Better Late Than Never!

I think we all try and live without regrets, but invariably some slip through the cracks.

With all the listening and reading of management and leadership related topics, how did I not come across Marshall Goldsmith’s website earlier? What a goldmine of information he provides for free!

If you don’t know who Marshall Goldsmith is go to this link to see all his accolades and awards (www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/marshall/Marshall-Goldsmith.html) or just know he is the most successful business “coach” ever. He has written 27 books, yet gives his information away on his website.

Until recently I ran two teams for my employer, a large Product Management team and a small Marketing team. Very different groups, both filled with wonderful hard working people. I worked hard to constantly improve both my personal effectiveness and the team’s effectiveness. For the most part everyone responded. Those that did respond and improved were rewarded, those that didn’t were replaced.

Much of what we implemented was based on the Manager-Tools program (http://www.manager-tools.com/) but some of us were also looking for other ways to improve other areas, everything from time management to leadership abilities. While I and others leveraged some other great sites which will no doubt be included on future posts, the one I wish I came across earlier was Marshall Goldsmith and his library website http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/

Unfortunately I started reading and listening to Marshall about 3 weeks prior to my employer selling the company! I just started the process of implementing some of his techniques and both teams are reorganized away from me. Marketing is gone to the new corporate office and Product Management is being lead from a combination of the corporate office and my ex-right hand man (who is totally capable and this is a great opportunity which he is taking excellent advantage of as he should).

Just been given running International Sales leadership which means I will need to build some new teams and you can be certain that I will be using what I am learning from Marshall.

The regret is that I didn’t find him earlier. I could have been more effective and everyone on the teams I was leading could have also been more effective. But we all have to start sometime and I am just thankful I finally found these actionable ideas and steps to becoming more professional and effective.

Has anyone else been reading and implementing Marshall's ideas and programs? If not, why not? and If so, how have they worked for you?

Best management podcast and material ever

For the past several years I have been on a real self improvement kick. Not that I haven’t been trying to get better long before that.
But several years ago I received an iPod and other than downloading music I didn’t really know what to do with it until a friend turned me onto Podcasts. So as I exercise every morning which has been going on much longer than the iPod I have been listening to Podcasts.

These have ranged from learning Japanese and Chinese (still very bad at both) to business, management, marketing, social media, book reviews, news, economics, leadership and many more topics. It is hard to believe there is that much great information available for free.

My all time favorite Podcast has to be Manager-Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/) Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne have over 250 podcasts just on how to be a more effective manager. They also have casts on general career development and how to interview to both get hired and how to hire better people.

However, don’t let the massive volume of material scare you away, they have links to get to started with the management basics http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/basics-rss.xml and you can go from there.

Although I will be commenting on the other material which has made me more effective and there is plenty of great material out there, if you are a manager you need to listen and implement what is shared on these podcasts. The steps are very simple and actionable. I was able to implement their entire 4 step trilogy (you have to listen to understand that) and everyone on my teams improved tremendously. We all became much more productive and professional.

Do yourself a favor and check out this site and all the material they continue to make available.