Strategic Leadership - Material

SWISS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT GENEVA
GLOBAL MBA PROGRAM
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
LECTURER
Lecturer: Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
Contact e-mail: lecturers@ssbm.ch
Academic advisor: ………………………
Support: contact@ssbm.edu.vn or 0866 180 168
HOURS
Length 4 weeks
Approx. 2.5 hours of video materials 3–5 hours per week
of effort is needed
Course Staff
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall Goldsmith is one of the world’s leading executive educators, coaches, and authors,
who was inducted into the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame in 2018. He also received the Lifetime
Achievement Award for management education form the Institute for Management Studies.
In addition, he is ranked one of the five most respected executive coaches by Forbes and one
of the top ten executive educators by The Wall Street Journal as well as one of the 15
Greatest Business Thinkers in the World by The Times.
Prof. Goldsmith was recently chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award
for Leadership by the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School.
He is the only two-time Thinkers 50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the World and has been ranked as
the #1 Executive Coach and Top Ten Business Thinker the past eight years. Marshall Goldsmith
is an expert in the field of business education and leadership coaching. It is also important to
highlight that his coaching skills ensure long-term, positive behavioral change and he built his
success on practical, no-nonsense approach to leadership.
World-renowned business educator and coach, Prof. Marshall Goldsmith is the leading expert in
his field. His singular ability to get results for top leaders has drawn over 150 CEOs and their
management teams to addresschange in the workplace. Dr. Goldsmith is the author or editor of
36 books,which have sold over two million copies, been translated into 32 languages and become
listed bestsellers in 12 countries.
INTRODUCTION
Strong leadership is regarded as one of the best predictors of organizational success and critical
human capital required for career progression in almost every organization. However, leadership is
also a highly complex and often misunderstood phenomenon. It is hard to define, but we all know
good and bad leadership when we see it.
This course will equip aspiring leaders with an understanding of what leadership is and how an
individual candevelop the skills required to become an effective leader in their organization. Taught
by instructors and presenters with decades of business and not-for-profit leadership experience, you
will learn the difference between leadership and management, the importance of understanding
others and building empathy and relationships,and gain a better understanding of the different
leadership styles you may encounter throughout your career.
In this five-part course, I share my insight from over 4 decades of coaching. We’re going to
look at a proven process that you can use to develop yourself as a leader. As an executive educator
and coach, I will help you understand how your beliefs and the environments you operate in can
trigger negative behaviors. Through simple and practical advice, I will help you achieve and
sustain positive behavioral change.
Research on coaching is clear and consistent. Coaching is most successful when it’s applied to
people withpotential who want to improve — but not when it’s applied to people who have no
interest in changing. This istrue whether you are acting as a professional coach, a manager, a
family member, or a friend.
COURSE GOALS
By the end of the course, you will be equipped to:

• Master ‘what to stop’ as a leader and explore how to use ‘what to stop’ in coaching
• Examine the classic challenges for successful leaders, and how to use feedforward
• Explore a proven model for developing yourself as a leader, and the importance and
impact onleadership effectiveness
• Discover why we all need help and structure, a new approach to employee
engagement, and the dailyquestion process.
COURSE OUTLINE
TOPICS
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Teaching Leaders What to Stop
Section 3: Leadership is a Contact Sport
Section 4: Coaching for Behavioral Change
Section 5: Triggers
GRADING SYSTEM
We strongly advise the students to finish all the course, lecture after lecture as stated in
syllabus, as there is alogical classification of topics as each new topic is based on the previous
one.
Grade elements:
Final project: 100% (100 points): Report to be submitted
Grading scale:
Letter Grade Percent Grade 4.0 Scale
A 90-100 4.0
B 80-89 3.0
C 70-79 2.0
D 60-69 1.0
F < 60 0.0
If the student decides to refuse the grade achieved on the exam, he/she is obligated to
communicate his/her decision to the head of the course, and take another exam.
STUDENTS OBLIGATIONS
• Self-registration on SSBM portal

• Frequently read announcements on SSBM portal.Students are required to use SSBM portal
regularly, read e-mails and announcements, activity calendar and to respect given
deadlines concerning assignments and project registration.
• Read the SYLLABUS in detail
• All written assignments, lectures and communication should be in line with academic
professional standards.
• If requested students are required to fill in class evaluations at the end of the course
which are located on SSBM portal.
• Students are strictly forbidden to copy or cheat during the preparation of the final project
that they have to do individually.
USAGE OF UNALLOWED MATERIALS OR COPYING FROM OTHER STUDENTS IS

PUNISHED BY FAILING THE EXAM AND SUBMITTING THE STUDENT TO A
DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE.
LITERATURE
Main literature:
https://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/
SSBM portal
Presentations, seminars and additional materials for class participation (case studies, etc.)
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
All students taking courses at SSBM fall under the Academic Dishonesty policy and will be held
accountable. Youare responsible for understanding the policy and upholding it. If Academic
Dishonesty is found, the instructor may choose to fail you from the course! This includes, but
is not limited to:
Copying text from the internet, without a citation (as fast as you copy and paste from Wikipedia
andGoogle, is how fast we can search for it)
Copying and pasting from fellow students’ work, even with a citation (even from fellow
classmates orprevious terms). Yes, professors do talk with each other and share information!
Communicating with another person, by any means, when taking any quizzes or exams (online or
inperson).
In any way representing another’s work as your own.
EQUAL ACCESS POLICY
SSBM does not discriminate. SSBM promotes and values diversity within its workforce and
provides equal opportunity to all qualified individuals regardless of race, color, creed, age marital
status, gender, religion, sexualorientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin,
veteran status or disability. SSBM is a fully inclusive campus, and we believe in our established
values of Respect Diversity and Pluralism.
FAQ
Q. When is work due? Are there deadlines?

A. The project schedule is flexible for participants. Simply work at your own pace to complete the
materials.
Q. Who can I contact if I have a question or problem?
A. For questions regarding the platform, you can contact SSBM staff directly by email.
Q. Where will important news and updates be posted?
A. Be sure to check "Home" frequently. Important news, updates, and corrections will be posted
here throughout the project.
Q. How do I watch the videos?
A. You can access all the videos for each unit in the "Course" section.
Q. For technical reasons, I can't watch the videos in Course. Can I download them?
A. Unfortunately, we do not allow downloading of videos to prevent any abuse related to
our intellectual property rights.
Q. How can I follow a thread in the Discussion Board?
A. Click on the grey star icon in the top right hand corner of the post.
Q. I only want to view the threads I'm following. Is that possible?
A. In the Discussion Board, click on “Show all Discussions” at the top of the list of threads. From
the drop-down menu select “Posts I'm Following”. When you are ready to see all posts again,
click on “Posts I'm Following”. From the drop-down menu select “Show All Discussions”.
Q. How can I follow a particular person in the Discussion Board?
A. The edX platform does not currently offer this function. But there is a way for you to see
threads with contributions by a specific participant. Just click on that person's username near the
top of a post or reply. That link opens a page where you can view recent activity by the
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Q. I posted a question in the Discussion Board. How will I know if someone responds?
A. When you start a new thread, it will automatically be marked as a discussion to follow. You
can get updates about all the threads you follow by going to the Discussion Board Home and
clicking on the check box for “receive update”. You only need to do this once. After that, you will
receive a daily email digest about activity from posts you are following.
ASSIGNMENTS
Dear Student,
The assignments consist of 2 Tasks.
Task 1 of 2 Case Study
Instructions
Read carefully the case study - "Expanding the Value of Coaching Marshall Goldsmith" that you
can find in the folder "Project to deliver by the end of course"
Answer the following questions:
1. What, in your view, made Boeing Company CEO to be successful?
2. Which positive leadership behaviors were key success factors?
3. How do you see the value of coaching in situations like the one described in the case study?
4. What does a "change" require in your view?
5.Try to google "Marshall Goldsmith feedforward" - what do you think of this approach?
Delivery and Submission:

- 1x case study (circa 1500 words)
Task 2 of 2 Essay
Instructions
Following your case study, you should now prepare an essay evaluating the impact of the
business leader identified in task 1, on the organisation’s performance by addressing the
following:
• Assess the role of the business leader in driving organisational performance.
• Critically explore the exercise of leadership power and influence.
• Critically explore the main feature and requirements of leadership development for competitive
advantage.
• Provide the criteria for measuring for assessing an organisations strategic effectiveness from a
leadership perspective.
Delivery and Submission:

-1x essay (circa 1500 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
COURSE MATERIALS
Welcome to the Course

No But However (activity) ······················································································9
Chapter 1 Teaching Leaders what to Stop
Adding Too Much Value (reading) ·································································· 10
Do You Play Well With Others? (reading) ································································ 12
Making Destructive Comments (reading) ································································· 14
Playing Favourites (reading) ·················································································· 16
Chapter 2 Leadership is a Contact Sport
Leadership is a Contact Sport (reading) ··································································· 18
Why Didn’t You Get Better? You didn’t Follow-up! (reading) ····································· 23
Chapter 3 Coaching for Behavioral Change
Coaching for Behavioral Change (reading) ······························································ 24
3 Questions for Building a Great Team! (Reading) ····················································· 29
Feed Forward (reading) ················································································ 31
Let It Go (reading) ······························································································ 33
Chapter 4 Triggers
Marshall Goldsmith Triggers, Behaviours and Discipline (reading) ···························· 35
What Is the Secret to Employee Engagement? (reading) ········································· 37
Chapter 5 The Wheel of Change
The Secret to Becoming the Person You Want to Be (reading) ·································· 39
The Best Coaching You Will Ever Get (reading) ·················································· 42
Questions That Make A Difference: The Daily Question Process (reading) ··················· 44
Project to deliver by the end of course
Case: Expanding the Value of Coaching Marshall Goldsmith (reading) ··························· 46
Slides - Course slides (reading) *Marshall Presentation
Swiss School of Business and Management (SSBM)
Do You Begin Every Sentence with No, But or However?
MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
June 11, 2014
by Marshall Goldsmith
An easy habit for people who like to win to fall into, and a surefire shortcut for killing
conversations, is to start a sentence with “no,” “but,” or “however”.
It doesn’t matter how friendly your tone is or how honey sweet you say these words, the
message to your recipient is “You are wrong.”
It’s not “Let’s discuss,” “I’d love to hear what you think,” it’s unequivocally, “You are wrong
and I am right.”
If your conversation companion is also of the winner variety, you have a potential battle on
your hands, and there is nothing more that can happen that is productive.
Are you interested in a little test to see how competitive your co-workers are? Try this. For
one week, keep ascorecard of how many times each person uses “no,” “but,” or “however” to
start a sentence. You will be shocked at how commonly used these words are. And, if you drill
a little deeper, you’ll see patterns emerge. Some people use these words to gain power. And,
you’ll see how much people resent it, consciously or not, and how it stifles rather than opens
up discussions.
I use this technique with my clients. Practically without even thinking, I keep count of their
use of these three little words. It’s such an important indicator! If the numbers pile up in an
initial meeting with a client, I’ll interrupt him or her and say, “We’ve been talking for almost
an hour now, and do you realize that you have responded 17 times with either no, but, or
however?” This is the moment when a serious talk about changingbehavior begins.
If this is your interpersonal challenge, you can do this little test for yourself just as easily as
you can to gaugeyour co-workers. Stop trying to defend your position and start monitoring
how many times you begin remarks with “no,” “but,” or “however.” Pay close attention to
when you use these words in sentences. For example, “That’s true, however…” (Meaning: You
don’t really think it’s true at all.) Another oldie but goodie is“Yes, but…” (Meaning: Prepare
to be contradicted.)
Along with self-monitoring your behavior, you can also easily monetize the solution to this
annoying behaviorto help yourself stop. Ask a friend or colleague to charge you money every
time you say, “no,” “but,” or “however.” Once you appreciate how guilty you’ve been, maybe
then you’ll begin to change your “winning” ways!
Adding Too Much Value

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
May 15, 2014
A classic problem of smart, successful people is Adding Too Much Value. This bad habit can be
defined as theoverwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion. A slight variation on
Winning Too Much, Adding Too Much Value is common among leaders who are used to running
the show. It is extremely difficultfor successful people to listen to other people tell them something
that they already know without communicating somehow that (a) they already knew it and (b) they
know a better way.
What is the problem with adding too much value?

