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.
Should a person not laugh at their own jokes? I know from your books that you are not a fan of jokes during speeches, but I don’t remember reading anything about how a speaker should act when they say something funny and the audience laughs.
Hi, Jared — great question. Just to clarify — I am a fan of jokes during speeches, just not to open a speech, because the odds of failure are high.
The question of how to react when the audience laughs at something you say is a question of tact. The key is not to start laughing before they do, and to laugh a little less than they do. Goldsmith both starts laughing before the audience does and ‘outlaughs’ them. Not tactful.
I’m a Marshall Goldsmith fan, too, and was lucky to meet him once. He makes me a better mom, daily, because I remember his advice about my daughter Katie. “You want her to be happy? You go first. Let her watch you be happy.”
This blog is very nice and informative. it is pretty hard task but your post and experience serve and teach me how to handle and make it more simple and manageable.
Thanks for the tips… Best regards.
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