Words matter. These are the best Marshall Goldsmith Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
When we stop thinking about ourselves, when we stop being so devoted to ‘me,’ we can start behaving in a way that actually benefits others!
To me, the #1 key to success is ‘creating lasting positive change in yourself and others.’ That is what is most rare, most difficult, and most valuable about leading people.
All of us have people in our lives who drive us crazy. We’ve spent hours reliving the unfair, unappreciative, inconsiderate treatment they have inflicted on us. But getting mad at this person makes just about as much sense as getting mad at a chair for being a chair.
When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ you turn people into your allies, even your partners.
It’s not appropriate to pass judgment when we specifically ask people to voice their opinions… even if you ask a question and agree with the answer.
The last thing I say on most phone calls is not, ‘Goodbye,’ but, ‘Thank you.’
When we presume that we are better than people who need structure and guidance, we lack one of the most crucial ingredients for change: humility.
I don’t get paid if my clients don’t get better by a certain time period. And sure, I have not been paid before. We all fail sometimes; it’s okay.
I have a lot of deficiencies, but gratitude is not one of them.
A leader who is self-aware enough to know that he or she is not adept at everything is one who has taken the first step toward being a great leader.
I regard gratitude as an asset and its absence a major interpersonal flaw.
When you’re at the lower levels in the organization, you need to win and be right. But as you move up, you need to let other people win and be right, and become a manager and delegate responsibility.
In one of the largest studies ever done on the effects of executive coaching – over 70,000 respondents – we learned that the biggest mistake coaches make is in not following up. It didn’t matter who the coach was or what method they used. Failing to follow up made any approach to coaching ineffective.
Gratitude is not a limited resource, nor is it costly. It is abundant as air. We breathe it in but forget to exhale.
We deify willpower and self-control – and mock its absence. People who achieve through remarkable willpower are ‘strong’ and ‘heroic.’ People who need help or structure are ‘weak.’ This is crazy – because few of us can accurately gauge or predict our willpower.
One of the most dysfunctional beliefs of successful people is our contempt for simplicity and structure. We believe that we are above needing structure to help us on seemingly simple tasks.
I was at UCLA when John Wooden was the basketball coach. The next coach was Gene Bartow, who got fired for winning 90 percent plus of his games. He wasn’t John Wooden. It’s incredibly difficult to replace someone who has been seen as an icon.
If we become aware of what’s happening before we act, behaviour becomes a function of choice rather than a result of an impulse or trigger. You begin to control your world more as opposed to the outside world controlling you.
An excuse is the handy explanation we offer when we disappoint other people.
In our world, we have this huge focus on vicarious living – politicians, movie stars, athletes, coaches, all these people. What our research has shown very clearly is that people who are really happier and have more meaningful lives are people that focus on living their own lives.
It can be more productive to help people learn to be ‘right’ than prove they were ‘wrong.’
The only thing I don’t think people don’t understand about good leaders is that they’re both good and lucky. A lot of it is timing.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten simpler – my level of aspiration has actually gone down and down. But my level of impact has gone up and up.
People that have integrity violations should be fired, not coached. How many integrity violations does it take to ruin the reputation of your company? Just one. You don’t coach integrity violations. You fire them.
Understanding the past is perfectly admissible if your issue is accepting the past. But if your issue is changing the future, understanding will not take you there.
One of the most important actions, things a leader can do, is to lead by example. If you want everyone else to be passionate, committed, dedicated, and motivated, you go first!
Put your goals on paper, or an Excel spreadsheet. Measure every day, ‘Did I do my best to…?’ Your problems won’t disappear, but you will exist in a different relation to them, and you will improve.
Life is short. Do whatever you can to help people – not for status, but because the 95-year-old you will be proud if you did help people and disappointed if you didn’t.
Our inner beliefs trigger failure before it happens. They sabotage lasting change by canceling its possibility. We employ these beliefs as articles of faith to justify our inaction and then wish away the result. I call them belief triggers.
Americans get fatter and fatter and buy more and more diet books, but you don’t lose weight by buying diet books – you go on a diet. It’s easy to read a diet book, but it’s hard to go on a diet.