It would seem like it would be better for all concerned if our ideas were always improved upon. It’s
not. Imagine an energetic, enthusiastic employee comes into your office with an idea. She excitedly
shares theidea with you. You think it’s a great idea. Instead of saying, “Great idea,” you say, “That’s
a nice idea. Why don’t you add this to it?” What does this do? It deflates her enthusiasm; it dampers
her commitment. While the quality of the idea may go up 5 percent, her commitment to execute it
may go down 50 percent. That’sbecause it’s no longer her idea, it’s now your idea.
Effectiveness of Execution = a) Quality of the idea X b) My commitment to make it work.

Effectiveness of execution is a function of a) What is the quality of the idea? times b) What is my
commitmentto make it work? Oftentimes, we get so wrapped up in trying to improve the quality of
an idea a little that we damage their commitment to execute it a lot. As a leader, it’s important to
recognize that the higher you go in the organization, the more you need to make other people winners
and not make it about winning yourself.
I asked my coaching client J.P. Garnier, former CEO of the large pharmaceutical company Glaxo
Smith Kline, “What did you learn from me when I was your executive coach that helped you the
most as a leader?” He said, “You taught me one lesson that helped me to become a better leader and
live a happier life. You taughtme that before I speak I should stop, breathe, and ask myself, ‘Is it
worth it?’ He said that when he got into the habit of taking a breath before he talked, he realized that
at least half of what he was going to say wasn’tworth saying. Even though he believed he could add
value, he realized he had more to gain by not saying anything.
The flip side to this concept is that people often take leaders’ suggestions as orders. I asked J.P,
“What did you learn about leadership as the CEO?” He said, “I learned a very hard lesson. My
suggestions become orders. If they’re smart, they’re orders. If they’re stupid, they’re orders. If I want
them to be orders, they areorders. And, if I don’t want them to be orders, they are orders anyway.”
For many years, I taught this to the students at the new admirals’ school of the US Navy. The first
thing I taught them was that as soon as they get their stars, their suggestions become orders. Admirals
don’t makesuggestions. If an admiral makes a suggestion, what is the response? “Sir, yes sir.” Their
suggestions becomeorders.
What does this mean for leaders? It means closely monitoring how you hand out encouragement
and suggestions. If you find yourself saying, “Great idea,” and following it with “But,” or
“However,” try cuttingyour response off at “idea.” Even better, before you speak, take a breath and
ask yourself if what you’re about to say is worth it. You may realize that you have more to gain by
not winning (adding value)!
Do You Play Well With Others?

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
September 14, 2015
This is a great question. If you answer it honestly. Your answer could lead to your success or demise
as a leader. It could be the key factor in your personal andfamily relationships. So, let’s ask it again.
Do you play well with others?
Many of us may think “plays well with others” is a category for grading schoolchildren, not grown-
ups like us. We tell ourselves, “I’m a successful, confident adult. I shouldn’t have to constantly
monitor if I’m being nice ofif people like me.”
We may hold ourselves blameless for any interpersonal friction; it’s always someone else’s fault,
not ours.“The other guy needs to change. I shouldn’t have to. In fact, I don’t need to, it’s his fault!”
Or we’re so satisfied with how far our behavior has already taken us in life that we smugly reject
any reason to change. In other words, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
When my good friend Alan Mulally became CEO of Ford, he set to work to create an environment
where the executive team, notorious for not working together, could learn to play well with each
other. Through Alan’s leadership, the focus of the team and ultimately the focus of the entire
company became, “How can we help one another more?”
It worked. The company survived through incredibly difficult times, and returned to achieving great
successagain through working together. If Ford had been a schoolyard, and the executives school
children, they would have gotten the highest of marks in “playing well with others.
HOW WELL DOES YOUR TEAM PLAY TOGETHER?
You can answer this question with your team by trying this simple four-step process, which I call
“team
building without time wasting.” The steps are:
In a team meeting ask each team member to rate “How well are we doing?” vs “How well do we
needto be doing?” in terms of teamwork. Have each member do this on paper. Have one of the
members calculate the scores — without identifying anyone. One a 1-10 scale — with 10 being the
highest score — theaverage evaluation from over 1,000 teams is “We are a 5.8. We need to be an
8.7.”
Assuming there is a gap between “we are” and “we need to be,” ask each team member to list two
keybehaviors that, if each other individual team member improved, could help close the gap and
improve teamwork. Do not mention people — only behavior — such as listening better, clear goals,
etc. Then list the behaviors on a flip chart and have the team pick the one that they believe will have
the biggest impact.
Have each team member conduct a three-minute, one-on-one meeting, with each of the other team
members. (Do this while standing and rotate as members become available.) In these sessions each
person should ask, “Please suggest one or two positive changes I can make individually to help our
team work together more effectively.” Then have each person pick one behavior to focus on
improving.
Begin a regular monthly follow-up process in which each team member asks each other member
forsuggestions on how to continue their improvement based on their behavior the previous month.
The conversations should focus on the specific areas identified for improvement individually as well
as general suggestions for how to be better team members.
When asking for input the rules are that the person receiving the ideas cannot judge or critique the
ideas. He must just listen and say “thank you.” The person giving the ideas must focus on the future
— not the past.
This is a quick and easy process that helps teams improve and helps team members become better
teamplayers. Try it for yourself and see!
Making Destructive Comments

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
June 3, 2014
I’m a little skeptical of self-diagnosis. Most people tend to overestimate their strengths and
overrate their weaknesses. They might think that they are really bad at something at which
they’re really only mediocre or “kind of” bad. Where they see cancer, the doctor diagnoses a
muscle pull. My hope is that you are not too hard on yourself, but that you do change. If you
are guilty of Making Destructive Comments, however, this one you’ll want to stop
immediately.
Destructive comments are the cutting, sarcastic comments we let fly with or without intention.
They serve no other purpose than to put people down, hurt them, or assert ourselves as
“superior.” They are different from comments that add too much value. This type of
comment adds nothing but pain.
See if any of these ring a bell. “Nice tie” (smirk). “Good move,” (as someone stumbles on the
carpet). Those are the quick quips. There are also the extended critiques of your co-worker’s
past performance. Somethingthat everyone but you has forgotten. (“Do you remember the
time you totally missed that really importantdeadline and the whole company almost went
under?”)
The thing about Making Destructive Comments is that if you press someone to list the ones
they’ve made in the last 24 hours, they will draw a blank. Most of us make these cutting
remarks without thinking, so we don’tremember them. But the recipients of these remarks
remember. The feedback that I’ve collected says that “avoids destructive comments” is one of
the two items with the lowest correlation between how we see ourselves and how others see
us. In other words, we don’t think we make destructive comments, but the people who
know us disagree.
Destructive comments are an easy habit to fall into, especially among people who habitually
rely on candoras a management tool. The problem is that candor can become a weapon if
people permit themselves to issue destructive comments under the guise that “they are true.”
Before you make a destructive comment,ask yourself, not “Is it true?” but, “Is it worth it?”
We all spend a lot of time filtering our “truth-telling” throughout the day. Little white lies
abound like, “I like your haircut.” When what you really want to say is that it looks ridiculous!
We know the difference between honesty and full disclosure – this is a basic survival instinct!
We may think our boss is lame, but we are underno moral or ethical obligation to express
that to the boss, or to anyone else for that matter. Extend this survival instinct throughout
the organization, with your peers, managers, direct reports. You might even find it benefits
your personal relationships!
Here’s a simple test you can use to help you avoid destructive comments. Before speaking,
ask yourself:
Will this comment help our customers?
Will this comment help our company?
Will this comment help the person I’m talking to?
Will this comment help the person I’m talking about?
If the answer is no, the correct strategy is to say no!

Playing Favorites (BTW, Your Dog is a Suck Up)

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
May 20, 2014 by Marshall Goldsmith
There’s a reason I devote so much time and energy to identifying interpersonal challenges
in successful people. It’s because the higher up you go in the organization, the more your
problems are behavioral. You’resmart, you’re up-to-date, you know the technical aspects
of your job, but often you may lack some importantpeople skills and it’s hindering your
success.
I’ve reviewed hundreds of custom-designed leadership profiles. Typically, these

documents describe leadership behaviors the organization desires, and include such
important items as “helps people develop”,“values different opinion”, and “avoids playing
favorites”. I have never seen “effectively sucks up to management” on one profile. Then
why does so much sucking up go on?
The simple answer is: We can’t see in ourselves what we can see clearly in others. You’re
probably thinking, “It’s amazing how leaders send out subtle signals that encourage
subordinates not to critique and to exaggerate their praise of themselves and the
organization. But, of course, this doesn’t apply to me.You might be right: but how do you
know you’re not in denial?
Here’s the litmus test. I’ve done this test with thousands of leaders in groups worldwide
and it’s nothing if notilluminating. How many of you own a dog that you love? In the
groups big smiles cross the executives’ faces and they wave their hands in the air. They tell
me their dogs’ names, beaming with love. Then I ask them, “At home, who gets the most
attention when you get home? Is it (a) your husband, wife, or partner; (b) your kids;or (c)
your dog? More than 80 percent of the time, the winner is the dog.
I then ask the executives if they love their dogs more than their family members. The answer
is always a resounding no. My follow up question: “So why does the dog get most of your
attention?”
The replies are all the same: “The dog is always happy to see me.” “She never talks back.”
“He gives me unconditional love, no matter what I do.” In other words, the dog is a suck-
up.
If we aren’t careful we can wind up treating people at work like our dogs: rewarding those
who heap unthinking, unconditional admiration on us. What behavior do we get in return?
A whole lot of people whoknow how to suck up.
The problem with encouraging this behavior is twofold. 1) If everyone is sucking up to you,
who is doing thework? And 2) if there are people doing the work, you’re favoring the
wrong people! Leaders can stop encouraging this behavior by first admitting that we all
have the tendency to favor those who favor us. To combat this, we should rank our direct
reports into four categories:
How much do they like me?

How much are they like me?
What is their contribution to the company and its customers?
How much positive personal recognition do I give them?
What we’re looking for is whether the correlation is stronger between 1, 2, and 4 or 3 and
4. If we’re honest with ourselves, our recognition of people may be linked to how much
they seem to like us rather than how well they perform. This is the definition of playing
favorites. This quick self-analysis won’t solve the problem,but it does identify it. And this
is where change begins.
Leadership Is a Contact Sport

