"What got you here won't get you there"
Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall Goldsmith's sentence has become one of the most quoted meme in the executive word. And it works great for a book title or for an elevator pitch, very catching!
But it is not what he actually meant.
Indeed, the homonymous book is dedicated to "all successful leaders who want to take it to the next level and get even better”. Hardly the same thing.
What Goldsmith so eloquently wrote is that what got you here might not be enough to get you there, that one can be a success "in spite of some gaps in your behavior or personal makeup".
Mind the Gap
So the question is rather how to close those gaps, which also means how to spot them in the first place.
This, in a nutshell, is executive coaching: supporting the client in both identifying the gaps - the blind spots - and closing them.
Faced with a new context and new challenges, what felt stable is now turbulent and what was once permanent feels like transitory. Leaders find themselves in need of a new set of skills, or more likely in the further development of skills they already have, reshaping and expanding the current boundaries of their performance.
”What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself”.
Abraham Maslow, quoted in "Life in the open sea" by William M Stephens
The FM Executive Coaching™ program
My proprietary FM Executive Coaching™ program is an efficient, high-impact process that helps leaders improve results and accelerate commercial delivery in a sustainable fashion.
It provides individual clients with the necessary personal and professional skills to effectively lead and grow a commercial enterprise with a shared purpose of intent and clarity of objective, in an open, supportive and vibrant environment. This translates into improved team morale, lower staff turnover and higher profitability.
Great leadership starts on the inside and culminates with leaving a legacy both in the wider organization and at home.
What makes this approach to Executive Coaching unique is the holistic exploration of the partnership with the client, through four different lenses:
- Wellness: On the road to success, it is easy to overlook some of the elements that give vibrancy to life: health, relationships, passion and joy. This program has been created to develop both the personal and the professional life of the client.
- Transformation: In addition to all of the traditional executive & peak-performance coaching tools, during the in-person retreats at The Artha Ranch we will harness the power and wisdom of horses for a transformative EQUUS coaching experience. Find out more here.
- Experience: As a former Senior Executive in a very large organization, I have a first hand experience of the challenges facing today’s Leaders. This allows for a stronger and more symbiotic partnership with the client.
- Legacy: A key part of my coaching philosophy is to transfer expertise to both the client and the organization. Clients are encouraged and expected to share the new skills acquired with the wider team.
”One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening become a lie.”
Are you now ready to realign with a new vision of leadership?
Forget the hero sprinting alone towards distant summits – contemporary leaders are nimble acrobats wired for connection and partnership. They know burnout's a one-way ticket to mediocrity, that empathy fuels innovation, and that rest isn't weakness, it's the secret weapon that sharpens the mind for tomorrow's climb. Family and friends are honored, not neglected.
This new dance demands knowing oneself before leading a team. Agility, grace, and a quiet defiance of gravity are required. But the view from the top? Breathtaking.
Where to next?
Schedule
free initial DISCOVERY CALL
Take your first next step and book a 20-30 mins discovery call over ZOOM® to explore what a partnership feels like.
'(almost) Everything is Context' - The FM Newsletter
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