Why The Best Laid Plans Fail, And How To Beat Those Odds

When you woke up this morning, did you feel confident in your agenda for the day? Were you motivated to make it happen? As you left the office, did you get it all done? Not likely, and it’s probably not the first time either. We often fall short because even the best leaders are “superior planners and inferior doers,” insists Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s top-ranked executive coach in the Thinker’s50. Goldsmith shares deeper insight into the self-delusion of high-performing leaders in his new book, Triggers: Creating Behavior that Lasts & Becoming the Person You Want to Be. I caught up with him this week as the bestseller bounced from no. 3 to no. 1 on the New York Times business hardcover list.

Mark Thompson: You’ve found that leaders usually aren’t in as much in command of outcomes as they hope to be because there are two personas in each of us, each with a different agenda?

Marshall Goldsmith: Yes, on one hand, you’re a leader who wishes to be a better friend, partner, leader, worker parent, son or daughter—and on the other hand, you’re a follower/doer/employee who must execute to a specific plan.

Thompson: But often those two personas aren’t on the same page, are they?

Goldsmith: True…In fact, you start each day with a split personality, one part leader, the other part follower—and as the day progresses, the two grow further apart. You think the two personalities are the same because you unwittingly function as one or the other throughout the day. They are both part of who you are. But that ends up being wrong.


Thompson: Wait a minute! I woke up excited about my plan—master of the universe and ready to conquer my agenda!

Goldsmith: If you’re like most people, you wake up as a leader who has worthy plans for the day. As you look at the to-do list, you’re feeling confident. Why wouldn’t you? You have a plan! At that moment, you are functioning as a leader. But later on in the same day, with little to no awareness, you assume a different role. You become the follower, the person who has to execute the leader’s wishes, or is distracted by urgent issues that pop up from someone else’s plan.

As the leader, you assume that the follower in you will obey each order precisely as you have articulated it. And that your “follower self” will not be presented with any reasons to fail during the day. (After all, who plans to fail?) You ignore the possibility that the worker in you will be upset by a customer or colleague, or be called away to deal with an emergency, or fall behind because a meeting ran overtime. The day will go smoothly. Everything will fall into place. That was the plan.

Thompson: And that’s where the plan unravels?

Goldsmith: Exactly! When has your day ever worked out note for note as you planned it? As a leader, when have your people followed up precisely as you dictated, in the time frame you outlined, with a result that was as good or better than you expected, and with the attitude you hoped for? Rarely. Why would you expect everything to go smoothly just because you’re barking orders at yourself, not someone else?

Whether you’re leading other people or leading the follower in you, the obstacles to achieving your goals are the same. You still have to deal with an environment that is more hostile than supportive. You still have to consider that as the day goes on and your energy level diminishes, your motivation and self-discipline will flag.

Thompson: Is this where you could apply the precepts of situational leadership—to assess the situation and have your inner leader intervene with the appropriate management style for the doer in us?

Goldsmith: It’s a simple two-step: measure the need, choose the style. Many of us already do this kind of self-assessment automatically. When it matters, we have an instinctive sense of how much self-management help we need. Some goals demand little or no direction. We don’t write the goal down, or slot it for a specific time, or ask our assistant to remind us to do it. The planner in us is delegating the job to the doer in us—assuming it will get done.

Other tasks and situations, however, demand a heavier guiding hand. For example, in the matter of showing up for my daughter’s wedding, my need for guidance and self-management is low. I’m not likely to forget time and date, the address, and what to wear. Absent an unforeseen catastrophe, I don’t need direction to get me to the church on time.

Thompson: So what could go wrong?

Goldsmith: Well, in the matter of how to behave at the wedding my need for direction is slightly higher. I say this feelingly because it’s what happened at my daughter Kelly’s wedding. Before the rehearsal dinner, she took me aside and gave me my marching orders on what I could say or do. I didn’t feel abused by Kelly’s orders because she correctly assessed my high need for guidance. I reminded myself of her words by periodically checking in with my wife, Lyda, to ask, “How’m I doing?” This was my interpretation of a participative self-management style.

USA Women’s Team demonstrated what happens when you align your inner leader with your inner doer–making history. Forward Sydney Leroux leaves the field after winning the final match between USA and Japan during their 2015 FIFA. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE (Photo credit should read FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images)

Thompson: So what you’re saying is that, in order to have a prayer of improving your unproductive days, you first have to change the game between the leader and the follower in you? Sounds like you can’t automatically rely on a seamless compliance between your two personas.

Goldsmith: The example of our well-meant planning and less-than-stellar doing are as numerous as the people we know and the situations we encounter. Our failure to do what we plan is a certainty like death and taxes.

It’s not just environmental intrusions and unpredicted events that upset our plans. It’s also our willful discounting of past experience. We make plans that are wholly contradicted by our previous actions. And the doer extends the streak of missed deadlines.

The boxer-philosopher Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”


Mark is a New York Times bestselling author & one of the world’s top executive coaches who has partnered with Charles Schwab, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and other innovators.