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
June 24, 2014
Leadership is not just for leaders anymore. Top companies are beginning to understand
that sustaining peakperformance requires a firm-wide commitment to developing leaders
that is tightly aligned to organizational objectives — a commitment much easier to
understand than to achieve. Organizations must find ways to cascade leadership from
senior management to men and women at all levels. As retired Harvard Business School
professor John P. Kotter eloquently noted in the previous issue of strategy+business, this
ultimately means we must “create 100 million new leaders” throughout our society. (See
“Leading Witnesses,” s+b, Summer 2004.)
Organizational experts Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard have defined leadership as
“working with and through others to achieve objectives.” Many companies are stepping
up to the challenge of leadership development and their results are quite tangible. In
Leading the Way: Three Truths from the Top Companies for Leaders (John Wiley & Sons,
2004), a study of the top 20 companies for leadership development, Marc Effron and
Robert Gandossy show that companies that excel at developing leaders tend to achieve
higher long-term profitability.
But it sometimes seems there are as many approaches to leadership development as there
are leadership developers. One increasingly popular tool for developing leaders is
executive coaching. Hay Group, a human resources consultancy, reported that half of 150
companies surveyed in 2002 said that they had increased their use of executive coaching,
and 16 percent reported using coaches for the first time.
Yet even “executive coaching” is a broad category. In reviewing a spate of books on

coaching last year, Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer identified at least three types of
coaching: behavioral change coaching, personal productivity coaching, and “energy
coaching.” (See “My Coach and I,” s+b, Summer 2003.) Our own upcoming book, The Art
and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets
(written with Phil Harkins, to be published by John Wiley & Sons in December 2004),
includes discussions about five types of leadership coaching: strategic, organizational
change/execution, leadership development, personal/life planning, and behavioral.
Given the increasingly competitive economic environment and the significant human and
financial capital expended on leadership development, it is not only fair but necessary for
those charged with running companies to ask, “Does any of this work? And if so, how?”
What type of developmental activities will have the greatest impact on increasing
executives’ effectiveness? How can leaders achieve positive long-term changes in
behavior? With admitted self-interest our work was described in the Crainer-Dearlove
article, and is frequently cited in reviews of and articles about leadership coaching we
wanted to see if there were consistent principles of success underlying these different
approaches to leadership development.
We reviewed leadership development programs in eight major corporations. Although all

eight companies had the same overarching goals to determine the desired behaviors for
leaders in their organizations and to help leaders increase their effectiveness by better
aligning actual practices with these desired behaviours they used different leadership
development methodologies: offsite training versus onsite coaching, short duration versus
long duration, internal coaches versus external coaches, and traditional classroom-based
training versus on-the-job interaction.
Rather than just evaluating “participant happiness” at the end of a program, each of the
eight companies measured the participants’ perceived increase in leadership effectiveness
over time. “Increased effectiveness” was not determined by the participants in the
development effort; it was assessed by preselected co-workers and stakeholders.
Time and again, one variable emerged as central to the achievement of positive long-term
change: the participants’ ongoing interaction and follow-up with colleagues. Leaders who
discussed their own improvement priorities with their co-workers, and then regularly
followed up with these co-workers, showed striking improvement. Leaders who did not
have ongoing dialogue with colleagues showed improvement that barelyexceeded random
chance. This was true whether the leader had an external coach, an internal coach, or no
coach. It was also true whether the participants went to a training program for five days,
went for one day, or did not attend a training program at all. The development of leaders,
we have concluded, is a contact sport.
The eight companies whose leadership development programs we studied were drawn
from our own roster of clients over the past 16 years. Although all are large corporations,
each company is in a different sector and each faces very different competitive pressures.
Each company customized its leadership development approach to its specific needs. Five
of the eight focused on the development of high-potential leaders, and between 73 and
354 participants were involved in their programs. The three other companies included
almost all managers (above mid-level), and involved between 1,528 and 6,748 managers.
The degree of international representation varied among organizations. At two companies,
almost all of the participants were American. Non-U.S. executives made up almost half of
the participants in one company’s program. The other five had varying levels of
international participation.
Some of the companies used traditional classroom-based training in their development

effort. In each of these companies, participants would attend an offsite program and
receive instruction on what the desired characteristics were for leaders in their
organizations, why these characteristics were important, and how participants might better
align their own leadership behavior with the desired model. Some companies, by contrast,
used continuing coaching, a methodology that did not necessarily involve offsite training,
but did rely on regular interaction with a personal coach. Some companies used both offsite
training and coaching.
Along with differences, there were commonalities among the programs. Each company
had spent extensive time reviewing the challenges it believed its leaders would uniquely
face as its business evolved. Each had developed a profile of desired leadership behaviors
that had been approved by upper management. After ensuring that these desired leadership
behaviors were aligned with the company vision and values, each company developed a
360-degree feedback process to help leaders understand the extent to which their own
behavior (as perceived by co-workers) matched the desired behavior for leaders in the
corporation.
All eight placed a set of expectations upon participants. The developing leaders were
expected to:
• Review their 360-degree feedback with an internal or external consultant.
• Identify one to three areas for improvement.
• Discuss their areas for improvement with key co-workers.
• Ask colleagues for suggestions on how to increase effectiveness in selected areas
for change.
• Follow up with co-workers to get ideas for improvement.
• Have co-worker respondents complete a confidential custom-designed “mini-
survey” three to 15 months after the start of their programs.
Each participant received mini-survey summary feedback from three to 16 co-workers.

Colleagues were asked to rate the participants’ increased effectiveness in the specific
selected behaviors as well as participants’ overall increase (or decrease) in leadership
effectiveness. Co-workers were also asked to measure the degree of follow-up they had
with the participant. In total, we collected more than 86,000 minisurvey responses for the
11,480 managers who participated in leadership development activities. This huge
database gave us the opportunity to explore the points of commonality and distinction
among these eight very different leadership development efforts.
Three of the organizations permitted their names to be used in articles or conference

presentations, enabling us to reference them in this report; the rest have requested
anonymity, although we are able to describe their sector and activities. Two of the
organizations also have allowed their results to be published elsewhere, without disclosure
of the organization’s name.
The companies whose programs we studied were:

An aerospace/defense contractor: 1,528 managers (ranging from mid-level to the CEO and
his team) received training for two and a half days. Each person reviewed his or her 360-
degree feedback in person with an outside consultant. All received at least three reminder
notes to help ensure that they would followup with their co-workers.
A financial-services organization: At GE Capital, 178 high-potential managers received
training that lasted five days. Each leader was assigned a personal human resources coach
from inside the company. Each coach had one-on-one sessions with his or her client on an
ongoing basis (either in person or by phone).
An electronics manufacturer: 258 upper-level managers received in-person coaching from
an external coach. They did not attend an offsite training program. They were then each
assigned an internal coach who had been trained in effective coaching skills. This coach
followed up with the managers every three to four months.
A diversified services company: 6,748 managers (ranging from mid-level to the CEO and
his team) received one-on-one feedback from an external coach during two training
programs, each two and a half days long, which were conducted 15 months apart.
Although there was no formal follow-up provided by the coach, participants knew they
were going to be measured on their follow-up efforts.
A media company: 354 managers (including the CEO and his team) received one-on-one
coaching and feedback during a one-day program. An external coach provided follow-up
coaching every three to four months.
A telecommunications company: 281 managers (including the CEO and his team) received
training for one day. Each leader was given an external coach, who had continuing one-on-
one sessions with his or her client.
A pharmaceutical/health-care organization: Johnson & Johnson involved 2,060 executives
and managers, starting with the CEO and his team, in one and a half days of leadership
training. Each person reviewed his or her initial 360-degree feedback with an outside
consultant (almost all by phone). Participants received at least three reminder notes to
help ensure that they would follow up with their co-workers.
A high-tech manufacturing company: At Agilent Technologies Inc., 73 high-potential
leaders received coaching for one year from an external coach, an effort unconnected to
any training program. Each coach had one-on-one sessions with his or her client on an
ongoing basis, either in person or by phone.
Personal Touch
The overarching conclusion distilled from the surveys in all the programs was that
personal contact mattered and mattered greatly.
Five of the corporations used the same measurement methodologies, while three used a
slightly different approach. All eight companies measured the frequency of managers’
discussions and follow-up with co- workers and compared this measure with the perceived
increase in leadership effectiveness, as judged by co-workers in the mini-surveys. The first
five firms — the aerospace/defense contractor, GE Capital, the electronics manufacturer,
the diversified services company, and the media company — used a seven-point scale,
from -3 to +3, to measure perceived change in leader-ship effectiveness, and a five-point
scale to plot the amount of follow-up, ranging from a low of “no follow-up” to a high of
“consistent or periodic follow-up.” They then compared the two sets of measurements by
plotting the effectiveness scores and the follow-up tallies on charts.
The remaining three firms used slightly different measurement criteria. The
telecommunications company used a “percentage improvement” scale to measure
perceived increases in leadership effectiveness, as judged by co-workers. It then compared
“percentage improvement” on leadership effectiveness with each level of follow-up.
Johnson & Johnson and Agilent measured leadership improvement using the same seven-
point scale employed by the first five companies, but they did not categorize the degree
of follow-up beyondthe simple “followed up” vs. “did not follow up.”
As noted earlier, follow-up here refers to efforts that leaders make to solicit continuing
and updated ideas for improvement from their co-workers. In the two companies that
compared “followed up” with “did not follow up,” participants who followed up were
viewed by their colleagues as far more effective than the leaders who did not. In the
companies that measured the degree of follow-up, leaders who had “frequent” or
“periodic/consistent” interaction with co-workers were reliably seen as having improved
their effectiveness far more than leaders who had “little” or “no” interaction with co-
workers.
Exhibits 1 to 5, on pages 76–77, show the results among the first five companies, which,
despite their different leadership development programs, used the same measurement
methodology. This apples-to-apples comparison shows strong correlations across all five
companies between the degree of follow-up and the perceived change in leadership
effectiveness.
In the exhibits, “perceived change” refers to the respondents’ perception of their co-
worker’s change in leadership effectiveness; for example, a rating of “+3” would indicate
that the co-worker was seen as becoming a much more effective leader; a rating of “0”
would indicate no change in leadership effectiveness.“Percent” refers to the percentage of
survey respondents grouped around a given rating; for example, in Exhibit 1, between 30
and 42 percent of respondents gave a “0” rating — that is, they saw no change — to
leaders who “did no follow-up.”
Why Didn’t You Get Better? You Didn’t Follow-up!

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
August 11, 2014
Clearly, affirmatively, I can tell you that you will not get better if you do not follow-up.
Once you’ve mastered the subtleties of asking, listening, thanking, apologizing, involving,
and initiating change in your behavior, you must follow-up relentlessly! If you don’t, all
your hard work is just a flash in the pan, a “program of the month”, and another reason
why people don’t trust that anything ever really changes.
I teach my clients to go back to all of their coworkers every month or two to ask them for
comments and suggestions. For instance, one of my clients who had a problem sharing and
including his peers in organizational happenings went to each colleague and said the
following, “Last month I told you that I would try to get better at being more inclusive. You
gave me some ideas and I would like to know if you think I haveeffectively put them into
practice.” That question forced his colleagues to think, once again, about his effortsto
change, to mentally gauge how he was progressing, and to keep focused on his continuous
improvement.
If you do this every month, your colleagues eventually begin to accept that you are getting
better, not because you say so, but because they see so and they are reminded that they are
seeing you change every time you ask them to look at you! When I tell you, “I’m getting
better,” I believe it. When I ask you, “Am I getting better?” and you say I am, then you believe
it.
Follow-up is the last step of the Leadership Is a Contact Sport behavioral change process.
You’ve walked through Ask, Listen, Think, Thank, Respond, Involve, Change – and now
it’s time to follow-up. This is the longest part of the process of changing for the better. It
can go on, and should go on, for 12 to 18 months. And, fittingly, with all this time spent
on this last step, you will find that it is the difference maker in this wholeprocess.
Follow-up is how you measure your progress.
Follow-up is how our efforts eventually get imprinted on our colleagues’ minds.
Follow-up is how we erase our coworkers’ skepticism that we can change.
Follow-up is how we acknowledge to ourselves and others that getting better is an ongoing
process, not atemporary conversion.
More than anything, follow-up makes us change. It gives us the momentum, even the
courage, to go beyondunderstanding what we need to do to change and actually doing what
we need to do to change, because in engaging in the follow-up process, we are changing!
Coaching for Behavioral Change

My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, long-term, measurable change in
behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. When the steps in the coaching process
described below are followed, leaders almost always positive behavioral change – not as judged
by themselves, but as judged by preselected, keystakeholders. This process has been used around
the world with great success – by both external coaches and internal coaches1.
Our “Pay for Results” Executive Coaching Process

Our coaching network (Stakeholder Centered Coaching) provides coaches for leaders from
around the world. All of the coaches in our network use the same proven process. At the
beginning of our coaching relationship, we get an agreement with our coaching clients
and their managers on two key variables: 1) what are the key behaviors that will make the
biggest positive change in increased leadership effectiveness and 2) who are the key
stakeholders that can determine (twelve to eighteen months later) if these changes have
occurred.
We then get paid only after our coaching clients have achieved positive change in key
leadership behaviors and become more effective leaders – as determined by their key
stakeholders.
I believe that many leadership coaches are paid for the wrong reasons. Their income is a
largely a function of“How much do my clients like me?” and “How much time did I spend
in coaching?” Neither of these is a good metric for achieving a positive, long-term change
in behavior.
In terms of liking the coach – I have never seen a study that showed that clients’ love of a
coach was highly correlated with their change in behavior. In fact, if coaches become too
concerned with being loved by theirclients – they may not provide honest feedback when
it is needed.
In terms of spending clients’ time – my personal coaching clients’ are all executives whose
decisions impact billions of dollars – their time is more valuable than mine. I try to spend
as little of their time as necessary toachieve the desired results. The last thing they need is
for me to waste their time!
Qualifying the Coaching Client:
Knowing When Behavioral Coaching Won’t Help

