Marshall Goldsmith
High achievers consistently overestimate their professional contributions and ignore the costly failures they create. This delusion stems from a psychological trap where individuals link their past success directly to their current behaviors. They falsely believe they succeed because of their flaws, rather than in spite of them. This overconfidence causes successful leaders to resist change, view critical feedback as confused, and completely disregard the need for behavioral improvement.
As professionals ascend the corporate ladder, the factors stifling their advancement shift from technical shortcomings to interpersonal friction. Leaders frequently develop transactional flaws that alienate their peers and subordinates. The desire to constantly win or add value to every conversation strips ownership away from colleagues. By insisting on having the final word or subtly correcting others, executives stifle collaboration and breed resentment within their teams.
Starting sentences with negative qualifiers instantly signals to the other person that they are wrong. Even when used unconsciously, these words negate whatever positive sentiment preceded them. Leaders also deploy destructive comments and sarcasm under the guise of candor or sharp wit. These cutting remarks provide zero value to the company or the individual and only serve to assert dominance, permanently damaging trust and psychological safety.
Intense focus on specific targets often mutates into a destructive force. Leaders become so consumed by achieving a narrow objective that they bulldoze over their teams and compromise broader organizational values. This obsession forces individuals to adopt questionable methods to hit targets, primarily out of a desire to please superiors. Ultimately, prioritizing the immediate metric destroys team morale and causes leaders to fail at their larger mission.
True behavioral change requires a clean slate, which can only be achieved through a direct apology. Leaders must express regret to the people they have impacted without offering any explanations or justifications. Adding caveats to an apology immediately nullifies its healing effect. A simple statement of regret forces everyone to let go of past grievances and establishes an emotional contract for future improvement.
Changing an internal behavior is useless if colleagues do not perceive the shift. Leaders must aggressively broadcast their intention to improve, treating their daily interactions like an ongoing political campaign. Coworkers naturally anchor onto past negative behaviors and require constant, visible proof that the leader is committed to a new path. Consistent advertising of this effort recalibrates peer expectations and secures necessary buy-in.
Effective leadership demands highly active listening where the brain is fully engaged in respecting the speaker. Instead of formulating a rebuttal, leaders must pause and ask themselves if their input is truly necessary. When receiving feedback or ideas, the only appropriate response is a sincere expression of gratitude. Thanking people eliminates the possibility of defensive arguments and encourages a continuous flow of honest communication.
Permanent behavioral change requires a rigid system of continuous measurement and peer engagement. Leaders must return to their colleagues monthly to ask for progress reports and fresh suggestions. Without this relentless follow up, individuals inevitably regress into their old habits. Consistent check-ins prove to the team that the leader values their input and treats personal development as a serious, ongoing process.
Traditional feedback anchors individuals to past failures, automatically triggering defensive reactions. Feedforward bypasses this resistance by focusing entirely on positive suggestions for the future. Individuals ask peers for specific ideas to improve a targeted behavior and then simply record the suggestions without judgment. Because it deals exclusively with future possibilities, feedforward eliminates personal critique and accelerates the adoption of new habits.
Executives frequently fail at coaching because they assume it requires immense time and technical superiority. A streamlined quarterly dialogue corrects this by aligning organizational visions and asking direct reports for mutual feedback. By asking employees what they are doing well and how the executive can better assist them, leaders uncover hidden achievements and optimize their own limited time. This two-way dialogue transforms coaching from a dictatorial monologue into a collaborative partnership.
Personal growth requires categorizing behaviors to balance unchangeable fate with deliberate choice. Leaders must consciously decide which new habits to create and which productive traits to preserve. Equally critical is the mandate to eliminate toxic behaviors and accept the environmental factors that sit completely beyond their control. This analytical framework forces individuals to stop resisting reality and focus their energy exclusively on actionable choices.