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Book: Maximum Success: Changing the 12 Behavior Patterns That Keep You From Getting Ahead :: Zig Ziglar|Books :: Book
Date: Wednesday, 07 January, 2009 :: 12:56
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Maximum Success: Changing the 12 Behavior Patterns That Keep You From Getting Ahead
List Price: USD $24.95
from USD $19.99
Product Group: book
Manufacturer: Broadway Books
Release Date: 2000-09-19
Studio: Broadway Books
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Editorial Review: Product Description
Maximum Success is a compelling exploration of the behavior patterns that cause people to undermine their careers-as well as specific advice on how to overcome them. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to rise effortlessly to the top, while others are stuck in the same job year after year? Have you ever felt you are falling short of your career potential? Have you wondered if some of the things you do-or don't do-at work might be hamstringing your ambitions?
In Maximum Success, James Waldroop and Timothy Butler, directors of MBA career development at the Harvard Business School, identify the twelve habits that over and over again-whether you are a retail clerk or a partner in a law firm, whether you work in technology or in a factory-are almost guaranteed to hold you back.
While an examination of the habits of highly effective people has made Stephen Covey's book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a self-help classic, the fact is that most people learn their greatest lessons not from their successes, but from their mistakes. Maximum Success offers the flip side to Covey's approach, zeroing in on the most common behavior patterns that can impede a career. The authors claim, based on over twenty years of research as business psychologists, that the reasons people fail in their jobs are the same everywhere. Yet, once these detrimental behaviors are identified, the patterns that limit career advancement can be broken.
Using real-life accounts of clients they have worked with at Harvard and as executive coaches at such companies as GTE, Sony, GE, and McKinsey & Co., Waldroop and Butler describe the habits that have derailed even the most successful people. More important, they offer invaluable-and, in some cases, job-saving-advice on how readers can modify their behavior to get back on track.
Among the Career-stoppers that can stymie Maximum Success:
Focusing on the downside of any situation and obsessing over all the things that can go wrong
Cherishing the naïve belief that merit alone is enough and that office politics, networking, and self-promotion don't matter
Feeling that you aren't "good enough" to deserve a promotion-and unconsciously sabotaging yourself once you get it
For anyone seeking to achieve their career ambitions, Maximum Success is a powerful tool for unleashing your true potential.
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Reviews:
Average Customer Review: 
Summary: Impressive
Date: 2008-08-07 - 
Comment: "The 12 Bad Habits that Hold Good People Back" is a breath of fresh in in a world filled with business self-help books. Most business books will try to tell you exactly what to do in order to succeed, but the problem with that is that no matter what type of situations are described in those books, they never seem to correspond to what is happing in your situation.
This book is different. While there are thousands of ways to succeed, there are a limited number of traits that lead to failure. The authors of this book highlight those failure points, describe how these traits are created, and give some solid steps on how to confront those traits. One thing that you should realize when you buy this book is that the authors don't believe in quick fixes, and those readers who are looking for quick fixes will be disappointed. To overcome each of the 12 bad habits highlighted in this book will take a lot of self-examination, observation of others in your work environment, and assistance from friends or co-workers to help you pinpoint your weak areas. If you're willing to put in the work, then the advice in this book is very helpful.
I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking to advance in their company. Without realizing your weaknesses, you may be stuck at the level you now work at. To get a promotion will take lots of hard work and effort, but with the advice in this book, you'll be able to reach your goals
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Something for everyone...
Date: 2008-07-28 - 
Comment: The book is divided into 2 parts Part I identifies the 12 bad habits that hold people back. Part II identifies the causes of the bad habits
There is something for everyone. Certainly we all have some or many of these bad habits in full or partial degrees. Authors do a nice job in defining the habit and providing examples.
You will find a number of "ah-has" along with sharp piercing observations. For example, for the Meritocrat:
"one of those people who insist that proposals, ideas, products - virtually everything in life - must be considered strictly rationally, on their inherent merit, their absolute, true value. They see the world in black and white - without colors or shades of gray. If the meritocrat ruled the world, all decisions would be put through some sort of merit-weighing machine. Emotions, politics, sentimentality, loyalties, favoritism would play absolutely no part...he or she consistently talks about the ways things "should" be, about the unfairness of life, railing about how the well connected, the meretricious, and the conniving rise to the top, while the honest and the principled fall by the wayside...the meritocrat fails to see that people are complicated, with many shades of gray...sometimes to win the battle you have to negotiate and compromise - promise something to someone to get him or her to join your side - which goes against the code of rationality...the person who thinks this way is acting almost as an anti-Machiavellian, someone who loathes politics and flattery and the compromises of deal making. Most of us, it is true, would rather deal with the meritocrat than his polar opposite, the unprincipled schemer for whom ideals have no value. The schemer is loathsome in his treachery; the meritocrat insufferable only in his self-righteousness.
While there is something for everyone, I found myself skipping many sections of the book that I didn't find applicable or perhaps at the farthest end of an extreme of my bad habit.
While the book does an excellent job in describing and giving examples of bad habits, it falls short on practical ways to change.
The book is dense, thick and slow moving - while examples were used liberally, I found it to read like an academic textbook and found it difficult to stay engaged.
Finally, who says good packaging doesn't work. My eyes locked in on the sharp fire engine red packaging on the shelf and I had to have it.
The 12 bad habits that Hold Good people back are:
Part I:
1. Never Feeling Good Enough (The "Acrophobe")
2. Seeing the World in Black and White (The "Meritocrat")
3. Doing Too Much, Pushing Too Hard (The "Hero")
4. Avoiding Conflict at Any Cost (The "Peacekeeper")
5. Running Roughshod Over the Opposition (The "Bulldozer")
6. Rebel Looking for a Cause (The "Rebel")
7. Always Swinging for the Fence (The "Home Run Hitter")
8. When Fear is in the Driver's Seat (The "Pessimist Worrier")
9. Emotionally Tone-Deaf ("Mr. Spocks")
10. When No Job is Good Enough ("Coulda-been")
11. Lacking a Sense of Boundaries ("Loose Lips")
12. Losing the Path (losing sense of direction or enthusiasm) ("Dig Deeper")
Part II: The Psychological Issues behind the 12 Behavior Patterns:
1. Taking Others Perspectives (Not being able to take/see other people's perspectives)
2. Coming to Terms with Authority (Not coming to terms with authority)
3. Using Power (Inability to use power comfortably, skillfully, effectively)
4. Looking in the Mirror: Examining Your Self-Image (Having a negatively distorted self image)
Summary: hard habit to break, i'm not alone
Date: 2008-02-26 -
Comment: this easy to read book makes me realize that i actually fall into one of the 12 classic patterns that time and again hold me back from advancing ahead. Once I'm aware, it's not as hard anymore to break the patterns in order to break through the self-constructed limitations. The title of the book sounds terrible, "bad" habits ought to be revised into "hard-to-break" or "patternized" habits.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: The 12 bad habits
Date: 2008-02-19 - 
Comment: The book gives a lot of descriptions of bad habits. The value of possibilities to solve or handle the habits is low.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Intellectual, Not Helpful
Date: 2008-02-15 - 
Comment: This book is written by psychologists and is very dry and unengaging. You probably already know it is an old emotional issue behind your troublesome behavior at work. For actual helpful tips, try reading "The Power of Letting Go" by Vredevelt instead. It is right to the point, unlike this old-school freudian book.
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