Since we use a “pay only for results” coaching process, we have had to learn to qualify our
coaching clients. This means that we only work with clients that we believe will greatly
benefit from our coaching process.
We do not work with leaders who are not really motivated to change. Have you ever tried
to change the behavior of a successful adult that had no interest in changing? How much
luck did you have? Probably none! We only work with executives who are willing to make
a sincere effort to change and who believe that this change will help them become better
leaders. Our most successful coaching clients are executives who are committed to being
great role models for leadership development and for living their company’s values.
I have personally worked with several of the world’s leading CEOs. One reason that they
are so effective in leading people is that they are always trying to improve themselves –
not just asking everyone else to improve. Our best coaching clients are dedicated to be
great role models in consistently working to improvethemselves.
Some large corporations “write people off”. Rather than just fire them, they engage in a
pseudo behavioral coaching process that is more “seek and destroy” than “help people get
better”. We only work with leaders that are seen as potentially having a great future in the
corporation. We only work with people who will be given a fair chance by their
management. We do not work with leaders who have been “written off” by senior
management.
There are several different types of coaching. We only do behavioral coaching for
successful executives – not strategic coaching, life planning, or organizational change. I
have the highest respect for the coaches that dothis kind of work. That is just not what our
coaches do. Therefore, we only focus on changing leadership behavior. If our clients have
other needs, we refer them to other coaches.
Finally, I would never choose to work with a client who has an integrity violation. We
believe that people with integrity violations should be fired, not coached.
When will our approach to behavioral coaching work? If the client’s issue is increasing
leadership effectiveness, the coaching clients are given a fair chance and they are
motivated to improve, the process described in this article will almost always work. If
these conditions do not exist, this process should not beused.
Involving Key Stakeholders

In my work as a behavioral coach, I have gone through three distinct phases.
In phase one – I believed that my clients would become better because of me. I thought
that the coach was the key variable in behavioral change. I was wrong. We have published
research on leadership development that involved input from over 86,000 respondents2.
In our research we have learned that the key variable for successful change in leadership
behavior is not the coach, teacher or advisor. The key variables that will determine long-
term progress are the leaders being coached and their co-workers.
I learned this lesson in a very humbling way. The client that I spent the most amount of
time with did notimprove and I did not get paid! This was a painful reminder to me that I
was not the key variable in my clients’ improvement.
The client that I spent the least amount of time with improved more than anyone I ever
coached – and he was great to start with! He was later recognized as the CEO of the Year
in the United States.
When I asked my ‘most improved’ client, what I could learn about coaching from him, he
taught me a great lesson. He told me that I needed to: 1) pick the right clients and 2) keep
the focus of my coaching on my clients and their teams (not my own ego and need to
prove how smart I was).
In phase two – I spent most of my time focusing on my coaching clients. I slowly learned
that a motivated,hard-working client was more important than a brilliant coach! I learned
that their ongoing efforts meant more than my clever ideas. My results improved!
In phase three (where I am now) – I spend most of my time not with my coaching client
but with the key stakeholders around my client. I focus on helping my clients learn from
everyone around them. By making this change, my clients’ results have improved even
more dramatically3.
How do I involve key stakeholders? I ask them to help the person that I am coaching in
four criticallyimportant ways:
Let go of the past. When we continually bring up the past, we demoralize the people who
are trying to change. Whatever happened in the past – happened in the past. It cannot be
changed. By focusing on a future that can improve (as opposed to a past that cannot
improve), the key stakeholders can help my clients achieve positive change. (We call this
process feed forward, instead of feedback4).
Be helpful and supportive, not cynical, sarcastic or judgmental. As part of our coaching
process, my clients involve key co-workers and ask them for help. If my clients reach out
to key stakeholders and feel
punished for trying to improve, they will generally quit trying. I don’t blame them! Why
should any of us workhard to build relationships with people who won’t give us a chance?
If my clients’ co-workers are helpful and supportive, my clients’ experience increased
motivation and are much more likely to improve.
Tell the truth. I do not want to work with a client, have him or her get a glowing report
from key stakeholders, and later hear that one of the stakeholders said, “He didn’t really
get better, we just said that”. This is not fair to my client, to the company or to me.
Pick something to improve yourself. My clients are very open with key stakeholders about
what they are going to change. As part of our process, our clients ask for ongoing
suggestions. I also ask the stakeholders to pick something to improve and to ask my client
for suggestions. This makes the entire process “two-way” instead of “one way”. It helps
the stakeholders act as “fellow travelers” who are trying to improve, not “judges” who are
pointing their fingers at my client. It also greatly expands the value gained by the
corporation in the entire process5. In one of my most successful case studies, I was asked
to coach one top executive – and about 200 people ended up improving.
Steps in the Leadership Coaching Process

The following steps describe the basics of our behavioral coaching process. Every coach
in our network has to agree to implement the following steps. If the coach will follow these
basic steps, our clients almost alwaysachieve positive change!
Involve the leaders being coached in determining the desired behavior in their leadership roles.
Leaders cannot be expected to change behavior if they don’t have a clear understanding of
what desired behavior looks like. The people that we coach (in agreement with their
managers, if they are not the CEO) work with usto determine desired leadership behavior.
Involve the leaders being coached in determining key stakeholders. Not only do clients need
to be clear on desired behaviors, they need to be clear (again in agreement with their
managers, if they are not the CEO)on key stakeholders. There are two major reasons why
people deny the validity of feedback – wrong items or wrong raters. By having our clients
and their managers agree on the desired behaviors and key stakeholders in advance, we
help ensure their “buy in” to the process.
Collect feedback. In my coaching practice, we personally interview all key stakeholders to
get confidential feedback for our clients. The people who I am coaching are all CEOs or
potential CEOs, and the company is making a real investment in their development. This
more involved level of feedback is justified. However, at lower levels in the organization
(that are more price sensitive), traditional 360o feedback can work very well. In either case,
feedback is critical. It is impossible to get evaluated on changed behavior if there is not
agreement on what behavior needs to be changed!
Reach agreement on key behaviors for change. As I have become more experienced, my
approach has become simpler and more focused. I generally recommend picking only 1-3
key areas for behavioral change with each client. This helps ensure maximum attention to
the most important behavior. My clients and their managers (unless my client is the CEO)
agree upon the desired behavior for change. This ensures that I won’tspend a year working
with my clients and have their managers determine that we have worked on changing the
wrong behavior!
Have the coaching clients respond to key stakeholders. The person being reviewed should talk
with each key stakeholder and collect additional “feed forward” suggestions on how to
improve on the key areas targeted for improvement. In responding, the person being
coached should keep the conversation positive, simple, and focused. When mistakes have
been made in the past, it is generally a good idea to apologize and ask for help in changing
in the future. I suggest that my clients listen to stakeholder suggestions and not judge the
suggestions.
Review what has been learned with clients and help them develop an action plan. As was stated
earlier, my clients have to agree to the basic steps in our process. On the other hand, outside
of the basic steps, all of the other ideas that I share with my clients are suggestions. I just
ask them to listen to my ideas in the same way they are listening to the ideas from their key
stakeholders. I then ask them to come back with a plan of what they want to do. These
plans need to come from them, not me. After reviewing their plans, I almost always
encourage them to live up to their own commitments. I am much more of a facilitator
than a judge. My job is to help great,highly motivated, executives get better at what they
believe is most important – not to tell them what to change.
Develop an ongoing follow-up process. Ongoing follow-up should be very efficient and
focused.
Questions like, “Based upon my behavior last month, what ideas do you have for me next
month?” can keepa focus on the future. Within six months conduct a two-to-six item mini-
survey with key stakeholders. They should be asked whether the person has become more
or less effective in the areas targeted for improvement.
Review results and start again. If the person being coached has taken the process seriously,
stakeholders almost invariably report improvement. We then build on that success by
repeating the process for the next 12 to 18 months. This type of follow-up will assure
continued progress on initial goals and uncover additional areas for improvement.
Stakeholders almost always appreciate follow-up. No one minds filling out a focused, two-
to-six-item questionnaire if they see positive results. The person being coached willbenefit
from ongoing, targeted steps to improve performance.
End the formal coaching process when results have been achieved. Our goal is not to create a
dependency relationship between coach and client. While I almost always keep in touch
with my coaching ‘graduates’ for the rest of their lives, we do not have an ongoing
business relationship.
The Value of Behavioral Coaching for Executives

While behavioral coaching is only one branch in the coaching field, it is the most widely
used type of coaching. Most requests for coaching involve behavioral change. While this
process can be very meaningfuland valuable for top executives, it can be just as useful for
high-potential future leaders. These are the people who have great careers in front of them.
Increasing effectiveness in leading people can have an even greater impact if it is a 20-
year process, instead of a one-year program.
People often ask, “Can executives really change their behavior?” The answer is definitely
yes. If they didn’t change, we would never get paid (and we almost always get paid). At
the top of major organizations even a small positive change in behavior can have a big
impact. From an organizational perspective, the fact that the executive is trying to change
leadership behavior (and is being a role model for personal development) may be even
more important than what the executive is trying to change. One key message that I have
given every CEO that I coach is “To help others develop – start with yourself.”
References
For a study on the effectiveness of this process with internal coaches in GE Financial
Services, see “Leveraging HR: How to Develop Leaders in ‘Real Time’, in Human Resources
in the 21st Century, M. Effron, R. Gandossy and M. Goldsmith, eds., Wiley, 2003.
“Leadership is a Contact Sport”, H. Morgan and M. Goldsmith in strategy+business, Fall
2004.
This process is explained in more detail in “Recruiting Supportive Coaches: A Key to
Achieving Positive Behavioral Change” in The Many Facets of Leadership, M. Goldsmith,
V. Govindarajan, B. Kaye and A. Vicere, eds., FT Prentice Hall, 2003.
“Try feed forward, instead of Feedback” originally published in Leader to Leader, Summer
2002.
For a great description of the impact of co-workers’ focusing on their own improvement,
read “Expanding the Value of Coaching: from the Leader to the Team to the
Organization” in The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching, H. Morgan, P. Harkins
and M. Goldsmith, eds., Wiley, 2005.
3 Questions for Building a Great Team!

