Week 21.43 Love is the Key
Fall is my favorite season in New York. The leaves are starting to turn. The weather fluctuates from perfectly delightful warmth to cozy chilly. The sun rises and sets at reasonable hours, and it just feels like there is more golden light around. I appreciate how it hits various objects at new angles to see them with fresh eyes.
I am also re-examining the world around me, challenging old beliefs, and breaking old habits. I am thinking about what has gotten me here and what will get me there. I am thinking about what I can change, what I can let go of, and what I should start. No matter how complex, how complicated, or how ambitious the situation, I once again come back to the thinking of Frances Hesselbein, who always inspires me to remember that leadership comes down to a few simple principles applied consistently with the head and heart.
"Listening is an art" Choosing what to listen to and then listening intentionally is everything. I've been trying an experiment: instead of always having music on, listening to a podcast, or speaking on the phone when I am walking outside, I am listening to the world. I can tune my hearing into sounds that I would not have noticed, sometimes the sounds of nature, other times the sound of the moods of strangers. I am practicing listening in 3D, hearing the sound, and noticing where the sound is coming from. I love the sounds. That practice is making me a better listener when I am in conversation. I am practicing artful listening.
"Leadership is how to be, not how to do." For Frances, leadership is a head and heart project and includes appreciation for the people in your life, the opportunities you have, and the service you can provide. And "being" for Frances means "gratitude". The more you do it, the more you are it. I have been observing that leaders are learning and are applying this lesson earlier and earlier. With practice, the form of authentic leadership comes easy and creates ease.
"Love and be loved in that order" is a quote that I attribute to Frances Hesselbein and also think of Alan Mulally, who never misses the occasion to repeat it. In my fall walks, I practice loving everyone. I am thinking about people I see on the street, people who interact with other people and don't care about me. I am thinking about the people I am working with, my friends, acquaintances, family, and people I no longer see. It is what the Dalai Lama calls practicing warm-heartedness. My observation is that by following the wisdom of these great leaders, I am calmer, happier and my mind is more open to creativity and new ideas.
Listen, gratitude, and love are all within your control. The more you practice, the more you have. My quiet falls walks have me thinking once again of Frances and her genius for being and inspiring so many leaders. Try her wisdom on and see how it feels, being sure to observe how others respond to it. If you have any stories of inspiration from Frances or any leaders who have changed your life, please share them in the chat. The timeless Frances' birthday is November 1st. Happy Birthday, Frances!
Week 47 of 52: JA Worldwide
Working in over 100 countries, JA equips young people with the employment and entrepreneurship skillsets and mindsets they need to succeed. By building abilities and nurturing self-belief, JA prepares youth for the future of work, ensures they have the tools to be financially capable adults, and teaches them to think entrepreneurially. Supported by nearly half a million volunteers and reaching more than 12 million students each year, JA is one of few organizations with the scale, experience, and passion to build a brighter future for the next generation of global innovators, entrepreneurs, makers, and managers.
Three Surprising Consumer Trends You Won't Believe Exist MARTIN LINDSTROM and MARSHALL GOLDSMITH.
You won't want to miss this! The next episode of the M&M show aired LIVE yesterday, Oct 26 at 12 pm eastern. This week, Marshall and Martin were joined by Dr. Jonah Berger, World-renowned Expert on Change and Influence, and Scott Galloway, Voted #1 Business School Professor/Top NYT Best-Selling Author. Be sure to watch the recording of the show: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lindstromcompany_linkedinlive-management-thoughtleaders-activity-6857330173415714817-sIC-
To Achieve Long-Term Success, Slow Down Ruth Gotian on Dorie Clark
Strategic patience is a daily practice especially needed when your success has stalled or even taken a step backward. It requires you to work toward your goal without the regular confirmation of recognition or accolades. Success is manageable, but it is not like instant coffee, ready if you just add one ingredient. Instead, you need to be methodical and persistent, taking small, deliberate steps toward your goal. Each step provides an exponential benefit, building on what came before it. Read Ruth's article in Psychology Today here
The Thinkers50 2021 Coaching and Mentoring Award Longlist
Thinkers50 is the Oscars of Business Thinking and brings recognition to this important field. The Marshall Goldsmith Distinguished Achievement Award for Coaching and Mentoring recognizes individuals who make outstanding contributions to the field of executive coaching. The Coaching and Mentoring Award is unique among the Thinkers50 awards because it starts with a longlist of 50 nominees, selected via the 100 Coaches network. The longlist will be winnowed down to the eight-person Thinkers50 shortlist, from which the eventual winner is selected. Over the next few weeks, I want to recognize the amazing people who are advancing the world of coaching, leaders, and leadership thinking. Here is a sampling of some of the amazing people named to the list!
