Get Out of Your Own Way at Work... and Help Others Do the Same: Conquering Self-Defeating Behavior on the Job - Hardcover

Goulston, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399152660 ISBN 13: 9780399152665

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 2005

Synopsis

Shares practical recommendations for employees and managers on how to overcome self-sabotaging behaviors that can compromise career advancement and satisfaction, in a guide that addresses forty self-defeating actions including fear of change, failure to delegate, and expecting too much. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Goulston, M.D., is a corporate consultant who works with executives, managers, and line workers to help them get out of their own way so they can realize the success that their skills, talents, and abilities deserve. His clients include Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, GE, White & Case, Eli Lilly and Company, Disney, Kodak, and the FBI. He writes "The Leading Edge" column for Fast Company. He was selected as one of America's Top Psychiatrists for 2004-2005 by the Consumers' Research Council of America. Dr. Goulston is the author of Get Out of Your Own Way and Six Secrets of a Lasting Relationship.

Reviews

This follow-up to 1996's Get Out of Your Own Way diagnoses 40 business situations in which workers exhibit symptoms of self-defeating behavior, from "Not Being Able to Take No for an Answer" and "Being Competent but Out of Touch" to "Not Delegating" and "Assuming Others Understand You." Goulston's focus, however, is not on workplace effectiveness but on "earning self-esteem-and its twin sister, success." He devotes a chapter to each workplace issue: first, highlighting a case study that refers to a client from his consulting practice or, tangentially, to one of his hospital patients and, then, explaining how to remedy the behavior. In addition, each chapter is topped off with an aphoristic "Usable Insight" and a to-do list of "Action Steps." People are inclined to commit "hari-kari at work," Goulston says, because of "fearful aggression" and "fearful avoidance," two traits that he traces back to humans' "early-neural, unthinking, animal nature." While his insights are pedestrian-his advice can be boiled down to "be more self-aware"-the structure of the book makes it easy to cherry pick chapters that may apply to you.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399152660
• ISBN 13: 9780399152665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256