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
September 22, 2014
Recently, I coached a team in a group session. The team members rated the team a 6.1 in
terms of working together. I asked each team member to reflect on a challenge that he/she
is currently having and share it with me and the group. There were about 10 people and 6
focused on changing what they could not change. It was an epidemic! The team prioritized
this behavior as the one to focus on in their team change efforts. Over the next six months,
the group took part in the Team Building without Time Wasting process and I amhappy to
report that it is now a highly functional team, with members rating the team an 8.6!
Following are the steps the team took to change this endemic challenge of focusing on
what they could notchange. Note step 7. All of the steps are critical in the process, and step
7 is the one that will take your teamto the next level – it is Follow-Up – and it will ensure
that the change sticks!
Ask all members of the team to confidentially record their individual answers to two
questions: (1) “On a 1to 10 scale (with 10 being ideal), how well are we doing in terms of
working together as a team?” and (2) “On a 1 to 10 scale, how well do we need to be doing
in terms of working together as a team?”
Have a team member calculate the results. Discuss the results with the team. If the team
members believe that the gap between current effectiveness and needed effectiveness
indicates the need for team building, proceed to the next step in the process.
Ask the team members, “If every team member could change two key behaviors that would
help us close the gap between where we are and where we want to be, which two behaviors
we all should try to change?”Have each team member record his or her selected behaviors
on flip charts.
Help team members prioritize all the behaviors on the charts (many will be the same or
similar) and (using consensus) determine the most important behavior to change (for all
team members).
Have each team member hold a one-on-one dialogue with all other team members. During
the dialogues each member will request that his or her colleague suggest two areas for
personal behavioral change (otherthan the one already agreed on above) that will help the
team close the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
Let each team member review his or her list of suggested behavioral changes and choose
the one that seems to be the most important. Have all team members then announce their
one key behavior for personalchange to the team.
Encourage all team members to ask for brief (five-minute), monthly three question
“suggestions for the future” from all other team members to help increase their
effectiveness in demonstrating 1) the one keybehavior common to all team members, 2)
the one key personal behavior generated from team member input, and 3) overall effective
behavior as a team member.
Conduct a mini-survey, follow-up process in approximately six months. From the mini-
survey each team member will receive confidential feedback from all other team members
on his or her perceived change in effectiveness. This survey will include the one common
behavioral item, the one personal behavioral item, and the overall team member item. A
final question can gauge the level of follow-up – so that team members can see the
connection between their level of follow-up and their increased effectiveness.
This process works because it is highly focused, includes disciplined feedback and follow-
up, doesn’t waste time, and causes participants to focus on self-improvement.
Let me close with a challenge to you (the reader) as a team leader. Try it! The “downside”
is very low. The process takes little time and the first mini-survey will quickly show
whether progress is being made. The “upside” can be very high. As effective teamwork
becomes more and more important, the brief amount of time that you invest in this process
may produce a great return for your team and an even greater return foryour organization.
Feed Forward
LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE
January 22, 2007
Giving and receiving feedback has long been considered an essential skill for leaders. People need
to know how they are doing, whether or not their performance meets expectations, and how to
improve.
Traditionally, this information has been communicated in the form of feedback from leaders, who
need feedback in the form of suggestions for improvement, innovative ideas for new products and
services, andinput on their leadership styles.
This information is commonly given in 360-degree feedback, but such feedback focuses on past
events – noton the infinite possibilities of the future. Feedback is limited and static, as opposed to
expansive and dynamic.
I have observed more than 5,000 leaders as they play two roles. In one, they are asked to provide
feed forward – to give someone else suggestions for the future and help as much as they can. In the
second role, they are asked to accept feed forward – to listen to suggestions for the future and learn
as much as theycan.
They are not allowed to give feedback about the past.
In this feed forward exercise, people are asked to:
Choose to change one behavior to make a positive difference in their lives.
Describe this behavior to others. Ask for two suggestions for achieving a positive change in the
behavior.
Listen to suggestions and take notes without commenting on them.
Thank others for their suggestions. Ask others what they would like to change.
Provide feed forward – two suggestions aimed at helping them change.
Say, “You are welcome.” when thanked for the suggestions.
Giving and receiving feed forward only takes about two minutes. When asked to describe this
experience, people use words like “great, energizing, useful, helpful, fun.” Few of us think of
feedback as fun!
10 Reasons to Try feed forward

People enjoy receiving feed forward for 10 good reasons:
We can change the future, not the past.
feed forward helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. By giving people
ideason how they can be even more successful, we increase their chances of success.
It is more productive to help people be right, than prove them wrong.
Negative feedback often becomes an exercise in proving others wrong. This tends to produce
defensivenesson the part of the receiver and discomfort on the part of the sender. Even constructive
feedback is often seen as negative. feed forward is positive. It focuses on solutions.
Successful people like getting ideas aimed at helping them achieve their goals.
They tend to resist negative judgment, accepting feedback that is consistent with the way they see
themselves and rejecting or denying other feedback. They respond to (and even enjoy) feed forward.
feed forward can come from anyone who knows the task, not just the person.
Almost anyone can give you ideas on how you can improve. They don’t have to know you. Feedback
requires knowing the person. feed forward just requires having helpful ideas.
People do not take feed forward as personally as feedback.
Constructive feedback is supposed to focus on the performance, not the person, and yet most
feedback istaken personally.
Feed forward assumes that people can make positive changes in the future, whereas
feedbacktends to reinforce stereotyping, self-fulfilling prophecies, and feelings of failure.
How many of us have been “helped” by a spouse, friend, or colleague who recites our “sins” and
shortcomings? Negative feedback reinforces the message, “This is just the way you are.”
Most of us hate getting negative feedback, and we don’t like to give it.
Most of us are not very good at giving or receiving negative feedback. Nor do we value the more
positive skills of “providing timely feedback” and “encouraging and accepting constructive
criticism.”
Feed forward can cover most of the same “material” as feedback, but in a more positive
manner.
Imagine that you just made a terrible presentation. Using the feed forward approach, your manager
helps you prepare for future presentations by giving you very specific suggestions in a positive way,
rather thanmake you “relive” this humiliating experience.
Feed forward tends to be more efficient and effective than feedback.

For example, in giving ideas to people, you might say, “Here are four ideas for the future. Please
accept themin the positive spirit that they are given. If you can only use two of the ideas, you are
still ahead. Just ignore what doesn’t make sense for you.” With this approach, no time is wasted on
judging the ideas or proving them wrong.
Feed forward can be used with managers, peers, and team members.
Rightly or wrongly, feedback is associated with judgment. This can lead to very negative outcomes.
feed forward does not imply superior judgment. Since it is more focused on being helpful, it is easier
to hear.Invite people to ask, “How can I better help our team in the future?” and listen to feed forward
from fellow team members.
So, in addition to giving feedback, start giving feed forward and make your life and workplace more
enjoyable. By using feed forward, you not only convey the right message, you also ensure that those
who receive it are receptive to its content, open to change, and focused on the promise of the future
rather than the mistakes of the past.
Let It Go
LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE
My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive change in behavior: for themselves,
their people,and their teams.
Downside of Self-Determination
Research shows that successful people have a strong need for self-determination. Simply put,
this means, “I am doing, what I am doing because I choose to, not “I am doing what I am
doing because I have to.” People who are doing what they choose to do are committed
professionals. They proactively apply their talents to make a greater contribution. People who
are doing what they have to do are compliant employees. They are putting in time for money.
The impact of self-determination on success does not necessarily relate to money. When you
were a student in high school and college, could you tell the difference between teachers who
were teaching their classes because they loved teaching and those who were teaching only
because they needed to collect a check at theend of the month?
Successful people are committed. Normally this sense of commitment leads to even more
success. Committed people have a drive that comes from the inside, not from the outside.
They don’t give up whentimes are tough. They try even harder.
Time to Change
While our personal commitment usually leads to more success, it can make it extremely
hard for us to change. The more committed we are to a strategy, the harder it is for us to realize
it is the wrong strategy. This is not a theory. This is a well-documented fact. Have you ever
heard the old saying, “Winners never quit!”Well, sometimes it is time to quit – time to resign,
time to leave, time to stop certain behaviors.
I have had the privilege of working with over 50 major CEOs. I have also have the
unfortunate experience ofworking with four CEOs who needed to leave their companies. In
all four cases I suggested, “Leave. Leave now. It is over. Don’t humiliate yourself and the
company. Leave with dignity.” I failed in all four cases. All four were forced to leave. Two
ended up being featured in national magazines, embarrassing themselves and their
companies.
It is hard to make successful, highly committed people change what they don’t choose to
change. Have youever tried to change the behavior of a successful professional or leader
who had absolutely no interest in changing? Have you ever tried to change the behavior of
any adult who had absolutely no interest in changing? How much luck did you have in these
“religious conversion” activities?
Have you ever tried to change the behavior of a spouse, partner or significant other who had
no interest inchanging? How much luck did you have there?
I have asked these questions to thousands of people. Their answers are usually the same –
lots of wasted time and effort and almost no results. It wasn’t worth it!
My mother was a fantastic first grade school teacher. In her mind, the entire world was
populated by first-graders. I was always in the first grade. My dad was in the first grade. All
of our relatives were in the first grade. Dad’s name was Bill. Mom would get frustrated with
him and start yelling, “Bill! Bill!” When I was ateenager, we got a talking bird. After a while
the bird started chirping, “Bill! Bill!”
One day, when Dad was 80 years old, Mom was still correcting his grammar. He looked at
her lovingly,smiled, and said in his shaky voice, “Honey, I’m 80 years old. Let it go!”
Stop Wasting Time
How much of our lives have been wasted in trying to change the behavior of people who
have no interest inchanging? What is our return on this investment?
Think of it this way: The time we waste on the people who don’t care is time that is stolen
from the people who do care. My guess is that you have little time to waste. You are as busy
today as you have ever been in your life. So, only invest your coaching time where you are
going to get a return on your investment. Don’t waste your time on a road to nowhere.
After a few days (or maybe even a few minutes) you can tell if the person whom you are
trying to coach is willing to try. If they are willing to try, do whatever you can to help them. If
they are not willing to try, either“live with it” (let it go) or find someone else to do the job (let
him or her go).
In my work as an executive coach, I finally decided to only work with people who care and
who are willing totry. You should do the same thing.
I am a Buddhist. Along with becoming more successful, I would like you to have a happier
life. If you learn nothing from me but this tiny lesson – to work only with people who care
and who are willing to try – you willnot only become more effective in your work, you will
have a happier life. If they don’t care – don’t waste your time. Either let “it” go or let him or
her go.
Marshall Goldsmith: Triggers, Behaviours and Discipline

ICAS
September 7, 2016
By Alex Burden, Professional Development Editor
Why is it difficult to change behaviour?

How to lead by example
Quick exercises as recommended by Marshall
What makes a great leader? Is it how they think? It is how they act? Alex Burden speaks to
leadership expert,Marshall Goldsmith, about triggers, discipline and how to change for the better.
After two minutes of chatting for the interview, it becomes clear as to why this affable and upbeat
gentleman has accrued numerous plaudits and testimonials for his ability to engage and coach
leaders.
Marshall is considered to be the number one thinker on leadership issues, not to mention writing
numberone bestsellers for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
The 12th president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, remarked: “Marshall’s coaching invites
leaders to focus relentlessly on their behaviour. The leader’s behaviour, as well as the team’s
behaviour, become the basis for great results and continuous improvement. This will be key to
success for the connected, global, knowledge-driven companies of the future.”
Marshall’s most recent publication, ‘Triggers: Sparking positive change and making it last’, outlines
practicaltools on how to become the person you want to be. It would be easy to cast this as just
another self-help book, however, there is a reason that his advice is popular with the CEOs of global
companies – it works.
Aside from being named the top executive coach by Inc. Magazine (pictured speaking at their Inc.
5000 business leaders’ conference, above), the world’s most influential leadership thinker by
Thinkers50, andreceiving a lifetime achievement award for management education, Marshall has
led an inspiring life.
Originally from the south-eastern state of Kentucky, he became interested in leadership concepts
and the associated behaviors while completing his PhD in Organizational Behaviour; which
Marshall added to his undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics, and an MBA.
He’s also travelled to 96 countries to deliver talks, teach classes and coach top executives, and that’s
inbetween writing and editing 35 books, including three New York Times’ bestsellers.
Marshall has written extensively on leadership concepts, self-improvement and dealing with
associated behaviors, and firmly believes that everyone has the powers to become the person they
desire to be – ifthey are willing to apply discipline.
“I’ve been the coach of the CEO of Ford, Pfizer, Glaxo, the president of the World Bank, the Mayo
Clinic, Walmart; all kinds of fascinating people, and coaching is where I learn everything.
“My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive and long-term change in behaviour.
“I interview everyone around the people I coach, and then I develop a profile.
“We reach an agreement as to what are the most important behaviors for them to become more
effectiveas a leader and then I measure it get better.
“I don’t get paid if they don’t get better. It’s not judged by me or my client; it’s judged by everyone
around myclient.”
This approach means that there is no room for an individual to simply state an improvement; only
their colleagues can determine if a positive change has been effected. Why doesn’t behavioral
change alwayswork, or stay ‘changed’?
“If you’re the CEO of the company I’m assuming you want everyone else to try to improve; well,
the best thing you can do is let them watch you try to improve.” Marshall Goldsmith
“Well, it’s very hard to change behaviour. One thing I teach in the book ‘Triggers’, is something
called the dailyquestion process. It takes three to four minutes a day, it costs nothing and it will help
you get better at almost anything.
“People are sceptical. They think three minutes a day sounds too good to be true. Half the people
that startdoing this quit within two weeks, and they do not quit because it doesn’t work; they quit
because it does work.
“Any human or animal will replicate behaviour that is followed by positive reinforcement. The
more successful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get, and the more we fall into the
trap of thinking‘I behave this way and I’m successful, therefore I’m successful because I behave this
way’.
“Everyone I work with is successful, and they’re successful because they do many things right, in
spite of doing some things that are wrong. And I’ve never met anyone so wonderful that they have
nothing on their‘in spite of’ list.”
Marshall asserts why it is important for companies to commit to behavioral change in leadership:
“Number one, for you to become a more effective leader, and number two, it’s important to be a
role model. If you’re the CEO of the company I’m assuming you want everyone else to try to
improve; well, the best thing you cando is let them watch you try to improve.”
What Is the Secret to Employee Engagement?

