marshall goldsmith

The Leadership Challenge: Expertise – 5 Tips!

September 1, 2015 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: What are you good at? If you’re like most of the leaders I work with, you’re probably “good” at a lot of things… For example Sales/Marketing Leadership, Customer Experience, Project Management, and Process Improvement might be several areas that might make your leadership performance highlight reel. But what are you great at? In this post, we take a look at the leadership challenge expertise as well as 5 tips for your leadership development… Enjoy!

The Rich Get Richer

The other day I found myself in a leadership development executive coaching conversation. Not atypical from most other business days, but this one was somewhat precarious for several reasons. For starters, the setting between coach and coachee was at the onset of our business relationship. As such, an initial assessment (think of it as a “line in the sand” leadership development moment) was due.

As the assessment began, I could tell that the leader was extremely comfortable and confident. After all, why wouldn’t he be? He recently had successfully exited from a public sale of his company, and as a result had untold wealth accumulated/sitting in a bank account. On top of that success he built an app for a popular social media platform that was driving considerable wealth towards him. “Poor guy” I thought, “I hope he can catch a break someday!”

From Good to Great as a Leader

So as we began our leadership development executive coaching assessment, I asked a question that stopped the conversation in its tracks. What was the question? Here it is:

“What are you the best in the World at?”

The leader thought about his answer for what could be considered an uncomfortable length of time which felt like 10-minutes (but in reality was more like 2-minutes).

His answer was his own, and all I’ll share with you was that it was EXTREMELY powerful. In a few sentences he was able to capture the essence of his success as a business man, family man, and leader in both capacities. It was a difference between being simply “good” and being “great” in all capacities. At the heart of all of this was his expertise. So here are 5 tips you can leverage to overcome the leadership challenge expertise moments you face as a leader:

Expertise Tip #5 – Focus

What are you the best at and why? If you’re focus is all over the board, you’ll drive little success in potentially a lot of places. However, maximum impact as a leader can be achieved if you focus in specific areas.

Expertise Tip #4 – Change

If you want to focus (Tip #5 above) on a specific are, be it a skill set or business segment, you’ll have to identify realistically where you are on the topic and where you need to be in order to achieve expert level. You’ll then need to change towards that expert level designation (I know, easier said than done!)

Expertise Tip #3 – Enlist Support

The saying “It’s lonely at the top” is appropriate for most leaders. Surrounded by pc-correct stakeholders not looking to “rock the boat” or answer “Yes” to requests is unfortunately typical in most organizations. While this ego-stroking capacity isn’t without its merits, it also doesn’t propel you to think/act at your best level. As such, you should look to enlist support (perhaps from an executive coach?)

Expertise Tip #2 – Take Action

Marshall Goldsmith in his recent book “Triggers” says that most leaders are great planners (think strategy session or action plans) but horrible doers! In other words, coming up with the plan isn’t the hard part… The hard part is in taking action. Again, an executive coach should be able to help keep you on-time/on-target.

Expertise Tip #1 – Don’t Stop Learning

You might have noticed that the world changes pretty fast. As such, you’ll want to enact a 12-18 month plan where you calendar specific dates/times to continue your expertise learning journey on a weekly basis. Don’t get left behind as a leader!

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge expertise and provided 5 tips for you as a leader. If the road to expert level is paved with over 10,000 steps (or hours), we’d better get started!

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Shutting Up

June 28, 2015 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: Time is a very valuable commodity these days. And with what seems like less time on your leadership hands, you’re probably compelled to speak more than listen. After all, as a leader contended this week during an executive coaching session, how else would he be able to give direction to his troops! However, what exactly are you attempting to accomplish in such leadership moments? Granted, the leadership challenge of “getting things done” should always be forefront in your agenda. So it’s within these “shutting up” moments that we’ll examine if you’re a leader looking to succeed by simply dolling out orders, or if you’re a leader looking to identify direction and let your stakeholders identify orders and priority therein… Enjoy!

I Listen… Don’t I?

Terry was a successful C-Suite leader that had been successfully running the operations department of a Fortune 1000 organization (He was Chief Operations Officer – COO). Engaged in a classic Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching initiative afforded us the opportunity to not only engage him in leadership development and executive coaching, but also his stakeholders (peers, superiors, and subordinates) in feedback moments regarding his progress. While Terry was successful in accomplishing project after project thrown his team’s way, there was a bit of a “rip current” running within his department.

