Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
I have talked about Marshall before. He is wise and challenging; who wouldn’t want to be coached by him. For most of us, however, the more realistic outcome is to read what he writes and listen to what he says. He has recorded a podcast for Harvard Publishing (called an HBR IdeaCast) based on his coaching column on the HBR website.
He makes three excellent points: put your energy where you can make a difference not where you can score points. Related to that: not all disclosure is good; is it worth saying? If there is no, clear benefit or value then stay quiet.
And distinguish between honesty (which is always appropriate) and disclosure which sometimes is not.
According to Marshall, 60% of workplace dialogue is either about how smart someone is, or how bad, stupid or inept someone else is. Neither discussion has any value at all. Save on that, and put your energy where you can add value to the organisation. This takes us back to the beginning of the blog. Give it a go.