After living with their dysfunctional behavior for so many years, people become invested in defending their dysfunctions rather than changing them.
Interpretation
People often cling to their unhealthy behaviors instead of seeking change due to emotional investment.
This quote by Marshall Goldsmith highlights a common psychological trap where individuals become so accustomed to their dysfunctional behaviors that they defend these habits rather than confront them. Over time, the familiarity of dysfunction can create a sense of identity that makes it difficult for people to pursue positive changes, as they may fear losing a part of themselves or their established routines.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
Active questions are the alternative to passive questions. There is a huge difference between, 'Do you have clear goals?' and 'Did you do your best to set clear goals for yourself?' The former is trying to determine the employee's state of mind; the latter challenges the employee to describe or defend a course of action.
Treat every piece of advice as a gift or a compliment and simply say, βThank you.
The only thing I don't think people don't understand about good leaders is that they're both good and lucky. A lot of it is timing.
Life is short. Do whatever you can to help people - not for status, but because the 95-year-old you will be proud if you did help people and disappointed if you didn't.
If we become aware of what's happening before we act, behaviour becomes a function of choice rather than a result of an impulse or trigger. You begin to control your world more as opposed to the outside world controlling you.
A leader who is self-aware enough to know that he or she is not adept at everything is one who has taken the first step toward being a great leader.
The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.
You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.
Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason.
People often resist change for reasons that make good sense to them, even if those reasons don't correspond to organizational goals. So it is crucial to recognize, reward, and celebrate accomplishments.
Even if we didn't have greenhouse gases, were going to have to move away from fossil fuels, as we're going to run out. They're finite, whereas solar and wind are infinite.
Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.
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