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Corporate connection
Famous for his executive coaching, renowned author, Dr Marshall Goldsmith was in India for the Times Ascent Asia Pacific HR Congress and held an inspirational workshop helping people bring out a new side to their personalities
Yasmin Taj
Everyday in life is a learning experience. Every little thing that happens to us or every person we come across in life, has some message for us and something to teach us. Just that, we happen to ignore it in the milieu of our ever-demanding professional and personal lives. We all want to become leaders and good leaders, but most often do not know what a good leader should be like. The Asia Pacific HR Congress presented by Times Ascent was recently held in the capital and the highlight of the entire event was a special session with noted author and executive coach Dr Marshall Goldsmith.
Dr Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better - by achieving positive and lasting change in behaviour. Marshall’s newest book, ’What Got You Here Won’t Get You There’, is a New York Times best seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award as the Best Business Book of 2007.
In his two-hour session which included participants from the top-notch organisations from Gurgaon and the who’s-who of the corporate world, Goldsmith made sure that he made each and every participant go into immense introspection. Goldsmith started by quoting the world-renowned father of ’modern management’, Peter Drucker, "We spend a lot of time helping leaders learn what to do, we don’t spend enough time helping leaders learn what to stop." He said, "Most often we ask people at work to give us feedback on how we are or what we should do to get better. But what I ask is, do you ever go back home and ask your partner or children the same question? The only reason we don’t ask is because we are scared of the answers. You cannot be a better leader unless you become a better partner or parent in life."
During the session, Goldsmith also discussed annoying habits that can hold us human beings back which included habits like wining too much or adding too much value to oneself, passing judgement and thinking that you know it all. He articulated, "The day we start realising this and not use sentences that start with ’No, but, however’ or ’Great, but, however’, and refrain from making destructive comments, we will be able to create large changes in our personal behaviour and hence our professional lives." The session had a lot of interactive exercises. One such exercise was when Goldsmith asked each participant to talk to the person sitting next to him/her and discuss one problem that he/she finds in oneself and then give some advice to that person which will help him/her get rid of that habit. Once the exercise was over, very interestingly, Goldsmith pointed out, "Most behavioural issues that we discussed and gave advises for are some traits that probably all of us have. So if you can, help the other person change, why can’t you help yourself?"
Goldsmith also discussed how to differentiate between friends at workplace and ’suck-ups’ at workplace. "A very common mistake that most leaders make and don’t even realise is when they encourage ’suck-ups’. One should learn to help more and judge less," he expressed. A practising Buddhist, Goldsmith draws a lot of inspiration from Buddhism which is evident in the way he coaches.
The entire session held by Goldsmith was awe-inspiring and took everyone to an entirely different level of self-realisation. The audience was overwhelmed by the greatness and far-sighted insights of this guru. It actually made everyone think whether they are on the right path in life or not. We do know and talk of all these things in our day to day lives, but forget to practice them. And, once in a while a man like this comes and shakes us hard and hence marks the beginning of a new life for us!
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