Turns out Terry, despite all of the accomplishments and accolades bestowed upon him wasn’t a very good listener according to his stakeholders. The reasons for these poor listening moments runs the feedback gambit:

Always in a hurry
Never really paying attention to feedback
Providing detailed direction with little interpretation necessary
Not engaging his stakeholders in meaningful dialog
Goal accomplishment “his way” was paramount

Two Ears… One Mouth!

If Terry’s plight sounds familiar, it should. We’ve all either seen a leader that behaves this way, or perhaps are guilty of conducting the leadership behavior identified ourselves. In leadership development and executive coaching sessions, leaders describe their least favorite leadership moment as those involving the broadcasting of message/direction with little chance of engagement/meaning being available for the tasks at hand. So if we know that one-way communication channels such as these aren’t preferred, why do we engage in them time and again?

“Listening is hard work” Terry told me. Of course it is! It’s even harder work when you don’t ask good questions. Think of all the questions you’ve asked your stakeholders in the most recent week… What were they? If they bordered on the “light” leadership scale (meaning they were pretty weak, superficial, and/or placated your stakeholders), then you missed a great opportunity to learn from them. If you have all the answers all the time, then perhaps a team isn’t necessary. If you want to get buy in for the job at hand, you should consider asking your stakeholders questions.

How to Shut Up as a Leader

So exactly how can you ask better questions to put yourself in position to listen? The task is hard, but not impossible to shut up. Here are a few tips/techniques we reviewed:

Open dialogs with stakeholders with an open-ended question (One that requires an answer in more than a one word answer)
Listen for the “hidden” meanings in stakeholder’s response
Explore those meaning with follow-up, or drill-down questions (Again, open-ended works best)
Seek input/feedback on how to perform the project at hand
Listen!
- Put your finger to your lips to keep your mouth closed
- Take a deep breath while listening
- Criss cross your hands
- Blink with heavy eyelids
  - NOTE: Don’t do all of these simultaneously… You’ll look like you’re not paying attention – That’s worse than not listening!
- Keep on-time/on-target objectives for feedback (Getting their feedback is not an opportunity for complaints!)
- Confirm your understanding of what has been said
- Chart future course together!

SUMMARY

In this post, we took a look at the leadership challenge of shutting up. Some leaders excel at asking questions (One I worked with used to call it out ahead of time by saying “Now I’m going to ask you a provocative question…”) and then listening. If you find that you are not getting the results you want in the time period desired, perhaps there’s an opportunity for you to do a better job of listening, instead of talking all the time as a leader. Remember, leadership isn’t that hard… but is sure can be difficult!

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Saying “Thank You”

March 27, 2015 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: As a Marshall Goldsmith Certified Stakeholder Centered Coach (SCC), the executive coaching process typically revolves around stakeholders providing feedback to the leader on the specific behavioral actions. At the center of this feedback process, which could be good, bad, and/or ugly, is the response that the leader is to provide to those stakeholders for their “gift” of feedback… The leader is instructed simply to respond with a “Thank you” for the gift. While it appears to be a sincere moment (especially considering how some of the feedback could be far from positive, and perhaps a more belligerent response warranted), we started wondering this week how often as the leader you say “Thank you” to those you work with? More importantly, what outcomes would you receive if you included such words of thanks more frequently into interactions? So in this post, we set out to identify those “Thank you” moments, what rewards you could potentially reap from implementation, and lastly (and certainly not least), hurdles you may have to overcome in order to pull off a successful “Thank You”… Enjoy!

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

— Max DePree

Leadership 101: Your Manners Count!

Every move you make as a leader in your organization will be scrutinized by your employees… Not every tenth move, nor one-hundredth… Every single move! In a line straight out of the George Cooney classic “Ocean’s 11” comes the line “Everything is on camera. Everything is being recorded!” So you too should consider the Las Vegas lifestyle as appropriate fodder for yourself as a leader when it comes to the behaviors you exhibit, and most importantly your reactions (verbal/physical).

So if everything is being observed, how can you insure that you are being “seen” as appropriate. While the typical conversation introduction begins “Hello” or “Good Morning” for example, perhaps the appropriate conclusion should be “Thank you”. Another way to think about it would be to consider if your actions were to show up on the front page of tomorrow’s CNN website… What would you want the headline or image to capture? I’m guessing something reflective of your manners, so special consideration should be considered.

