In his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There Marshall Goldsmith points out that the fundamental beliefs that drive our success can also make us resistant to change. We overestimate our contributions and sometimes take credit for things that others have accomplished while often ignoring our own shortcomings. These delusions are the result of success, not failure. He observes that the four key beliefs that have helped us become successful can also make it very difficult for us to affect change.

As a leader, you must be a good communicator. There is a simple discipline that doesn’t require any time, investment, or learning on your part, and it will help you become a great communicator. In addition, it will help you avoid what one client calls “Thump, Thump.”

One of our clients is planning to step down as CEO in a couple of years and wants to appoint his successor from inside the company. What makes this tricky is that there isn’t a single, obvious candidate. Recognizing that whoever he chooses will need some time to grow into the role, he wanted to get an early start. The first step was finding out who was interested and how the rest of the team felt about them.

The President and Chief Operating Officer at BuzzFeed, Jon Steinberg, wrote a great post in LinkedIn, entitled Fire Yourself: The Goal is To Have Nothing to Do. You can read the whole post here.

A few years ago, I took on an assignment to turn around a family-owned lending company and prepare it for sale. One of the biggest issues was a truly toxic culture in the Operations group. Fully half the company’s employees worked there, and they consistently treated our customers as if the customers were lying and cheating. A steady flow of customer complaints reached my desk. Yet my efforts to coax, and even demand, a change in the Operations group’s behavior made no discernible impact.