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
April 6, 2014
This radical new approach to employee engagement might just be the “other half of the
equation”, the missing piece, the thing that we’ve been overlooking that could change the
business landscapefor good!
In my new book Triggers, I propose a radical new approach to employee engagement. To me, this
new approach is the “other half of the equation”, the missing piece, the thing that we’ve been
overlooking that could change the business landscape for good!
What is this radical new concept? It’s that the key variable in employee engagement is the individual,
the employee, not the program. Although it may sound obvious, this idea is not taught or acted upon.
Instead,companies spend billions of dollars every year trying to get employees and leaders to believe
that the solution to employee engagement problems is “out there” not “in us”. For example:
Historically, almost all of the evaluations of leadership development programs have focused on
participants grading the popularity of the speakers. The goal of the program developers is to develop
popular programs. Who learns to take responsibility? Who is really being trained? The speaker! The
speakeris reinforced for being a popular presenter. The speaker almost never has any responsibility
for the actual development of the leaders. The leaders may or may not take responsibility for their
own development. Many take no responsibility for implementing what they learn in programs and,
not surprisingly, do not become more effective.
Historically, almost all of the evaluations of executive coaching is on the popularity of the coach.
Companies want to hire coaches who are popular with executives. Who learns to take responsibility?
Who isreally being trained? The executive coach is reinforced for being popular. The coaching
clients may or may not take responsibility for changing their own behavior. Many take no
responsibility for implementing suggestions from their coach and, not surprisingly, do not become
better leaders.
Historically, almost all of the evaluation on employee engagement has focused on the company.
These are important things like delivering fair pay and benefits, providing tools and resources,
creating a safeworkplace environment, and so on. But who is learning to take responsibility? Who
is being trained? The company learns to roll out popular employee engagement programs; however,
the employees may or may not take responsibility for engaging themselves. Many take no
responsibility for engaging themselves and, not surprisingly, do not become more engaged though
they do have good benefits.
I am not suggesting that all development and engagement programs are helpful – or that if their
ideas areimplemented they will work. I am merely pointing out that ideas which are not implemented
definitely will not work!
I want you to achieve positive, lasting change, and I want you to have a better life. And while some
of your lifeis going to be impacted by your environment, by a program, coach, or company – a lot is
going to be up to you! The fact is that while you can’t make yourself taller, you can make yourself
more engaged. And maybeyou can’t change your company, boss, or employee, but you can change
your reaction to them.
Your success in becoming engaged, being happy, finding meaning, and leading people will largely
come frominside you – not from some teacher, coach, or program. It is not just what you learn, but
how you (and if you)use it that will make the difference.
The Secret to Becoming the Person You Want to Be

MG THINKERS 50 BLOG
February 2, 2015
For many of us, change is impossible because we are so optimistic (and delusional) that we
try to changeeverything at once. We quickly overwhelm ourselves with becoming the “new
Me”, and when it doesn’t happen as quickly as we’d like, people don’t notice that we’ve made
a change, or some obstacle presents itself, we give up.
Discouraged by our failure, overwhelmed and disheartened, it’s hard to commit to change
again. So, we become geniuses at coming up with reasons to avoid change. We make
excuses. We rationalize. We harborbeliefs that trigger all manner of denial and resistance—
and we end up changing nothing. Ever. We fail tobecome the person we want to be.
So, seeing our frailties in the face of behavioral change what do we do?
THE WHEEL OF CHANGE

For many years now, I’ve been using “The Wheel of Change” to help clients decide what to
change and where to put their efforts. I’ve taken teams, organizations, friends, and peers
through this process, and I’ve even use it myself. It is one of the most helpful tools for
behavioral change that I’ve ever found.
The Wheel of Change illustrates the interchange of two dimensions that we need to sort out
before we canbecome the person we want to be.
The positive to negative axis tracks the elements that either help us or hold us back. The
change to keep axistracks the elements that we determine to change or keep in the future.
Thus, in pursuing any behavioral change we have four options: change or keep the positive
elements, change or keep the negative.
Here’s a brief description of each of these options.
Creating represents the positive elements that we want to create in our future. Creating is the
glamorousposter child of behavioral change. When we imagine ourselves behaving better, we
think of it as an exciting process of self-invention. We’re creating a “new me.” It’s appealing
and seductive. We can be anyone we choose to be. The challenge is to do it by choice, not as
a bystander. Are we creating ourselves, or wasting the opportunity and being created by
external forces instead?
Preserving represents the positive elements that we want to keep in the future. Preserving
sounds passiveand mundane, but it’s a real choice. It requires soul-searching to figure out
what serves us well, and discipline to refrain from abandoning it for something new and
shiny and not necessarily better. We don’t practice preserving enough.
Eliminating represents the negative elements that we want to eliminate in the future.
Eliminating is our most liberating, therapeutic action—but we make it reluctantly. Like
cleaning out an attic or garage, we never know if we’ll regret jettisoning a part of us. Maybe
we’ll need it in the future. Maybe it’s the secret of our success. Maybe we like it too much.
Accepting represents the negative elements that we need to accept in the future. Most of us
tend to commit to the other three four elements in the wheel of change with greater
enthusiasm—creating is innovating and exciting, preserving makes sense as we focus on
not losing sight of the good things about ourselves, eliminating appeals to the “do-or-die”
element of our natures as we commit to stop doing thingsthat no longer serve us, but accepting
is a more difficult pill to swallow. Acceptance is an odd player in the process of change—it
feels like admitting defeat, it’s equated by many to acquiescence. Acceptance is incredibly
valuable when we are powerless to make a difference. Yet our ineffectuality is precisely the
condition that we are most loath to accept. This truth triggers our finest moments of
counterproductive behavior.
These are the choices. Some are more dynamic, glamorous, and fun than others, but they’re
equal in importance. And three of them are more labor-intensive than we imagine.
And, that’s the simple beauty of the wheel. When we bluntly challenge ourselves to figure out
what we canchange and what we can’t, what to lose and what to keep, we often surprise
ourselves with the bold simplicity of our answers and can thus take significant, real steps
towards becoming the person we really want to be.
The Best Coaching You Will Ever Get

BUSINESSWEEK
July 24, 2007
Imagine yourself at 95, knowing what was important and what wasn’t. Take that knowledge
to heart now,both for your career and for your personal life.
You are now about to receive the best coaching advice that you will ever get in this – or
perhaps any other –lifetime! You are about to receive advice from a very wise old person.
Listen very carefully to what this wise old person says.
First, take a deep breath. Take a deeper breath. Now, imagine that you are 95 years old and
you are just about to die. Here comes your last breath. But before you take your last breath,
you are being given a wonderful, beautiful gift: the ability to travel back in time and talk
with the person who is reading this column. The 95-year-old you has been given the chance
to help the you of today to have a great career and,much more important, to have a great
life.
Figure Out What Counts
The 95-year-old you knows what was really important and what wasn’t; what really
mattered and what didn’t;what really counted and what didn’t count at all. What advice
does the wise “old you” have for the you reading this column? Take your time. Jot down
the answers on two levels: personal advice and professional advice. And once you have
written down these words, take them to heart.
In the world of performance appraisals, this may well be the one that matters most. At the
end of life, if theold you thinks that you did the right thing, you probably did. If the old you
thinks that you screwed up, you probably did. At the end of life, you don’t have to impress
anyone else – just that person you see in the mirror.
A friend of mine actually had the opportunity to talk with old people who were facing death
and to ask themwhat advice they would have had for themselves. Their answers were filled
with wisdom. One recurring theme was to take the time to reflect on life and find happiness
and meaning now. A frequent comment from old people runs along the lines of: “I got so
wrapped up in looking at what I didn’t have that I missedwhat I did have. I had almost
everything. I wish I had taken more time to appreciate it.”
Look to the Present

The great Western disease of “I will be happy when …” is sweeping the world. You know
the symptoms. Youstart thinking: I will be happy when I get that … that promotion … that
status … that money. The only way tocure the disease is to find happiness and meaning now.
A second theme from old folks was friends and family. You may work for a wonderful
company and believe that your contribution is very important. But when you are 95 and
you look around your death bed, very few of your fellow employees will be waving
goodbye! Your friends and family will probably be the only people who care.
Don’t get so lost in pleasing the people who don’t care that you neglect the people who do.
Give It a Try!
Another recurring theme was to follow your dreams. Older people who tried to achieve
their dreams werehappier with their lives. None of us will ever achieve all of our dreams.
If we do, we will just make up newones! If we go for it, we can at least say at the end, “I
tried!” instead of, “Why didn’t I at least try?”
In conducting research for one of my books, my co-author and I interviewed more than 200
high-potential leaders from around the world. A key question that we asked was: “If you
stay in this company, why are yougoing to stay?”
The top three answers:

“I am finding meaning and happiness now. The work is exciting, and I love what I am
doing.”
“I like the people here. They are my friends. This feels like a team – like a family. I might
make more money if I left, but I don’t want to leave the people here.”
“I can follow my dreams. This organization is giving me the chance to grow and do what I
really want to do in life.”
When my friend asked people who were on their death beds what really mattered in life,
and when I askedyoung, high-potential leaders what really mattered at work, we heard about
the same thing.
If you want to make a new beginning in life – look ahead to the end. Then decide what to
do.
Questions That Make A Difference: The Daily Question Process

I would like to share a process that I use almost every day. It is incredibly practical and efficient! I
find that itdoes a wonderful job of keeping what is most important to me ‘in my head’. I am amazed
at how well it works!
Every day I challenge myself by answering 32 questions that represent behavior that I know is
important, butis often easy to neglect. There is nothing magical about ‘32’. Just use the number that
works for you.
Each question is put on an Excel spreadsheet and is answered with a ‘yes’ (use a 1 on the spreadsheet)
and ‘no’ (use a 0) or a number. This exercise moves very quickly!
In my case, I pay a person to call me every day. She just listens to me read my questions and provide
my answer.
One person asked me, “Why do pay someone to call you every day, just to listen to you read
questions that you wrote and provide answers that you wrote. Don’t you know the theory about how
to change behavior?”
I replied, “I wrote the theory. That’s why I pay someone to call me. I know how difficult this is to
do one my own.”
By way of example, I will share some of the questions that I use for myself. Please remember my
questionsreflect my values, and might not work for you.
I now begin with six ‘active questions’ that have been proven (in my research involving over 2,500
people) tolead to higher satisfaction with life. You will note that each question begins with, “Did I do
my best to…”
Did I do my best to…:
Set clear goals?
Make progress toward goal achievement?
Be happy?
Find meaning?
Build positive relationships?
Be fully engaged?
The good thing about beginning these questions with “Did I do my best to…” is that it is almost
impossible to blame someone else for my failure. No one can be responsible for “Did I do my best
to…” but me!
In terms of the happiness question, my philosophy of life is simple: Be happy now. I have a great
life— wonderful wife and kids, good health, don’t have to work, love my job and don’t have a boss.
If I weren’thappy today, someone screwed up—that would be me!
In spite of all my blessings, I can still sometimes get caught up in day-to-day stress, forget how lucky
I am andact like an idiot. It helps to get a daily reminder of the importance of happiness and gratitude.
Another question that I ask myself is, “How many minutes did you spend writing?” This is harder
for me. I am man extrovert who loves teaching, coaching and just being with people. It is sometimes
hard for me to sit by myself and write.
Some of my questions are about health, such as “How many sit-ups did you do?” (This works. Today
I did 120 sit-ups at once. Not bad for a 66-year-old guy!)
Disciplined follow-up is the key to the success of my teaching and coaching. One question is “With
how many clients are you current on your follow-up?”
My relationship questions include, “Did you say or do something nice for your wife? Your son?
Your daughter?” I am certainly not a perfect husband or dad, but this process helps me get better.
Why does this process work so well?
For one, it forces us to confront how we actually live our values every day. We either believe that
something matters or we don’t. If we believe it, we can put it on the list and do it! If we really don’t
want to do it, we canface reality and quit kidding ourselves.
Imagine a person was going to call you every day and listen to you answer questions about your
life. What questions would you want to ask yourself, every day? In the past several months, I have
had more than 100,000 participants in my training programs write their own questions. The results
are very revealing andsometimes even profound.
Try it out. Write the questions that you should ask yourself every day. Even the process of writing
questions will help you better understand your own values and how you live or don’t live them on a
daily basis. If you really have courage, have someone listen to your answers every day. You might
be as amazed at the results as I have been!
SCL Chapter 17 – Expanding the Value of CoachingMarshall Goldsmith
This real-life case study shows how an executive can expand a simple coaching assignment to
benefit his team and the entire company. I hope the article also reinforces my observation that
the most important factor in executive coaching is not the coach. The importance of the coach
pales in comparison to theimportance of the person being coached. This case study sharesthe
essence of my work in coaching Alan Mulally, who, as we discussed earlier, is widely
considered to be one of, if not the, greatest corporate leaders in this century.
When we first met, Alan was President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Commercial
Aircraft. In his storied career at Boeing, Alan had been involved in the design and delivery of
every major aircraft. Boeing Commercial Aircraft was a key division of Boeing Company and
employed, at the time, over 40,000 people. The Boeing Company is one of the largest
companies in the world and employed, at the time, over 100,000 people.
I had the opportunity to work with Alan as an executive coach for over a year. Although I am
not sure how much Alan learned from me during this period, I learned a tremendous amount
from him and from his team! I hope that the great work done by Alan and his team can give
you a ideas that you can use, either as a coach or as a person being coached.
This real-life case study shows how an executive can expand a simple coaching assignment to
benefit his team and the entire company.
Getting Started
As we have discussed throughout the book, my coaching process is somewhat unusual. My

mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive change in behavior: for themselves, their
people and their teams. I work with my clients and their managers to determine: 1) who are my
client's key stakeholders and 2) what are the key behaviors that my client wants to change.
The company pays me only after my client has achieved a positive change in key behaviors as
determined by key stakeholders.
The project began when I met with Phil Condit, the CEO ofthe Boeing Company. Phil was
clearly a "fan" of Alan’s. He letme know that Alan was a fantastic leader who had produced
consistent results. He felt that the larger Boeing Company would benefit if Alan played an even
greater role in reaching out across the company and building relationships with his colleagues
in other divisions. Boeing, like many of my clients today, was striving to increase synergy
across divisions and build more teamwork across the company.
When I first met Alan, I was amazed with his enthusiasm and love for his job. He was clearly
in a place where he wanted to be. Alan was, justifiably, very proud of the great airplanes that
Boeing produced and proud of the people who worked with him. Over the years, I have worked
with over 150 major CEOs.I have met a lot of committed leaders. Alan was one of the most
committed leaders I have ever met.
Alan liked the design of our coaching process. He saw it for exactly what it was, an excellent
project management designed aimed at helping people. As a top engineer, he grasped the
concepts immediately. Alan developed a list of key stakeholders and called Phil to validate
his list. He decided to work with me. (This turned out to be one of the luckiest moments in my
career.)
As we began, he assured me that this project was going to be a big success. After about one
hour of my explaining how the Stakeholder Centered Coaching process worked, Alan just
smiled and said, “Marshall, I was responsible for building the Boeing 777 Aircraft. That was
really complicated! This is pretty simple. I think that I can handle this!”
Collecting Information
I conducted one-on-one confidential interviews with each of Alan’s preselected stakeholders.

Both colleagues and direct reports agreed that Alan was brilliant, dedicated, hardworking, high
in integrity, great at achieving results, well organized and an amazing leader of people.
Alan’s peers agreed that the company would benefit if he expanded his role, reached out to
them and formed cross-company partnerships designed to benefit Boeing. His peers
acknowledged his fantastic results in leading Boeing Commercial Aircraft and understood why
the entire company could benefit from his expanded partnering.
Alan’s direct reports agreed that Alan, his team and the company would benefit if the
Commercial Aircraft team played a larger role in reaching out across the company. They also
wanted Alan to focus on making sure that everyone felt included. A couple mentioned that
Alan was so focused on achieving his mission that he could (unintentionally) leave out
people or ideas that were not on his "radar screen".
After I interviewed all of Alan’s stakeholders, the interview data was collected and summarized
by topic, so that no individual could be identified. After reviewing the summary report of the
interviews with Alan, he agreed that he wanted to work on "reaching out across the company
and building partnerships with colleagues" as his personal goals. He also expanded the goal to
include his entire team.
Alan also decided to work on "ensuring involvement and inclusion" with his direct reports.
Alan checked in with Phil and both agreed that these were worthwhile goals.
Involving Team Members
Our research on behavior change is clear. If leaders get feedback, follow-up and involve their
co-workers in the changeprocess, they get better. If they don't follow-up and involve their co-
workers, they usually are not seen as improving.
As part of the coaching process, Alan religiously the had one-on-one discussions with each of
his colleagues and direct reports about what he had learned in his initial feedback (aswe
described in previous chapters). He thanked them for their input, expressed gratitude for their
involvement and positive comments, openly discussed what he wanted to change and asked
them for their ideas on how he could do an even better job.
After the initial discussions with his direct reports, Alan madea minor modification in one
of his goals. He decided that his direct reports wanted him to do a great job of "inclusion and
validation". Boeing Commercial Aircraft was going through very turbulent times. Several of
Alan’s team members wanted to make sure that he was "checking in" with them and validating
that they were headed in the right direction during these changing times.
While I always recommend that my coaching clients follow-up with their key stakeholders to
get ongoing ideas for improvement, Alan came up with a much better idea. He got his entire
team involved! Not only did Alan pick key colleaguesto connect with on a regular basis, so
did everyone on this team. This expanded the benefit "reaching out" far beyond anything that
Alan could do by himself. In fact Alan’s team established a matrix with ongoing process
checks to ensure that everyone was "sticking with the plan". All members of Alan’s team talked
about whom they were contacting and whatthey were learning on a regular basis. They shared
information with each other to help improve cross-functional teamwork, synergy and
cooperation.
In the area of ensuring inclusion and validation with direct reports, Alan developed an amazing
discipline. He would consistently ask, "Are the any more ideas that we need to include?" and
"Are there any more people that we need to include?" at the end of each major topic change or
meeting. This gave everyone a chance to reflect and made sure that everyone had the
opportunity to make a contribution.
Often in the meetings of high-level executive teams, there is an "outer ring" of people who may
attend meetings. These are people who may report to team members and may be providing
information on key topics that are going to be discussed. Not only did Alan reach out to make
sure that his team members were included, he also reached out to ensure that everyone in the
room was invited to participate.
Over the course of the year, I had follow-up discussions with Alan's direct reports. Not only
did Alan pick an area for personal improvement, each one of his direct reports did as well. This
way the process of change not only benefited Alan; it benefited everyone.
Near the end of our time together, a couple of his direct reportsshowed great maturity by telling
Alan, "When we started on this process, I was a little critical of you for not being inclusive.In
the last few months, you have been doing everything that you can do to include people. You
have asked me for my input on a regular basis. I have to admit something. You weren't the
problem in the first place. Sometimes I just wasn't assertive enough to say what I was thinking.
It was easier for me to blame you than to take responsibility myself."
A Year Later
At the end of the coaching assignment, I had the opportunity tointerview each of Alan's 15
direct reports and his 10 colleaguesfrom across the company. They were asked to rate his
increased effectiveness on each item on a "-5" to "+5" scale (with "0" indicating "no change").
Not surprisingly, his improvement scores were outstanding. 40% of all numerical responses
were a "+5" and over 85% were a "+3" or above. Noindividual had a negative score on any
item. I have seen hundreds of reports like this. These scores were ‘off the charts’in terms of
being positive.
In "reaching out across the company and building partnerships" both his direct reports and
colleagues were extremely satisfied with his progress. They commented on his ongoing
dedication to being a great team player. They noticed how he had "gone out of his way" in
meetings, phone calls and e-mails to be a good partner.
In "ensuring that his team does a great job of reaching out andbuilding partnerships", his scores
were equally positive. Both groups commented on the ongoing process that he put in place with
his team. In fact, some of his direct reports commented that their colleagues across the company
had also started becoming better team players. (It is much easier to be helpful and supportive
to someone else, if they are trying to be helpful and supportive to you!)
In "ensuring validation and inclusion" his direct report scores were not just positive; they were
amazing! His fifteen direct reports had over 100 positive comments and nothing negative to
say. They almost all talked about the value of his asking for input on an ongoing basis and
including everyone who was involved in the decision.
More than almost any company in the world, Boeing’s businesswas dramatically impacted by
September 11 and its aftermath.This was an extremely hard year for Alan, his team and his
company. Many of his team members noted how easy it would have been for Alan to "lose it"
and not reach out to others during this tough time. He had every "excuse" not to put in thetime.
They were amazed at his ability to involve, inspire and motivate people when times were so
tough. Some of the writtencomments were more than positive, they were moving.
Learning Points for Coaching
Alan Mulally has taught me many wonderful lessons. One of most important lessons (that we
have discussed earlier) is that by working with great people, I can see great results. I can also
learn a lot about leadership! My old mentor, Dr. Paul Hersey, taught me a lesson that Alan
Mulally validated. Paul said, “The biggest room for growth is with people who are already
great! They are ones with incredible potential to do even more.”
During our time together at Boeing, Alan had greater external challenges and problems than
almost any of the executives thatI have coached. In spite of this, he achieved outstanding results
in building relationships with his colleagues and being inclusive with his team. He didn't get
better because I did anything special. In fact, I have put in much more time with people who
have achieved much less. He reinforced an important lesson for me (as a coach) - only work
with people who care!
If you are ever the person who is being coached, remember Alan’s great case study. Never put
the responsibility for your increased effectiveness on the coach. It is your life. Like a personal
trainer, the coach can help you get in shape. You are the one that has to do the work.
Not only was Alan a model of ongoing dedication and commitment, so was his team. Every
team member had a positive, "can do" attitude toward improving teamwork acrossBoeing.
Alan's positive results were not just a reflection of his great work; they were a reflection of his
team's great work.
True long-term change requires discipline over time and effective process management.
One of the great false assumptions in leadership development is, "if they understand, they will
do". If this were true, everyone who understood the importance of going on a healthydiet and
exercising would be in shape. Every executive that I meet is smart. In terms of behavior, they
all understand what they should do. Alan did it! He had the courage to get honest feedback, the
humility to reach out and ask for help and the discipline to do the hard work required to make
it happen!
Alan established an ongoing process and discipline and "stuck with it". He managed a process.
He made sure the follow-up discussions were scheduled. He had the discipline to ask, "Are
there any people or ideas that we need to include?" over and over again. Alan worked with
Carrie, a great executive assistant, who helped keep him and his team on track. He was smart
enough to get over any ego and to encourage his executive assistant to manage the process.
By involving team members and key stakeholders, the value of the coaching process can be
increased exponentially.
Not only did Alan get better, everyone around Alan got better! His entire team was involved
in the our coaching process. Everyone on his team reached out across the company to build
partnerships and increase synergy. Everyone on his team picked personal "areas for
improvement" and focused on getting better. Many of the members of Alan’s team later began
to implement the same process with their own teams. In some cases, people in our divisions
across the company began reaching out to Alan's team in a much more collaborative way.
Alan was given a simple challenge to change his own behavior and to increase his positive
personal impact on Boeing. Through his effort at personal improvement and then his inclusion
of his team, Alan ended up benefiting hundreds of people across Boeing.
After our time together, Alan Mulally, went on to lead one of the greatest turnarounds in US
history at Boeing Commercial Aircraft. When he called to leave Boeing, and serve as the CEO
of Ford, he led an even greater turnaround. In future chapters, we will share a few highlights
of what he did at Ford and show why his ‘leader as facilitator’ model is so well suited for the
leader of the future.
BBRC
What Got You Here

