Marshall Goldsmith Quotes

Teams are often pretty clear about what they can do or are willing to do.

On great teams - the kind where people trust each other, engage in open conflict, and then commit to decisions - team members have the courage and confidence to confront one another when they see something that isn't serving the team.

Collaborative decision-making is very poor in crises.

It's hard to give advice. There are so many people, how do you give major advice to a group of people, it's very presumptuous.

Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.

Majority rule is not the norm for solving issues or problems.

Joint committees are heat generators rather than light producers.

Because of the term ‘whip’, it is assumed that members can be beaten into submission, but I’ve seldom seen that be successful. It’s getting to know the individual, what they think, how they feel, what’s going on in their personal life, are they agonizers or quick deciders, what kind of leverage can be used with them or on them.

Whenever we had a serious question to decide, we had a conference with the groups involved.

You can't have fifteen people coming together to give the president advice in a Cabinet session. They're all arguing with each other for their own interests and he gets confused. What he decides has to come to him in an orderly way.

The two sides should … stop blaming the other side and instead step back and consider what in their own behavior has contributed the derailment..

I try to get to the heart of the issue, address it, and go on to the next thing.

It is important for the manager to find the right solution for your team.

It's normal for a team to have low moments.

My priority is having the ability to be creative and to come up with the right decisions and not be fettered. If there are a lot of people involved in decision making, it can become frustrating.

Conflict resolution, all those things, are important. When you're in a group environment, you have to have those. If you don't, things fester. Have the conversation. Resolve it. Move forward.

Members of great teams confront each other when they see something that isn't serving the team.

As a manager, you worry about any different issue you have in your squad.

Each member of the team must feel important - everyone must make my life and choices difficult.

When I meet with people who are ineffective managers with failing businesses, I can't change what they do - I have to change the way they think.

When meetings are the norm - the first resort, the go-to tool to discuss, debate, and solve every problem - they no longer work.

Good teams have more fun. Bad teams have more characters.

Stars don't necessarily make a good team and that is what we must learn.

The formation is not the most important thing.

If you are trying to get people to work on a problem together, it's best if they don't know where you, as the supervisor/manager, stand on the question.