Much as Good to Great described what separates top companies from the rest, The Next Level shows new, current, and future executives what differentiates success and failure at the executive level. Every day, high performers are tapped to be executives and then left alone to figure out how to function successfully in their new role. When this happens, most new executives rely on strengths that served them well earlier in their careers. As executive coach Scott Eblin explains, this is why 40 percent of them fail. Moving successfully to the executive level requires knowing which behaviors and beliefs to drop, as well as which new ones to pick up. Like having a personal executive coach, this confidence-building book outlines a program for success for new and future executives and offers frank advice from accomplished senior executives on what to do and to avoid.

This is a fantastic book, so many Executives once promoted to Director or Vice President lose their ability to manage and do not know how to lead. Therefore they tend to avoid decision making. This book is about how to handle the next level without becoming a scapegoat.

Business careers proceed from one level to the next and these levels are frequently identified by titles, with CEO being the highest. What intrigued me about Scott Eblin's book as I began to read it is that he thinks of a career progression in terms of a series of levels of personal as well as professional development. Obviously, he agrees with Marshall Goldsmith (author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There) that new opportunities are accompanied by new challenges. Therefore, the ascending executive must leverage her or his strengths while at the same time abandoning any mindsets, beliefs, and habits that are inadequate, if not self-defeating. According to Eblin, "Through my research, I have defined nine sets of key behaviors and beliefs that executives need to pick up [e.g. `custom-fit' communications] and let go of [e.g. `one-size-fits-all' communications] to succeed. This process of picking up and letting go, I've learned, is central to succeeding at the executive level." He notes that a strength when used to excess can become a weakness. So, the ascending executive must know when and under what conditions she or he is performing best. "Operating from that base of confidence" enables her or him "to have the clarity of thought needed to make smart strategic choices" about what to pick up - and what to leave behind - when advancing into the "unchartered terrain" of the next career level.

In his most recent book, Executive Warfare, David D'Alessandro (former chairman and CEO of John Hancock Financial Services) observes that "the single greatest reason why otherwise talented people get stuck in mid-career is because they believe that the same rules that applied for the first part of their careers still apply. They don't. You have to master a much subtler set of rules. You'll need to learn how to acquire the global perspective your peers lack, when and how to deliver bad news, when to take a shot at your rivals and when to be gracious, and, most important, how to handle the many new influences on your [career] trajectory...Intelligence, imagination, and cunning are all required here - but not underhandedness...I don't believe you need to be devious to succeed. In fact, I think being excessively political is a mistake." The same advice should also be considered by those who aspire to an executive position. For all executives, the rules of engagement change as they proceed into the "unchartered terrain" of the next career level.

The nine sets of key behaviors and beliefs that Eblin examines in his book serve as the framework of what amounts to both a self-assessment and a game plan for executing necessary initiatives. He devotes a separate chapter to each set, providing a checklist ("10 Tips") for consideration and execution at the end of each chapter. Of special interest to me is his discussion of "perspective transference" in Chapter 9, urging his reader to replace an "inside-out" view of her or his current duties and responsibilities with an "outside-in" view of her or his entire organization. "Like so much of the rest of the process of personal development it takes to become an effective executive leader, it can feel strange and uncomfortable to make this shift [as it will with most - if not all - of the others]. As you move from `me' to `us' to `them,' you will find that your comfort level rides as you see the results that come from broadening your field of vision." Many otherwise promising and capable workers suffer from a form of myopia as they impose self-limits on their career opportunities by thinking only in terms of their day-to-day responsibilities. The so-called "picture" is only as large as they can imagine. The idea of proceeding to the next level either never occurs to them or seems highly unlikely, if not impossible. Long ago, Henry Ford responded to such people by suggesting, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Hence the importance of what Eblin calls an Executive Success Plan (ESP)

Presumably the estimate is true that 40% of executives fail within 18 months of their promotion to the next level. The reasons vary, of course, but one of the most common is a failure to leverage the capabilities that led to the promotion while adding other capabilities that include different mindsets as well as new skills (e.g. delegation of authority, performance evaluations). To paraphrase Goldsmith, "What got you here explains why you are here but you need new ways of thinking and acting for your career trajectory to proceed higher." This book will help, as will Goldsmith's and D'Alessandro's. I also highly recommend developing relationships with one or two senior-level executives (preferably not in the same organization) who can serve as a confidante and mentor. Perhaps members of the family, neighbors, other members of a professional association, etc. Hence the importance of formulating what Eblin calls an Executive Success Plan (See pages 195-199 and Appendix A) to maximize the value of obtaining feedback from various sources, including colleagues. Readers are also strongly encouraged to make effective use of the material in Appendix B ("Situation Solutions Guide") in which Eblin identifies some of the most common situations executives find themselves in and matches them with some of the solutions recommended in his book. Well-done!

Not rocket science, but a pretty simple way to look at professional presence in terms of personal, team, and organizational competencies. The Life GPS was a useful tool.

This book is geared to those who already made to the executive level and are seeking advice on how to be successful in their newfound position.

Being an executive brings new set of challenges which the newly appointed executive probably never experienced before. As with any new job, the new executive must prove that they belong in their new and more important role.

The author stresses 3 areas to consider:

1)Personal Presence (Confidence, energy, and communication).
2)Team Presence (Heavier reliance on the team vs the self, lead rather than do the tasks).
3)Organizational Presence (importance of developing good relationship with other executives)

Although suggestions are meaningful, they are not exactly viscerally compelling. The author seems to focus his suggestions on a narrow group of newly appointed executives with myopic vision. The overall summary seems to be to look beyond the details, and think out of the box and see the bigger picture of leading an organization through better personal, team, and organizational awareness brought on by the bigger scale of influence and accountability of an executive position

Scott Eblin's book brings an integrated approach to succeeding at the next level. His perspective "from the balcony" of having worked as a Fortune 500 executive himself, takes a big picture approach to success. Scott gives the reader simple, specific tactics to succeed at higher levels in organizations AND the encouragement to look beyond tactics and explore other key behaviors that are critical to succeeding at the next level. Among the more innovative--he suggests establishing mental, physical, spiritual and relational routines and encourages recalibrating your perspective. Well written and fun, this book is a must read for a new exec and a great refresher for established leaders too.