The Thank You Leadership Rewards Program

So what do you have to gain in saying thanks to those you encounter? Here’s a brief list (but you’ll get the point):

Increased employee engagement
A positive work environment
Increased feedback of the good/bad/ugly variety
The ability to quickly course correct (i.e., change)
Better customer experiences
Establishing trust quicker/keeping it longer
Greater revenue (?)

So saying “Thank you” could very well be a game-changer for you as a leader, department, and organization. If that’s the case, why aren’t there leadership development programs, initiatives to increase communication skills training for leaders, and an overall betterment policy implemented by most organizations? The answer may come in the form of the hurdles you’ll encounter.

The “Thank You” Hurdles (or Mountains!)

Saying “Thank you” as a leader is relatively easy and effortless when times are good. Think about it… You have a great conversation about how profits are up, the sales pipeline is full, and the organization is achieving exponential growth/profitability. Telling those you work with thanks is a no-brainer (It’s simple, effortless, and should roll off the tongue like water off a ducks back).

But what if things aren’t so perfect? What if profits are down, the sales pipeline is vacant, and the organization is going backwards in growth/profitability? I’m guessing that as a leader saying “Thank you” might be at best difficult (That is if you can mutter it under your breath through clenched-teeth!) With blood-pressure skyrocketing, cheeks blushing, and thoughts racing a million miles an hour, I’m guessing that as a leader your vision is anything but clear.

One of the aspects that I’ve really enjoyed in Centered Executive Coaching comes from the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) process of meditating. Specifically, during meditation you’re encouraged to focus on your breath. If I hadn’t participated myself, I’d have little faith that simply focusing on the inhale/exhale exchange could cause me to have tremendously greater focus after meditating. As such, and for our purposes here, perhaps a few meditative moments are in order to hit the proverbial pause button as a leader so that you can gather your composure (and thoughts). Saying “Thank you” in these moments will allow you to do exactly that.

SUMMARY

So in this post on The Leadership Challenge: Saying “Thank You” we’ve covered ways in which you can identify those “Thank you” moments, the rewards available to you from implementation, and lastly hurdles you will have to overcome in order to pull off a successful “Thank You.” Saying it with true meaning counts, so best of luck in your “Thank You” endeavors!

Sincerely yours,

Sam Palazzolo

PS – You may also enjoy some of the other recent posts I wrote:

Sam Palazzolo is the Managing Director at Tip of the Spear Ventures, an agile Venture Capital and Business Advisory Services firm specializing in Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, and Communication Skills Training for Leaders.

What Marshall Goldsmith Doesn’t Want You To Know About Stakeholder Centered Coaching

August 20, 2014 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: Warren Buffet tells us to keep shareholders happy. However, if you go just one step further and link your business aims (and business results) to your stakeholders, you will create both a mindset and a company culture that not only drives you towards success, but helps you achieves goals faster as well. Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC) trains leaders on making behavioral changes that have a long-term impact on an organization’s success. In this post, we discuss what this Centered Executive Coaching offering is all about, and what Marshall Goldsmith (the developer of this method) doesn’t want you to know… Enjoy!

Defining Terms

Have you ever heard of SCC? Most business leaders reply that they have not! If you’re in that camp, then you’re not alone… Basically, Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching focuses on leadership traits (sometimes highlighting only aspects of a leader’s behavior) to elicit notable results for all stakeholders of a department/company. The hallmark of the Goldsmith coaching system is change based on constant feedback.

Who is Marshall Goldsmith?

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is one of the most well respected executive coaches in world, the proof of which is:

He was listed as one of 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years by the American Management Association.

He was ranked among the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development by Business Week

The Times (UK) considers him one of the 50 greatest living business thinkers

Forbes named him among the five most-respected executive coaches

The fact that his training has helped several Fortune 100 companies achieve tremendous results is testimony to the effects of SCC. At Tip of the Spear, our Executive Coaches practice this same discipline in order to provide lifelong client value to the leaders who employ our services in the form of Centered Executive Coaching (consisting of Leader Centered Coaching, Stakeholder Centered Coaching, and Business Centered Coaching).

