A great resource for personal change and leadership development is Marshall Goldsmith’s Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts – Becoming the Person You Want to Be. Goldsmith is a giant in the coaching world and in exploring how to empower people to own their lives and change. This book has a load of wisdom and I’ll just highlight a few things.
First, like the title suggests – the book is about “triggers” those moments of stimulus that shape thought and action, for good or for bad. The phrase “trigger” is getting more and more popular to describe repeat trauma through stimulus, but it’s helpful to explore how triggers can be negative or positive. The book is about how to identify and be prepared for triggers so that one can continue to live and lead out of their values and a secure presence. That alone is a key skill and developmental journey for personal well being, maturity, and leadership maturity.
The second key point connects to the power of the environment. Goldsmith addresses this power to help or hinder positive action by helping one think about how to change the environment to support the goals and values that one wants to live by. That’s not always easy, but it’s helpful to think about how we can continue to invest in managing “triggers” by controlling better the environments that can support us or work against us.
There’s an interesting blend here of life coaching style content, with organizational behavior theory such as is found in the Heath brother’s book Switch or Vital Smarts’ Influencer. There’s also integration of neuroscience and “heuristics” as popularized by David Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. Basically, Goldsmith draws from a lot of different fields of research to show how triggers, personal ownership, and management of environments can work together for mature and value-driven choices.
A great summary of the book can be found here and would give you a good feel for the book. It’s a great book to get a big picture perspective on change and self-leadership that also translates to coaching and developing leaders.
