Quotes from Marshall Goldsmith

Once you get a reputation for emotional volatility, it can take years of model behavior to change how others see you.

Active questions are the alternative to passive questions. There is a huge difference between, 'Do you have clear goals?' and 'Did you do your best to set clear goals for yourself?' The former is trying to determine the employee's state of mind; the latter challenges the employee to describe or defend a course of action.

Understanding the past is perfectly admissible if your issue is accepting the past. But if your issue is changing the future, understanding will not take you there.

One of the most important actions, things a leader can do, is to lead by example. If you want everyone else to be passionate, committed, dedicated, and motivated, you go first!

The best knowledge workers are working for more than money.

The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now.

The only way to cure the disease is to find happiness and meaning now.

If we really want to make change, we have to make peace with the fact that we cannot self-exempt every time the calendar offers us a more attractive alternative.

I do three things: speaking or teaching, which I enjoy the most, coaching is where I learn everything, and writing is where I reach people.

Remember that when criticism is difficult to accept, there is probably some truth to it.

Leadership is providing inspiration and vision, then developing and empowering others to achieve this vision.

The major challenge of most executives is not understanding the practice of leadership - it is practicing their understanding of leadership.

Great leaders encourage leadership development. By openly developing themselves

Be happy now. It's a great Western disease that we'll be happy in the future - when we get higher status or that BMW or that promotion or this project finished. Instead, be happy now.

When you're at the lower levels in the organization, you need to win and be right. But as you move up, you need to let other people win and be right, and become a manager and delegate responsibility.

When we stop thinking about ourselves, when we stop being so devoted to 'me,' we can start behaving in a way that actually benefits others!

One of the most dysfunctional beliefs of successful people is our contempt for simplicity and structure. We believe that we are above needing structure to help us on seemingly simple tasks.

Life is short. Do whatever you can to help people - not for status, but because the 95-year-old you will be proud if you did help people and disappointed if you didn't.

It can be more productive to help people learn to be 'right' than prove they were 'wrong.'

If the CEO is not going to give you a fair chance, you're probably not going to win.

When we prolong negative behavior - the kind that hurts the people we love or the kind that hurts us in some way - we are leading a changeless life in the most hazardous manner. We are willfully choosing to be miserable and making others miserable, too.

Research indicates that the desire to achieve the skills associated with success is more highly correlated with achievement than the desire for success itself.

We deify willpower and self-control - and mock its absence. People who achieve through remarkable willpower are 'strong' and 'heroic.' People who need help or structure are 'weak.' This is crazy - because few of us can accurately gauge or predict our willpower.

The last thing I say on most phone calls is not, 'Goodbye,' but, 'Thank you.'