Marshall Goldsmith Blog

Why don’t we ask? Because deep down inside we are afraid of the answers. Let me give you a personal example. I am 58 years old. At my age, one type of input that I should ask for every year comes from my doctor. It is called a physical exam. I managed to successfully avoid asking for this input for seven years. What did I tell myself for seven years? I will get that physical after I begin my “healthy foods” diet. I will get that physical after I get in shape.

Who was I fooling? The doctor? My family? I was only kidding myself. I only changed my mind when I realized that the possible consequences of not asking were scarier than any answer I could get. And I only came to that realization after a close friend who had ignored his health died prematurely as a result.

I realize that asking for input at work isn’t a life or death situation, but it can still make a difference. And asking doesn’t just work vis-à-vis direct reports; it also works with peers. Get in the habit of asking your peers, “How can I do a better job of working with you?” or “How can my part of the company do a better job of helping your part of the company?”

While almost every company preaches the value of synergy and teamwork, employees seldom want to go first and ask their colleagues across the organization how to actually create it. If you are a manager, have you been asking your direct reports how you can help them become even more effective? Even if you are not a manager, have you been asking your co-workers how you can do a better job of working with them?

If your answer is, “no” or “not very often,” get started!

Life is good.

Marshall

MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com

I’ve learned during my career that no matter how much you have achieved, to get to the next level you are going to have to get even better. As you go through my online library at MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com, you’ll find solid suggestions and proven advice to take you on your journey to “there.”

As an executive educator, my mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior for themselves, their people, and their teams. My personal-coaching clients are either CEOs or executives who have the potential to become CEOs in major organizations. They have already achieved megasuccess—and are fully committed to getting even better.

As a board member of the Peter Drucker Foundation for 10 years, I had the privilege of listening to Peter speak on many occasions. One of the reasons that he is quoted so frequently is that he had the gift of distilling meaningful concepts into short phrases. One of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes is, “The leader of the past knew how to tell—the leader of the future will know how to ask.”

My first suggestion for you is simple. Start asking. If you are a leader in today’s rapidly changing world, you are probably managing knowledge workers. Drucker’s definition of “knowledge workers” was employees who know more about what they are doing than their boss does. It is hard to tell people who already know more about their work than we do what to do and how to do it. That’s why we have to ask, listen, and learn from them. We should focus on helping them become more effective as opposed to judging them from our superior vantage point.

Start asking your direct reports, “How can I do a better job of helping you become even more effective?” Asking works. And this isn’t just a theory. Extensive research shows it’s a fact. My partner, Howard Morgan, and I published a study on leadership development involving more than 86,000 respondents from eight major corporations. Our findings are hard to debate.

Life is good.

Marshall

MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com