What Dr. Marshall Doesn’t Want You to Know

While an entire post can be dedicated to the intricacies of the SCC (See our post titled ‘5 Benefits from Stakeholder Centered Coaching‘), here we will zero in on one central concept: Leadership coaches at large teach you that in order to become successful, you need to be self-confident. And they are not entirely wrong when they say that!

But what Marshall Goldsmith doesn’t want you to know is that success can often lead to arrogance. When you are on a roll and your stakeholders are happy, you will ironically become resistant to change, and hence treat any feedback or suggestion from your team as insignificant (think of it as the brush-off effect!) The problem is that success doesn’t always last forever, and as the business world becomes more complex with changing technology and global outlook, the last thing you need is an attitude that is resistant to change.

Why So Arrogant?

The SCC process starts with the coach assessing the leader’s personality and determining 1-2 key areas that need change (This can be accomplished typically through a 360* Review). This is followed by taking feedback from stakeholders on behavioral progress examples and future growth opportunities. Based on this, the executive coach works with the leader and sponsoring committee at the organization to develop a plan of action, and throughout the duration of the coaching, progress is reviewed with all parties to assess progress/areas of improvement opportunity.

So What Can You Learn?

If all goes well, you will learn:

Placing focus on the people you work with is important
Instead of delving on past successes, a leader should always look towards the future
Instead of unfounded optimism, a leader has to keep monitoring feedback and adapting to changing business circumstances

Summary

Any organization and its stakeholders want to see continuous improvement in all leaders in the results they achieve for themselves/the business. SCC proves highly useful in this regard. For more information on Centered Executive Coaching, the other Tip of the Spear Business Advisory Services, and/or information on leadership development through our affiliation with The Javelin Institute, use the Contact Us page.

5 Benefits from Stakeholder Centered Coaching

August 19, 2014 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC) is the brainchild of Marshall Goldsmith, a UCLA PhD, and one of the most well-respected leadership executive coaches in the world. His SCC method is considered highly effective and efficient by diverse voices in the business world. Even we at Tip of the Spear hold on to the SCC principles (It formed the foundation for our Centered Executive Coaching, consisting of Leader Centered Coaching, Stakeholder Centered Coaching, and Business Centered Coaching). Here we outline the top 5 benefits of this centered executive coaching methodology so you know a little more about why it can work for you/your company as well… Enjoy!

It is Simple…

Goldsmith is often quoted saying ‘Coaching is simple, but not easy!’ But SCC is easy to understand and highly practical as well. Not to mention, Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching also differs from popular leadership training programs. Most leadership coaches teach that success owes itself largely to inherent traits. While Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching doesn’t deny this, but it explains how sometimes these inherent traits can actually stand in way of you/your organization’s success.

On the Job Development

SCC is both cost and time effective, and you are able to accelerate leadership growth on the job. By integrating stakeholder feedback as part of the training, the coach is able to bring about sustainable behavioral change without exhausting company resources.

A Change of Attitude

A recurring theme of SCC is helping leaders understand that the mindset that helped them achieve success in the past may now actually be disastrous for the growth of the company in the face of present complexities. Marshall describes these as ‘belief barriers’ to a leader’s success.

Measurable Impact

Most executive coaching programs focus assessing leadership effectiveness and action planning so that the leader comes to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. But while this is a critical step to initiate the coaching process, it can result in a list of areas of improvement areas that is so long that it hinders any action from being taken.

Stakeholder Centered Coaching on the other hand ‘takes the action’ right into the leader’s work environment with the stakeholders. The stakeholders then provide important and insightful suggestions for behavioral change to help the leader become more effective for the organization.

And this valuable feedback is not brushed aside for future deliberation, instead it is implemented and followed through to achieve sustainable behavioral change, thus creating more effective leadership behaviors and habits. If the change implemented is not sustained, recognized, and acknowledged by stakeholders in the workplace, then the coaching program has failed. Simple as that.

From Trainee to Trainer

Finally, once leaders themselves have been coached for about a year, they themselves become equipped to coach their own subordinates. Hence, the behavioral changes further become sustainable to the point they become engrained in the company culture.

Summary

For all these reasons, SCC is a ‘must have’ leadership development skill for effective leaders. For more information on Centered Executive Coaching, the other Tip of the Spear Business Advisory Services, and/or information on leadership development through our affiliation with The Javelin Institute, use the Contact Us page.

marshall goldsmith

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