The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success, by Scott Eblin, 2006.This is a wonderful, highly readable book that I picked up at the ICF International Coaching Conference in St. Louis recently. Author Scott Eblin starts with the astonishing statistic that 40 percent of new executives fail within 18 months of their promotion.

As a former Fortune 500 Human Resources executive, Eblin is now an executive coach bringing the best of coaching to his work with high-level managers. Eblin starts by encouraging us all to know when we are at our best and then to – with clear intent – choose to perform at our best.

He identifies 9 key sets of behaviors and beliefs that executives must pick up and let go of to succeed at the next level. I found it very interesting that this process of strategic choice applies equally to navigating our businesses through today’s waters of turbulent change.

I’ve already started making my check list of what I’m letting go and picking up to succeed in 2009 and beyond. What about you?