Mr. Goldsmith is one of the world’s leading CEP coaches.
- He abhors three words: “no”, “but”, “however”. He says “It is a bad habit. The word ‘but’ means disregard everything that came before this.”. It is distracting.
- Somewhere along the way leaders have inclucated bad habits, like winning too much. It is important that we want to win. People at that level are winners – they are used to winning. But now they ought to let other people win too. Because you get to win anyway when you are at the top. You still need to win big things, not win stupid things.
- Control what you need to control. Let go of what you don’t need to control.
- The other bad habit that CEO’s have acquired is that of adding too much value. Let’s say I as a young, enthusiastic guy go up to my boss with an idea. And instead of saying that it’s a great idea, the boss says, ‘Let me add this to it.” Now the problem is that while the quality of the idea may go up by 5%, my commitment may go down by 50%.
- Realize that you are human not god.
- One of the toughest leadership lessons was that all the suggestions become orders. “If they are smart, they are orders. If they are stupid, they are still orders.”. Answer: Before you speak, breathe and ask yourself, is it worth it?
- the old idea of command and control-to tell people what to do and how to do it-doesn’t work anymore. You have to ask, listen and learn. Think about what it important, and realise that people you manage know more than you do.
- At a meeting when he was with Boeing, one man came up to Mullali and said: “I don’t know.” He applauded. It is so rare that someone in that culture would do that because historically they pretended to know everything. Mullali tried to create an environment where people reach out, learn from everyone around them, and build relationships across the organization.
- People need to realize hat the behaviour that got them to point A isn’t the same as the behaviour that will taken them to point B.
- Half the leaders don’t need to know what to do. Rather they need to know what not to do.
- How does one figure out something needs to change? : You can get confidential feedback. The tricklies in not asking what I did wrong, but saying in the future this is where I want to go, so give me ideas. It works much better. It is less threatening.
- Buddha said never do what I teach because I teach it; always do what I teach because it works in the context of your life.
Filed under: Leadership | Tagged: Leadership, Marshall Goldsmith
