Instructions for Interpreting the Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool

Overview

The purpose of the Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool is to provide you with suggestions for the future and to help you achieve a positive change in the behaviors selected by you. Instead of rehashing a past that cannot be changed - feedback - Jon Katzenbach (author of The Wisdom of Teams, Harvard Business School Press, 1993) and I coined "feedforward" to encourage spending time creating a future.

You can change the future. You can't change the past. The Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool helps you to envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. Athletes are often trained using feedforward. Basketball players are taught to envision the ball going in the hoop and to imagine the perfect shot. By giving you ideas on how you can be even more successful, the Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool can increase your chances of achieving this success in the future.

The Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool is especially suited to successful people. Successful people like getting ideas that are aimed at helping them achieve their goals. They tend to resist negative judgment. We all tend to accept feedback that is consistent with the way we see ourselves. We also tend to reject or deny feedback that is inconsistent with the way we see ourselves.

Successful people tend to have a very positive self-image. I have observed many successful executives respond to (and even enjoy) feedforward. I am not sure that these same people would have had such a positive reaction to feedback.

When you use The Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool, think about its suggestions for the future and think about the ideas presented. Try not to critique suggestions or to bring up the past. For a moment, try to let go of the past. Race car drivers are taught, "Look at the road ahead."

Who knows? Not only may it help you win the race, but you'll definitely have a better trip around the track.

General Instructions

The Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward Tool does not provide information that classifies people. There are no good-bad categories and the tool does not rank people in any way.

All of the information on the report is derived from your "natural behavioral style". It is a style that takes the least energy and effort, requires the least amount of concentration, and is usually the most pleasant to you. It is the mode that you normally use to react and is most frequently exhibited outwardly in your behavior. It is also how others typically see you.