Management
Issue No. 17 - June/July 2004
Executive Goalkeeper
Paul Smith keeps execs on track to achieve their goals
In the space of a fortnight, six different people told Paul Smith they were having a horrible time in their executive jobs. One told him that he wanted to resign forthwith. Another confessed to just having endured the worst month of his business life. Another said: “ I just want to give up.”
These were not Paul’s employees, bosses or friends. They were corporate or government leaders who engage with him as a business coach and mentor and who felt free in a one-to-one setting, to confess how they were really feeling about their jobs. Big pay packets and titles are no buffer to human needs and emotions.
It’s a cliché, but life at the top really can be lonely or isolating, says Paul, because few employees can imagine that their “superiors” might sometimes feel vulnerable and bewildered. He’s been there too!
Few employees realise that they might lock their bosses into a projection in which they become a figment of someone else’s imagination, he says. “Leaders can be ascribed all sorts of motives and circumstances that they just don’t want to have.”
As an executive coach and Principal of the Carnegie Management Group, the Sydney-born Smith, 53, is hired by leaders to be the “deep, tough friend”, with whom they can develop enough trust and rapport to allow them to navigate the issues of leadership – both personally and professionally - hired by both the organisation and the individual alike.
“They benefit by getting stuff off their chest. I often find myself caring for people that others don’t care for. If we can talk about an issue and then isolate the source, we can then work with it,” Paul says.
He also leads workshops on the question of how to bring more meaning, more heart, into a working life. He individually coaches employees who have suddenly been elevated into tough new roles – or help them to get there.
“Not everyone is immediately perfect for a new job, so I help them to get the...
