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Marshall Goldsmith

Drawing on his years of experience as one of the world’s preeminent executive coaches, Marshall Goldsmith offers practical advice to help address your most pressing management challenges.


How to Keep Your Temper at Work (And Everywhere Else)November 26

This week's question for Ask the Coach:

It's hard for me to keep my temper, even more so now with the global economic meltdown! Do you have any suggestions on how I can stop from getting angry, especially in the workplace?

MG: Anger can distort our self-perceptions and do harm to the relationships with people important to us, both inside and outside of work. Handling our emotions is a tricky process if we don't have the proper self-management skills. I've asked Mark Maraia, a relationship development coach and trainer who works with people, specifically partners in large law firms, on just such issues as yours. Here's his response:

MM: I'm often asked, "How do I stop from getting angry?" And the answer I give is, "You don't. What you need to learn is a process for releasing the emotion."

Most people are trying to control or manage their anger. It never occurs to them that they can release it--completely! Stifling our feelings or our urges to act out in anger doesn't work. People can read us... sometimes better than we can ourselves. Stifling our feelings will work against us because when we deny or suppress anger, we end up projecting it. Either we turn it inward, which leads to depression or disease, or we turn it outward, which leads to many of the annoying habits Marshall discusses in his book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There.

My own path of self-discovery led me to a startling conclusion: W


Dan Ariely: How to Save Ourselves From the Irrational EconomyNovember 19

This week's question for Ask the Coach:

With all the experts there are studying and theorizing about the economy, I'd like to know why we weren't more prepared for this disaster? And, how can we steer clear of this in the future?

MG: Not being an economist, but a behavioral scientist, I've asked Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational and the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University,to answer these questions. Below is Dan's take on the situation:

First, most of what we hear about is standard economic theory. Standard and behavioral economics are interested in the same questions and topics, e.g., people's choices, effects on incentives, information's role, etc. Behavioral economics, however, does not assume that people are rational. Behavioral economics takes into account how people actually behave, and uses this as its starting point. As a consequence, behavioral economists usually come to different conclusions about the logic and efficacy of almost anything, ranging from mortgages to savings to healthcare in both the personal and business realms.

Second, the market does not always fix our mistakes! It's thought by many that people m

Recession-Proof Yourself: Four Tips For TwentysomethingsNovember 11

This week's question for Ask the Coach:

The economic crisis has me really concerned about my future. Do you have any advice specifically for 20-something professionals?

Marshall: Many young people are understandably concerned about their futures today. Allow me to direct your question to speaker/author/consultant Eric Chester, President and founder of Generation Why, Inc. Eric works primarily with companies and organizations that employ teens and young adults. His background as an invited speaker on career success strategies to more than 1,500 high school and colleges makes him the perfect coach to field this question.

Eric: Those over 30 know from experience that our economy is not in a perpetual growth cycle. If you're under 30, however, a market that goes into free fall is something out of a textbook -- not something out of your life.

Three of my four adult children, now ranging in age from 23 to 29, have shared their concerns with me regarding their jobs and careers. Each of them seeks a perspective (dare I call it "advice"?) on what they should or shouldn't be doing. Here's what I suggested to them:

1. The sky isn't falling. Things are pretty wild right now, and lots of Chicken Littles are telling you to be afraid. The truth is that events are b

Action Learning: A Recipe For SuccessNovember 3
This week's question for Ask the Coach:

Other than your own coaching, if you had to recommend one leadership development process what would it be?

I have observed one leadership development process that builds leaders and helps companies make money at the same time - action learning. After seeing how action learning worked at GE and IBM, I am surprised that more companies don't do it. My friend, Chris Cappy, has spent years in GE, IBM and other major companies implementing action learning. I will let Chris describe the basics of how this process works:

The essence of action learning involves working through real problems, reviewing both the results achieved and then analyzing the process by which these results were achieved. Action learning is a structured process with four essential elements:

  1. Creating an experience that engages learners - that 'stretches' the leaders involved in the process and adds real value to the company.
  2. Debriefing the experience - reviewing what happened both from a 'results' and 'process' perspective.
  3. Generalizing from results - understanding not just what happened, but knowing what the results mean for leaders and the company.
  4. Transferring lessons to the future - applying key learnings in a way that helps the participants in the process become better leaders and the compan


In Tough Times, Young Workers Need to Toughen UpOctober 27

This week's question for Ask the Coach:

I'm just entering the workforce and it is really stressful. With all the global and economic turmoil, do you have any advice for someone who is just getting started in the workforce?

The advice I have to give to young people from the West who are just entering the workforce is simple. In this new era of uncertainty, we all need to think like entrepreneurs. But first, let's start with a dose of reality:

  • It is tough out there, and it's only going to get tougher.
  • Forget about security.
  • Like it or not, even if you start out with a large corporation, you need to think like an entrepreneur. 
  • Make peace with this reality, and your life is going to be a lot better.

We in the West are just beginning to understand what globalization really means. It means that people across the planet are: competing to buy our products; producing products that we can buy for less money; and competing for our jobs. We are just beginning to understand the impact of a world competing for food, oil, cement, wood, and natural resources.

As millions of hard-working young people graduate from colleges around the world, many of them not only speak fluent