Ayse Birsel
Ayse (pronounced Eye-Shay) Birsel is one of the world’s leading industrial designers. In 2020, Interior Design Magazine recognized her as their Best Of Year Product Designer. In 2017, Fast Company recognized her as one of the Most Creative People In Business, and she was listed as one of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of organizations. Her TEDx talk, “If your life is your biggest project, why not design it?” has been viewed by 730,000 people. Ayse is the co-founder of Birsel + Seck, the award-winning design and innovation studio, and counts Amazon, CVS, Herman Miller, GE, IKEA, Staples, Target and Toyota, among her clients. Her company is the only design studio in the US that is woman and Black-founded. Her design process, Deconstruction:Reconstruction™, is the red thread across all her work. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Ayse was born in Turkey and came to the US with a Fulbright scholarship.Design the Life You Love is a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Through four steps that reveal hidden skills and wisdom, anyone can design a life they love! AYSE BIRSEL
Julie Carrier
Julie Carrier #1 Coach for young women and is acknowledged as a trailblazer in the field of leadership coaching. She brings evidence-based leadership coaching — normally reserved for executives in the C-Suite — to girls and young women worldwide. A global authority on leadership and coaching for young women, Julie has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, and in Forbes and The New York Times. Julie assembled the Girls’ Leadership Advisory Council — a team of the world’s thought leaders in coaching and leader development from Harvard, West Point, The Center on Leadership and Ethics at Duke, and The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, among others — to bring leadership coaching to where it can have the most profound impact: high schools. By bringing world-class leadership coaching practices to equip and certify high school educators as leadership coaches for students, Julie is helping to transform education — closing the gender confidence gap and resulting in dramatic increases in girls’ leader identity, resilience and even academic performance for underserved students. JULIE CARRIER
Alisa Cohn
Alisa Cohn is an Executive Coach who has worked with C-Suite executives at prominent startups (such as Venmo, Etsy, DraftKings, The Wirecutter, Mack Weldon, and Tory Burch) and Fortune 500 companies (including Dell, IBM, Citi, Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, Calvin Klein and The New York Times.) She is the author of the 2021 book, From Start-up to Grown-up. Alisa is the executive coach for Cornell’s New York City tech incubator, which helps postdocs build start-ups from their research. She was also the executive coach for The Institute for Inclusive Security at Harvard University, where she designed programs for, and coached women leaders from, areas of conflict, including the first female Minister of the Transitional State of Afghanistan and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. She created a framework for cohort coaching, which is still used today, that allowed women to go back to their home countries with the tools and support to strengthen their capacity and impact. Her latest book, "From Start-up to Grown-up" launched yesterday (https://tinyurl.com/FromStartUpToGrownUp) and Alisa went live with Marshall Today at 1 pm eastern to announce the launch!
Be sure to watch the recording of the show: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6857406613930741760/
Michael Bungay Stanier
Michael Bungay Stanier’s 2016 book, The Coaching Habit, has sold more than a million copies, has been translated into 20 different languages, and is the best-selling book on coaching this century. Brené Brown calls it “a classic” and featured Michael on Dare to Lead, one of the world’s most popular leadership podcasts. That book, and the 2020 follow-up, The Advice Trap, provide the foundation for programs for organizations around the world, delivered by Michael’s training company, Box of Crayons. Box of Crayons has trained more than 100,000 people in organizations such as Microsoft, Salesforce, Gucci, and TELUS. His TEDx talk, “Tame Your Advice Monster”, has been seen by more than 1.5 million people. Michael regularly keynotes on coaching and over the years has spoken to more than 250,000 people. He has been the opening speaker at the world’s largest conference on coaching (WBECS) for the last two years and has spoken at more than 20 ICF chapters on three continents. Michael is a Rhodes Scholar and lives in Toronto, Canada.
And, as always, thank you, Marshall, for making all of this possible.
With love and gratitude
Scott