Slipping On Your own Banana Peels?

Slipping On Your own Banana Peels?

Then it's time to look down before plowing ahead!
by Deborah Grayson Riegel

Unlike Rainman, I am NOT an excellent driver. And unlike my 8 year old twins Jacob and Sophie, I am NOT a terrific video game player. So I was less than thrilled when my snickering kids invited me to combine my two deficiencies into one surefire humiliating experience: playing them in Nintendo Mario Kart Wii.

As Jacob loaded up the game, his face beaming in anticipation of my untimely, graphic, and interactive demise, Sophie provided me with some coaching tips.

"First, mom, if you're on grass or snow, you have to travel with a
mushroom."

What? What does this mean? Did I miss this in Driver's Ed?

"Then, if you drive on Coconut Mall, remember to take a wheelie right
up the escalator."

Ah, sure. Just like I always do.

"And, mom...they're gonna throw things at you. Just don't slip on your own banana peel - that's really embarrassing!"

Now THIS I can relate to - and I'll bet you can, too.

Let's face it: in both work and life, we have to navigate around obstacles, barriers and roadblocks that other folks have thrown in our way.  This is old news -- so old that even the book of Leviticus had something to say about it: "You shall not...put a stumbling block before the blind."  I've noticed, however, that most of us trip and slip on our OWN banana peels -- those self-defeating interpersonal behaviors that smart, successful people engage in on a regular basis.

As Marshall Goldsmith put it in his phenomenal book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There: "When was the last retreat or training session you attended that was titled: 'Stupid Things Our Top People Do That We Need to Stop Doing Now'?"  These "stupid things" -- slips on our own banana peels -- don't come from a deficit in competency, confidence or character. They come from caring too much about appearing clever and commanding, and not enough about how we make other people feel.

Goldsmith's book covers the 20 workplace habits that hold us back from the top, and I've adapted them into 10 Ways to Stop the Self-Defeating Habits of Highly Successful People.

If you want to keep slipping on your own banana peel, assume that this list is about that other guy. But if you're ready to regain your footing and propel yourself personally and professionally, turn that little nudge of self-recognition into a commitment to self-improvement.  Now that doesn't sound bananas, does it?