Marshall Goldsmith is a professor, consultant, and coach, who talks and writes about leadership. 
He’s the author of some 24 books, including The Leader of the Future (Jossey-Bass, 1997), perhaps the most popular book on leadership ever written, as well as more recent books like What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Hyperion, 2007) – ranked the #1 business book by the Wall Street Journal  — and Succession:  Are You Ready (Harvard Business Press, 2009).  He pioneered the idea of 360-degree feedback, and Fast Company has named him America’s pre-eminent executive coach. 

But how good a speaker is he?

It’s a surprisingly difficult question.  Goldsmith is a mixture of good and bad habits, and he gets good and bad effects as a result.  You can see him speaking here at Google: http://tinyurl.com/yka4hua in 2007.

His good points?  He’s funny, direct, articulate, fast-paced and he delivers home truths in rapid-fire succession. 

His bad habits?  He’s arrogant, dismissive of the audience, laughs at his own jokes, and constantly points his finger at the audience like an admonishing parent while he paces relentless back and forth – scolding the audience for doing things wrong, when he should be including the audience in his circle instead. 

In the end, you know he’s right about a lot of things, but you’re cross at him for being right, because he’s delivered his message in such an arrogant way.  A curious performance from a self-described Buddhist who gives all his information away for free and donates a lot of his fees to charity.  I’m a fan, but you have to be prepared to take a lot of grief to be a Marshall Goldsmith fan.