Top-ranked leadership thinker shares coaching philosophy

MANILA, Philippines - “Great is the need of the student to learn. Far greater is the need for the teacher to teach.” Grounded on this shining idea of teaching and learning, the First Pacific Leadership Academy (FPLA) — the country’s leading provider of leadership, management and training solutions for the business sector, academe and government — brings the best via its most recent forum featuring top leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith.

Held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel last July 18, and organized in partnership with the London Speaker Bureau, the Executive Series — the Academy’s series of forums which feature only the world’s most influential experts from various fields — is for the well-rounded learning advantage of its corporate leader-students.

Goldsmith, recognized by the Harvard Business Review as the world’s top executive coach, is a highly regarded expert renowned for his thought-provoking work that helps successful leaders achieve new and greater career heights by evoking positive and lasting changes in behavior for their people, teams, and most especially for themselves. He is also one of a few advisers who has been tapped to work with over 120 major CEOs and their management team from around the world. Also a bestselling author, Goldsmith has written many books on leadership and management.

True to his charismatic style, the workshop-forum followed an easy-flowing, highly engaging format that dealt with two important issues. The first, on “Classic Challenges Faced by Successful Leaders, Practicing Feedforward and Peer Coaching,” Goldsmith wove in the essences of developing the right attitude and motivation to successfully end with productive results. Giving and responding to 360-degree feedback, according to Goldsmith, should be “focused, simple, and fast.”

“Through ‘feedforward,’ a leader instead listens and asks for more ideas for the future, not more ‘feedback’ about past actions which can never be undone,” he noted. “Do not dwell in the past. If you can’t change it and if the person does not have the desire to change, then stop. If they don’t care, do not waste your time. Let it go,” stressed Goldsmith. 

In straightforward, jovial manner, Goldsmith also inspired the full-house crowd with his second talk, “Leadership is a Contact Sport - A Proven Model for Developing Leaders,” which mainly suggested the need to veer away from being “an achiever-self” to become a great team leader.

Other event highlights include Goldsmith’s take on transformational leadership, where pointers to becoming a better and influential leader are laid out in witty real-life scenarios. He also shared the dynamics of achieving a better self by simply “acting on it.”

“Our values are not what we say. Our values are what we do. If you want to be better, it does not happen to work if you don’t do it,” Goldsmith stressed.

Goldsmith also stressed the importance of common but often overlooked people attributes such as appreciation and recognition, or how a person both as a leader and as a member of an organization can better demonstrate these as they influence positive behavior change in others by means of healthy, open communication.

“Practicing humility in the face of success is also an essential part in leadership. Real values should be remembered and imparted. Finally, the best coaching advice that I can give to all of you as a person and as a professional is that it all has to come from the heart,” he concluded.

For updates on FPLA’s Executive Series and leadership management courses, call 632-8111 / 696-3051 or visit www.fpacademy.net. FPLA is located at Km 27, Sumulong Highway, Antipolo City.