner of the Harold Longman award for business book of the year.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith has been recognized as one of the Top Ten Business Thinkers in the World and the top-rated executive coach at the Thinkers50 ceremony in London since 2011. Published in 2015, his book Triggers is a Wall Street Journal and New York Times #1 Bestseller. He’s also the author of New York Times best seller and #1 Wall Street Journal Business Book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, winner of the Harold Longman Award as Best Business Book of the Year.

With a PhD from UCLA, Marshall is a pioneer of 360-degree feedback as a leadership development tool. His early efforts in providing feedback and then following-up with executives to measure changes in behavior were precursors to what eventually evolved as the field of executive coaching. With nearly 40 years of hands-on experience, Marshall Goldsmith is the leading expert on leadership and coaching for behavioral change.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They're intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle--and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small "transactional flaws" performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back.

In this book, Marshall summarizes 20 of the worst interpersonal habits that successful employees exhibit in the workplace and he describes them as self-defeating factors which stop you from reaching the next level in your profession, although you have all the capabilities that are required to get there:

1. We emphasize learning how to DO things and forget to apply our learning on HOW, WHEN and WHERE to STOP. Once we are able to learn the STOP factor, it becomes easier to drive on a road that is not as smooth as a super-highway. And we all know, no project runs smoothly. The ability to harness the accelerator, clutch and gears in sync is what is required in life. 2. We try our best to win at any cost under any circumstances, and due to that forget to keep our focus on delivering the best. As per Marshall, it is not important to win in all situations. That learning is crucial. 3. We focus more on self-importance and thus try to participate in everything that matters (or even does not matter). We tend to add too much value to everything even where it is not at all required. It is not important to add your point of view to every discussion that goes on. 4. We tend to be judgmental all the time. Rating others is not our job, and on top of it telling others to follow you and do things in the way you want is really absurd. 5. We feel that real smartness is in being sarcastic while making comments which are not true. And then it becomes our habit to be like that everywhere. 6. We tend to overuse words like “But, However, No etc.” that silently but clearly declare that we are living in a world of our own with a feeling that everyone else except us is wrong. 7. We always tend to estimate how smart others think we are and how to project ourselves more than that to them. In this unending chase, the real momentum of the game is lost and things start moving in the wrong direction. 8. The balancing act is lost when you are angry. Getting angry is not wrong but getting out-of-control at that moment of time is wrong. When you speak, be sure not to use to appearing angry as a tactic. And when you are really angry, don’t speak for a while till you cool down. 9. Even when someone else is accountable for a job that is not done, we tend to explain why it did not work. 10. Keeping information to yourself by thinking that sharing information will reveal you as a weak person or will take control out of your hands. Sharing information appears to us as giving an advantage to others, and so we tend to hold on to it all the time. 11. Blaming situations (present or past) and people from the past for failures with a clear-cut intention of trying to keep yourself clean. 12. Intentionally or unintentionally staying away from recognizing others’ achievements. 13. Clinging to the past is not a good habit. You can’t just sit on your laurels. The job that is done well is in the past, think of the next deliverables to go in the best possible way. 14. Playing favorites is another bad game that we play. At times, we might be doing it unintentionally or we are being driven by someone else to do it. In both cases, it is wrong. We need to realize it beforehand and then simply stay away from it. 15. We tend to refuse to express regret at the time it is required. In fact, we try to avoid it all the time and forever. 16. Not listening is not only disrespectful to others, but it can also be treated as a breach of your trust that others are doing while talking to you. When someone is talking to us, we need to give our full intention. I have seen people intentionally expressing their urgency in some important email or some emergency phone call. 17. We fail to regret when it is our turn and also fail to express gratitude to others when they deserve it. 18. A person who comes to us with negative news generally becomes the victim of our harsh behavior even if he is just a messenger and has no fault in the negative situation that has happened. 19. Passing the buck when something wrong has happened rather than owning it. 20. We give unnecessary importance to ourselves to a very high extent, which is useless.

What the author is seeking to do is to explain how to be more 'human' in the work place. The book is focused on interpersonal skills and how to be successful but to be kind, polite, thankful, thoughtful of others etc. in the work place. This is something that really should be normal work place behavior but it isn't and apparently the more senior a person becomes the more they forget what it is to be human. That's if they ever knew in the first place.

“People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.”

“People who believe they can succeed see opportunities where others see threats.”

“Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.”

“Warren Buffett advised that before you take any morally questionable action, you should ask yourself if you would want your mother to read about it in the newspaper.”

20 of the worst interpersonal habits successful employees exhibit in the workplace: 1) Feeling the need to win too much 2) Adding too much value to a conversation 3) Passing judgment 4) Making destructive comments 5) Starting with "No," "But," or "However" 6) Telling people how smart we are 7) Speaking when angry 8) Negativity, "Let me explain why that won't work" 9) Withholding information 10) Failing to give proper recognition 11) Claiming credit that we don't deserve 12) Making excuses 13) Clinging to the past 14) Playing favorites 15) Refusing to express regret 16) Not listening 17) Failing to express gratitude 18) Punishing the messenger 19) Passing the buck 20) An excessive need to be "me"

Mojo is the moment when we do something that's purposeful, powerful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. This book is about that moment--and how we can create it in our lives, maintain it, and recapture it when we need it. As the author defines it: "Mojo is that positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside." Mojo is at its peak when we are experiencing both happiness and meaning in what we are doing and communicating this experience to the world around us.

The book is about discovering what gives you energy or takes it away in your personal and professional life. While this may sound simple it is worth remembering that the pace many of us keep up in life sometimes leads to sleep walking through our days doing the same old thing and never taking the time to step back and challenge ourselves to review what we are doing and what impact it is having on our lives.

One of the book’s many hidden gems is a single question which the author challenges the reader to ask before they do or say something – “is it worth it?” Four words, how will what you intend to do or say impact you, your family, your job, your reputation?

The characteristics of personal mojo or a way of measuring it are happiness, rewards, meaning, learning and gratitude. The characteristics of professional mojo are motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence and authenticity. The author suggests four questions to assess your Mojo: Identity – who do you think you are? Achievement – what have you done lately? Reputation – who do other people think you are and what do they think you have done lately? Acceptance – what can you change and what is beyond your control?

Marshall also explains the Mojo Paradox: "Our default response in life is not to experience happiness. Our default response in life is not to experience meaning. Our default response in life is to experience inertia."

Mojo Killers:

1) Over-Committing

2) Waiting for the facts to change

3) Looking for logic in all the wrong places

4) Bashing the boss

5) Refusing to change because of "Sunk Costs"

6) Confusing the mode you're in.

"To understand how you are relating to any activity, you need to understand your identity - who you are. To change your Mojo, you may need to either create a new identity for yourself or rediscover an identity that you have lost."

"If we want to increase our Mojo, we can either change the degree of our achievement - how well we are doing - or change the definition of our achievement - what we are trying to do well."

"...Worrying about the past and being anxious about the future can easily destroy our Mojo. It upsets us emotionally. It clouds our judgment. It fills us with regret. And it can lead to self-punishment. This sort of thinking afflicts the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the achievers and the struggling."

"In this new world, Mojo is both harder to attain and more important to keep. When your competition is already responding to a tough new environment by working harder and longer, you need unique tools to separate yourself from the throng."

"When you have a mission, you give yourself a purpose - and that adds clarity to all the actions and decisions that follow. There's an underestimated value to articulating your mission: It focuses you, points you in a new direction, alters your behavior, and as a result, changes other people's perception of you."