Insight
Goldsmith: Client improvement negatively correlates with time spent receiving coaching
“There was a clear negative correlation between spending time with me and getting better.”
Insight
Goldsmith: An executive coach's success depends almost entirely on client selection
“Your biggest challenge as a coach is one thing, customer selection. You pick the right customer, your coaching process always works. You pick the wrong customer, your coaching process will never work.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Conditioning self-worth on achievement is a fool's game
“Never make your value as a human being conditioned on the results of what you're trying to achieve. Never do that. It's a fool's game. It is a fool's game for two reasons. One, you don't control the outcomes. There are a million variables impacting anything we…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Decisions are made by whoever has power, not whoever is rational
“Every decision in life is made by the person who has the power to make the decision. Make peace with that. Not the smartest person, the best person, a fair person, a logical person, a wonderful person, a rational person, or even a sane person. Every decision i…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Conditioning self-worth on achievement results is a fool's game
“Never make your value as a human being conditioned on the results of what you're trying to achieve. Never do that. It's a fool's game. It is a fool's game for two reasons. One, you don't control the outcomes. There are a million variables impacting anything we…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Tweaking a subordinate's idea slightly ruins their commitment to execute
“Rather than just saying great idea, our tendency is to say, well, that's a nice idea. Why don't you add this to it? Well, the quality of the idea may go up five percent. My commitment to execute this idea just went down 50%. It's no longer my idea, boss. Now i…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Dwelling on past accomplishments is another form of vicarious living
“When you live in the past, you're living someone else's life too. The guy sitting at the bar talking about Superbowl three, He wasn't in Super Bowl III. The kid was in Super Bowl III. A young version of him, 50 years ago, was in Super Bowl III. Not him. Well, …”
Insight
Goldsmith: CEOs who out-know their functional leads have a hiring problem
“If I'm, if I got a CEO who knows more about marketing than the marketing person and more about finance than a finance person, more about HR and the HR person, they do not have a leadership problem. They have a selection problem. They had the wrong staff.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Modern leaders are more effective than ever despite worse feedback
“Feedback on leaders is worse and worse and worse than it's ever been. Behavior of leaders is better and better and better than it's ever been. Leaders today are more effective than any time in history.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Having too much empathy can be a disaster for leaders
“I started studying empathy. I realized it's sometimes good, but too much empathy can be a disaster.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Treat decision-makers as customers who do not have to buy
“If I need to influence you, and you have the power to make the decision, and I need to influence you to make a positive difference, there is one word to describe you. That word is called customer. There's one word to describe me. That word is called salesperso…”
Disclosure
Goldsmith: KKR once paid approximately $150,000 for a two-hour CEO coaching session
“By the way, I don't know exactly, but I got paid approximately 150,000 dollars for that two hour conversation.”
Opinion
Goldsmith: 'The Secret' is ridiculous and relies entirely on survivorship bias
“Now there's a ridiculous book called The Secret. Did you ever read that book, The Secret? No. It's a ridiculous book. It sold seven million copies or more. And the essence of the book is, the secret is, if I envision it will happen. See, that's it. That's the …”
Opinion
Goldsmith: Willpower is grossly overrated and everyone needs help
“Willpower. Grossly overrated. Yeah. Willpower. Good luck on that one. We all need help.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Active questions prevent blaming the environment for failure
“Every question starts with, did I do my best to? There's a reason for that. It doesn't even say you succeeded. It just said, did you even try? You see, if I said, did you do? And your answer is no, you blame the environment. It's their fault. Well, when I said…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Fixed identity beliefs inhibit improvement and cause impostor feelings
“As long as we tell ourselves that's the way I am, two things happen, both bad. One, we inhibit the odds on ever getting better. Two, even if we do change our behavior, we don't seem authentic to ourselves. We feel like a phony because if the real me can't list…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Leaders receiving feedback must listen and thank without critiquing
“Whatever the person says, sit there, shut up, listen, take notes, say thank you, don't judge, and don't critique.”
Assertion Supported
Goldsmith: Following up with colleagues determines whether leaders actually improve
“Leaders that don't follow up and don't talk to people, guess what? Don't get better. Improvement looks like random chance. Leaders that do talk to people and follow up to the degree they make it a systematic process, huge improvement.”
Insight
Goldsmith: In leadership, only what people hear matters, not what is said
“In leadership, it doesn't matter what we say. It only matters what they hear. If they don't hear it doesn't matter if we said it or not.”
Insight
Goldsmith: The number one flaw in high achievers is compulsively winning
“What's the number one problem of all the successful people you've coached over the years? My answer, winning too much. What does that mean? If it's important, we want to win. If it's meaningful, we want to win. If it's critical, we want to win. If it's trivial…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Casual suggestions from senior leaders are always treated as orders
“What's the first thing I teach the new admirals? You get that star? Your suggestions become orders. Admirals don't make suggestions. Admiral makes a suggestion. What's the response? Aye, aye. That suggestion is in order.”
Insight
Goldsmith: Leaders should evaluate comments by whether they increase commitment
“By the way, if you have to ask at work, I'll give you a technique. Breathe. Breathe. Is my comment going to improve this other person's commitment? If the answer is yes, fine. If the answer is no, breathe again. Is it worth saying? Sometimes it is. Sometimes i…”
Insight
Goldsmith: Happiness and achievement are independent variables
“And he said, I finally realized happiness and achievement are independent variables.
You can achieve a lot and be happy.
You can achieve a lot and be miserable.
You can achieve nothing and be happy.
You can achieve nothing and be miserable through independent …”
Insight
Goldsmith: Being at the top is lonelier today due to social media
“It used to be lonely at the top. Today it is lonelier at the top. People are lonely out there. People are lonely. And just having a group of people to talk to where nobody's going to put you on social media, make a fool of you, where you can just be a human.”
Marshall Goldsmith