Marshall Goldsmith in Celebrating Coaches Magazine (2024)

AS SEEN IN CELEBRATING COACHES MAGAZINE

How did Marshall achieve all of this? Was it overnight? Was it easy? Did he do it all by himself? No … but he did apply his considerable knowledge and skill to some very smart strategies which allowed him to become famous, impacting the lives of millions. I’m writing this in the past tense, because I’m sharing my experience with Marshall during a pivotal phase of his career.

I met Marshall in 2001. He was the guest speaker at a monthly meeting of the San Diego Professional Coaches Alliance. If you’ve ever attended one of his presentations, you know he includes an exercise where everyone gets up and interacts with each other. I had the opportunity to interact with him. Turns out he needed a new website. Since I wear two hats: coach and techie, we found a good match and began working together. For fifteen years I marveled and learned as he achieved each of the above accomplishments step by step.

What did he do that helped him become the internationally recognized influencer he is today?

Clarity and Focus

Marshall made a clear declaration of his offer to clients. Today his mission statement reads:

My mission is simple. I want to help successful people achieve positive, lasting change and behavior; for themselves, their people, and their teams. I want to help you make your life a little better. With four decades of experience helping top CEOs and executives overcome limiting beliefs and behaviors to achieve greater success, I don’t do this for fame and accolades. I do this because I love helping people!

I’m always thinking outside the box, wondering how one resource might blend with another to create something new. One day I asked Marshall if he had any comments on my new idea: to use Marshall’s coaching methodology with executives who were between jobs. It didn’t seem like an idea very distant from what he was already doing, I wanted to hear if he had been thinking about it himself, and if so did he have any suggestions for me as I explored this. He got quiet, thought for a moment, then looked at me and said, “That’s not my area of expertise.” I laughed and replied, “Alright, now I understand what you mean by being focused!!”

Keeping It Simple

One of Marshall’s extraordinary skills is taking complex concepts and translating them into a very simple structure. This is one of the reasons his Stakeholder Centered Coaching methodology is so effective. It looks simple, but incorporates so many vital components distilled down into its simple process that makes it easier for all parties involved to understand, and to benefit from. Genius.

Some of his colleagues who began as individual executive coaches as Marshall did, expanded their reach by building out entire companies with staff and coaches to meet the needs of their growing client base. But that plan didn’t fit Marshall’s style of keeping life simple for himself. Instead he explored various partnerships that would allow him to respond to requests for his services, while keeping his personal life and responsibilities as simple as possible.

Back to focus, his role was to meet with clients. He was willing to travel the globe to meet with his clients individually, and to present to large audiences. Other people could manage the other tasks and roles involved in a growing business.

Making It Fun

I know there were times when various situations created difficulties and stress, because for Marshall ‘The Show Must Go On’! His priority was to deliver on his promises, so he would go the extra mile when needed to do so.

But basically he structured his responsibilities around what was fun for him. His day was filled with coaching, speaking and writing because that’s what he enjoyed.

He enjoyed helping clients make progress. If they weren’t interested in really working on improving themselves, it wasn’t fun for Marshall. So he built a failsafe into his coaching methodology: he doesn’t get paid if the client doesn’t improve. This policy lent more clarity to the purpose of each coaching engagement, both for the coaching client and for Marshall.

Collaborating With Others

Marshall taught me a principle I’m now applying to my own marketing: collaborate with others who have a large following. What value can I bring to a marketing partner, and if they see what I bring as valuable to their people, they will happily promote me to their people.

Becoming Known

When Marshall taught a PhD level course at Alliant International University, he began with a question. “What do you know or do better than anyone else in the world?”

How would you answer that question?