Won’t Get You There:
Helping Successful Leaders
Get Even Better
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com
www.MarshallGoldsmith.com
Goals
• Learn classic challenges that come with success in
leadership how to use ‘to stop’ in coaching.
• Practice and be ready to use feedforward.
• Learn a proven leadership development model that
you can use to develop yourself, coach others and
build teams.
• Understand the concept of triggers - how we create
our world and how it creates us.
• Understand why we do not achieve our goals and
share practical tools that enable us to use structure
to increase effectiveness.
• Learn the daily question process and how active
questions can be used to help achieve personal
goals and increase employee engagement.
Teaching leaders what to
STOP
“We spend a lot of time
helping leaders learn
what to do,
we don’t spend enough
time helping leaders learn
what to stop.”
Peter Drucker
Classic challenges
for successful leaders
• Winning too much
• Adding too much value
• ‘I already knew that’
• Passing too much judgment
What percent of all interpersonal
communication time is spent on…
• People talking about how smart,

special or wonderful they are (or
listening to someone do this)
PLUS
• People talking about how stupid,
inept or bad someone else is (or
listening to someone do this)?
Using small amounts of money
to create large changes in behavior
• No, but, however

• Great, BUT
• Destructive comments
• No, I agree!
Learning from a great leader
• The most important factor for successful
change is the client – not the coach
• Don’t make coaching about your own ego.
• If they don’t care – don’t waste your time.
• If you don’t care – don’t waste your time.
Coaching practice
• What one behavior change will make
a significant positive difference for
you?
• Why will this change make a
difference?
• Repeat with your partner.
• The feedforward exercise
• Letting go of the past
• Listening to suggestions without
judging
• Learning as much as you can
• Helping as much as you can
• Learning points to help you be a
great coach
Coaching practice
• What is your behavior for change?
• What did you learn in the
feedforward process?
• What are you going to do about it?
• Solicit ideas that will help to ensure
‘back on the job’ execution
• Repeat the process with your
partner
Developing yourself
as a leader and partner
• ASK
• LISTEN
• THINK
• THANK
• RESPOND
• INVOLVE
• CHANGE
• FOLLOW-UP
ASK
• Why don’t we ask:
– At work?
– At home?
• Case studies at home
• Who great leaders need to ask
LISTEN
• The first thing that we want to do – is
the last thing that we should do
• Stop:
– Asking for input - then expressing my
opinion
– Making excuses
• Classic challenges for leaders
THINK
• The Frances Hesselbein story
• Avoid ‘speaking when angry or out of
control’
• Hard at work – even harder at home
THANK
• Avoid ‘punishing the messenger’
– The ‘correcting my driving’ case study
– Why do we punish people who are trying
to help us?
• Two very different examples of asking
for input:
– Negative – the operating room
– Positive – the fighter jet
RESPOND
• Responding to 360° feedback:
– Positive
– Simple
– Focused
– Fast
• Ask for ideas for the future – not more
feedback about the past
• Promise to listen and think – not to do
everything that people suggest
INVOLVE
• Keys to successful behavioral change:
– Set a clear goal
– Write down the goal
– Publicly state the goal
– Measure your success in goal
achievement
– Involve a support group in
helping you achieve the goal
CHANGE
• After 12 years - a great question
• Can people change? Definitely
• Will people change? Maybe
• 28 years in determining an answer
FOLLOW-UP
• The key to making change last
• Frequency is more important than
duration
• Sticking with it
• Implications for coaches and their
clients
“Leadership is a
Contact Sport”
• Summary impact research
• Over 86,000 participants
(248,000 in upcoming study)
• Cross-cultural, cross-industry,
multi-level validation
• One of nine most-outstanding
articles ever published in
Strategy+Business
Commonalities
• Multi-rater feedback
• Focused areas for improvement
• Discussion with co-workers
• On-going follow up
• Custom-designed mini-survey
Change in
leadership effectiveness
My co-worker did no follow-up
40
Percent
20
Table 1
Company A
Company B
0 Company C
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Company D
Company E
Perceived Change Avg Leader
Change in
My co-worker did a little follow-up
40
Percent
20
Table 2
Company A
Company B
0 Company C
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Company D
Company E
Change In
My co-worker did some follow-up
40
Percent
20
Table 3
Company A
Company B
0 Company C
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Company D
Company E
Change in
My co-worker did frequent follow-up
40
Percent
20
Table 4
Company A
Company B
0 Company C
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Company D
Company E
Change in
My co-worker did consistent/periodic follow-up
40
Percent
20
Table 5
Company A
Company B
0 Company C
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Company D
Company E
Changing perception
• Why changing perception is more
difficult than changing behavior
• How follow-up leads to a long-term
change in perception – as well as
behavior
• The Roman numeral watch case study
The ‘Is it worth it?’ exercise
• Pick a key behavior
• What will be one benefit when you
get better at this?
• Go to the next person
• Repeat the process
When behavioral coaching
will not work
• The person doesn’t want to
change
• “Written-off” by the company
• Lacks business or technical
knowledge
• Wrong strategy or direction
• Integrity or ethics violations
• Person in wrong job - company
Coaching
for behavioral change
• Involve the person (and boss) in
determining key stakeholders.
• Recruit key stakeholders to be part of
the change process:
– Let go of the past
– Be positive and supportive
– Tell the truth
– Two-way improvement
Coaching
for behavioral change
• Collect feedback.
• Analyze results.
• Have the person respond to key stakeholders.
• Provide ongoing suggestions.
• Follow-up.
• Conduct a mini-survey to measure change.
Team building
without time wasting
• Determining ‘where we are’ vs. ‘where we
want to be’
• Choosing team-wide behavior for change
• Feedforward with team members
• Deciding on individual area for change
• The three question follow-up process
• Measuring positive change
What happens?
• If we know the people that we want to
become
• Why don’t we become these people?
• Millions of employees around the world:
– Disengaged
– Depressed
– Not achieving personal goals
• Many teams and organizations are
dysfunctional
Why is change so difficult?
• New Year’s resolutions that are never
achieved?
• Coaching clients that don’t change?
• Our daily failures to do – even the small
things – that we plan?
What is a trigger?
TRIGGER –
ANY STIMULUS
THAT MAY IMPACT OUR BEHAVIOR
Who is in control?
High
I create the Mutual

world creation
Internal
Control
Random The world
walk creates me
Low External Control High

Mutual creation
I am creating my world
and at the same time
triggers in my world
are creating me
Fate vs. choice
• Fate – The hand of cards that we

have been dealt.
• Choice – How we play the hand.
Changing the impact
of triggers
Trigger 
Impulse 
Behavior
Trigger 
Impulse 
Awareness  Choice 
Behavior
Dealing with triggers
• The negative case – correcting driving
• The positive case – the hard day
Triggers: today’s ‘perfect storm’
for distraction
• Emails, cell phones, tablets, texting
• On demand TV, movies, games
• Social media
• Multi-tasking
• ‘The dream’
Classic delusions
• Planner bias, understanding – doing gap
• It won’t take that long or be that hard
• High probability of low probability
distractions
• I have willpower and won’t become
depleted
• I don’t need help or structure to achieve
my goals
It is OK to need
help and structure
• The changing role of coaching – from
‘fixing losers’ to ‘helping winners’
• 27 top executive endorsements
• Athletes, movie stars, world leaders
• If could have fixed it by yourself, it
would probably be fixed by now
• ‘I need help and it is OK!’
The value of structure
• The Checklist Manifesto
• Stakeholder centered coaching process
• Six question coaching
• Alan Mulally process
• Daily question process
Six Question Coaching
1. Where are we going?
2. Where are you going?
3. Doing well?
4. Suggestions for improvement?
5. How can I help?
6. Suggestions for me?
Mutual Responsibility
Alan Mulally:
the Ford turnaround story
Establishing clear leadership behavior:
•Determining the desired behavior
•Communicating across the company
•Zero tolerance for behavior violations
Getting clear on priorities
•The ‘top five’ per person
•Red, yellow, green
•Complete alignment to the plan
Previous work
on employee engagement
• NAHR presentation
• Recognition, reward programs, training,
compensation, empowerment
• In spite of all previous efforts, global
employee engagement is near an all-time low
• Focus on what the organization can do to
engage you – not what you can do to engage
yourself – JFK in reverse
• The two flight attendants
The Wheel of Change
Becoming the Person that We Want to Become
Creating
Eliminating
Preserving
Accepting
The identity matrix
Future
Programmed Created
Identity Identity
Other Self
Reflected Remembered
Identity Identity
Past
AIWATT
AM I WILLING
AT THIS TIME
TO MAKE THE INVESTMENT REQUIRED
TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE
ON THIS TOPIC?
Becoming the person
we choose to become
Creating
Eliminating
Preserving
Accepting
The great engagement myth
Employees will be engaged

when…
Daily Question Process
• Why the process works
• How the process works
• Applications on employee
engagement
Active questions vs.
passive questions
• How active questions focus on what
you can do to make a positive
difference for yourself and the world
• How passive questions focus on
what the world needs to do to make
a positive difference for you
The hardest daily question
you can ask yourself
• You write the question.
• You know the answer.
• You believe that it is very important.
• All you have to do to get a high score is
try!
Six active questions
Did I do my best to:
• Set clear goals?
• Make progress toward goal
achievement?
• Find meaning?
• Be happy?
• Build positive relationships?
• Be fully engaged?
That boring meeting!
Imagine that you were going to be tested on:

• Be happy?
• Find meaning?
What would you do differently?

The two week study
• You will get an email every day for two
weeks – asking six active questions
• You will receive ‘before and after’
questions
• The daily process takes just a couple of
minutes
Active question research
2793 participants – 95 studies
• 46% reported improvement on all six items
• 75% reported improvement on at least four
items
• 94% reported improvement on at least one
item.
• 6% reported no improvement
• Less than 1% of respondents reported overall
lower scores
Six active questions
• Set clear goals?
• Make progress toward goal
achievement?
• Find meaning?
• Be happy?
The best coaching advice
• For you as a person
• For you as a professional

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SWISS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT GENEVA

GLOBAL MBA PROGRAM

Lecturer: Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

Contact e-mail: lecturers@ssbm.ch

Academic advisor: ………………………

Support: contact@ssbm.edu.vn or 0866 180 168

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

By the end of the course, you will be equipped to:

Letter Grade Percent Grade 4.0 Scale

• Self-registration on SSBM portal

USAGE OF UNALLOWED MATERIALS OR COPYING FROM OTHER STUDENTS IS

EQUAL ACCESS POLICY

Q. When is work due? Are there deadlines?

Delivery and Submission:

Delivery and Submission:

Welcome to the Course

Do You Begin Every Sentence with No, But or However?

Adding Too Much Value

What is the problem with adding too much value?

Effectiveness of Execution = a) Quality of the idea X b) My commitment to make it work.

Do You Play Well With Others?

Making Destructive Comments

If the answer is no, the correct strategy is to say no!

Playing Favorites (BTW, Your Dog is a Suck Up)

I’ve reviewed hundreds of custom-designed leadership profiles. Typically, these

How much do they like me?

Leadership Is a Contact Sport

Yet even “executive coaching” is a broad category. In reviewing a spate of books on

We reviewed leadership development programs in eight major corporations. Although all

Some of the companies used traditional classroom-based training in their development

Each participant received mini-survey summary feedback from three to 16 co-workers.

Three of the organizations permitted their names to be used in articles or conference

The companies whose programs we studied were:

Why Didn’t You Get Better? You Didn’t Follow-up!

Coaching for Behavioral Change

Our “Pay for Results” Executive Coaching Process

Knowing When Behavioral Coaching Won’t Help

Involving Key Stakeholders

Steps in the Leadership Coaching Process

The Value of Behavioral Coaching for Executives

3 Questions for Building a Great Team!

10 Reasons to Try feed forward

Feed forward tends to be more efficient and effective than feedback.

Marshall Goldsmith: Triggers, Behaviours and Discipline

Why is it difficult to change behaviour?

What Is the Secret to Employee Engagement?

The Secret to Becoming the Person You Want to Be

THE WHEEL OF CHANGE

The Best Coaching You Will Ever Get

Look to the Present

The top three answers:

Questions That Make A Difference: The Daily Question Process

As we have discussed throughout the book, my coaching process is somewhat unusual. My

I conducted one-on-one confidential interviews with each of Alan’s preselected stakeholders.

Involving Team Members

Learning Points for Coaching

What Got You Here

• People talking about how smart,

• No, but, however

I create the Mutual

Low External Control High

• Fate – The hand of cards that we