What’s more important, how good you think you are, or how good others think you are?
May 14th, 2010 | Published in Measuring Performance
Marshall Goldsmith, who’s a fantastic writer on coaching and personal and professional development, talks in this article about how we define ourselves and how we can change our behaviours and skills by defining ourselves positively - he says that it’s just as bad to stereotype yourself negatively as it is to stereotype others.
 While I agree with this, I would add a couple of key things:
1. Whilst we should, of course, focus on our strengths and not our weaknesses, it’s important to get 360 Degree Feedback from others too. We don’t always see our own behaviours the way others see them, and we don’t always understand the effect we can have on the people around us. We all have a ‘blind spot’ and it’s important not to forget about that.
2. What Marshall doesn’t mention is the importance of the will to change: even if you are clear and honest about your skills and behaviours, you can only change these if you really want to change them. So if you keep going back to the same behaviours, or if you’re a coach with a client who isn’t improving, then you need to go back to the basic question: “do I (or does my client) really want to change?”
