The Right (and Wrong) Stuff: How Brilliant Careers are Made and Unmade

There is new research from Carter Cast – professor at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, venture capitalist and former CEO – that provides insight into why talented people fail to get ahead. Nearly two-thirds of all leaders and managers will derail at some point in their career. That means getting fired, demoted, or perhaps worst of all, “plateaued” where one will never hit the expected level of achievement or performance.

Cast’s research has grown out of personal experience. He has been out there in the trenches of the real world, working his way up (and at times, down) the corporate ladder. He opens up about how he screwed up along the way to the corner office and then draws pertinent and useful positive lessons that will be of enormous benefit to the rest of us.

Cast’s research led to the creation of five defining archetypes – Captain Fantastic, the Solo Flier, Version 1.0, the One-Trick Pony, and the Whirling Dervish – that express derailment traits that cut across gender and every level of seniority and that play out everywhere, from big corporations to small law firms, from education institutions to raw start-ups. He shows how these archetypes fail and succeed, and how to recognize blind spots that can lead to downfall. He provides ways to improve self-understanding – digging into topics like values, needs, and motives – and provides us with new ways to take charge of our careers.