Leading Narratives

"Your whole entire life, you're chasing this trophy, this crystal ball. At the end of the day, it doesn't bring any value to your life. That's probably the biggest thing I've learned. There's an illusion created by society, whoever it may be, that if you do do this, you will be somebody. You'll be of significance. You'll be of importance." "A sports psychologist did a study. They took, I think, 100 athletes in the Olympics in 2012 and they asked them, 'If you could take a performance-enhancing drug and be guaranteed to win a gold medal and it would be totally traceless and it could never be detected. You'd win the gold medal and it would never be detected, but five years after the time you take it, you will die.' Fifty percent of the athletes said they would do it. I think that's because our society has created this feeling of what success is about. It's an illusion. It's the biggest thing that destroys people's ...

"You are going to have to have thicker skin because you were criticized a hundred years ago but nothing like you are criticized now. You have to have a great focus to coach your team but not forget your family and the important things. I really believe this, no profession in the world is more scrutinized than coaching." "I say it like this because I have golf buddies. Everyone in the world thinks they can be a basketball coach or a golf course superintendent. If you play golf, there's always someone who says, why do they mow it like this or why don't they put water over here or why don't they clean this place up? We have 21,288 in attendance at our game and a lot of those guys, 'Why is Roy doing this? Why is Roy doing that?' In my mind, it must be the easiest profession in the world because everyone thinks they can do it better than the guy who is doing it." Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court

In conducting research for a book, Marshall Goldsmith and his co-author interviewed more than 200 high-potential leaders from around the world. A key question that they asked was: "If you stay in this company, why are you going to stay?" The top three answers: "I am finding meaning and happiness now. The work is exciting, and I love what I am doing."   "I like the people here. They are my friends. This feels like a team--like a family. I might make more money if I left, but I don't want to leave the people here."   "I can follow my dreams. This organization is giving me the chance to grow and do what I really want to do in life."  In November 2015 Dr. Marshall Goldsmith was recognized as the #1 Leadership Thinker in the World and the top 5 Management Thinker at the Thinkers50 Award Ceremony in London. In his powerful new book, Triggers, bestselling author and world-renowned executive coach Goldsmith examines the environmental and p...

Drive is the fourth non-fiction book by Daniel Pink. In the text, he argues that human motivation is largely intrinsic and that the aspects of this motivation can be divided into autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He argues against old models of motivation driven by rewards and fear of punishment, dominated by extrinsic factors such as money. Here is a short and long summary of the book. Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st-century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose. When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system–which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators–doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements:  Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives.  Mastery — the urge to get better and better at something that matters.  Purpose — the yearnin...

Lead from the inside-out. When you lead from the outside-in, Jackson says, you may have short-term success, but it can’t last. No one wants to be repeatedly “brow-beaten,” and your opponents will eventually discover your game plan. “As time went by, I discovered that the more I spoke from the heart, the more players could hear me and benefit from what I gleaned.” Bench the ego. Jackson says "Some coaches insist on having the last word, but I always tried to foster an environment in which everyone played a leadership role — from the most unschooled rookie to the veteran superstar. If your primary objective is to bring the team into a state of harmony and oneness, it doesn’t make sense for you to rigidly impose your authority.” He says he came to this conclusion after trial-and-error with imposing his will. He realized he needed “to dial back my ego and distribute power as widely as possible without surrendering final authority.” Let each player discover his own destiny. For...