Howard Goldman

Howard Goldman (born 1945) is an American author, management consultant, executive performance coach, speaker and travel blogger.
Goldman is the author of Choose What Works: The Proven Secrets to Professional Greatness, in which he shares his step-by-step approach used by leaders and teams at international organizations, including Fortune 500 companies. The book has been translated into six languages and was the #1 best seller on Amazon Japan-Business Books. Key concepts from this book, such as “focused intent” in strategic process development, and building a career through informed choices have been discussed in the Harvard Business Reviewand the Miami Herald.
Since "Choose What Works" was published, Mr. Goldman has generated controversy through his latest work, "The Death of Loyalty", (scheduled for publishing in 2016). Goldman is said to assert “in America we have many seemingly lazy, complacent people who are basking in the illusion of entitlement, like the world owes them a living.”. “ And the sad part is, the people who are taking our jobs are better educated, more ambitious, and higher skilled than we are.”.
Goldman notes in the Harvard Management Review, that many firms see managers’ and employees’ enthusiasm for projects fizzle as inefficiencies, lack of closure, and other frustrations “bleed off” energy. “People conclude that the next project in the pipeline won’t work, just like the previous one didn’t." In response, Goldman initiated using an empowered program manager for complex, cross-functional projects in matrixed environments, all related to a shared strategic goal."
Goldman is credited with authoring the term “creative agents", referring to knowledge workers with marketable skills as a hallmark of the emerging marketplace of globally competitive employment.

Goldman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945. His father, Reuben Goldman, was a dentist, and his mother Ethel was a homemaker. He was educated at Pennsylvania State University and Temple University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Communications (Major: Film Direction) in 1968. He served in The United States Coast Guard Reserve from 1967 – 1973, and received training as a medical corpsman.

After graduation from college, Goldman moved to Los Angeles and was hired at Capitol Records in marketing in 1969. He became the Director of Artist Development at Capitol, designing promotional campaigns for such artists as The Beatles (as a group and their individual album releases), Pink Floyd, The Band, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.

He was influenced in the creation of his approach to organizational performance through study of eastern philosophies, yoga, transpersonal psychology, and elements of the human potential movement in the 60s and 70s.

Goldman is a management consultant and “executive performance coach with numerous high-profile clients”. His company, Management Associates, has trained more than 10,000 leaders worldwide.

Management Associates provides a broad range of consulting services including the development of winning strategies, innovative ways of managing change, and the mobilization of high-performance teams. The firm is headquartered in Northern California, with affiliates in Asia and Europe.

Clients of Management Associates include: Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Walt Disney, Cisco Systems, AOL, Morgan Stanley, Nokia, Land Rover, Tommy Hilfiger, SAP, NEC, Yahoo!, at&t, SanDisk, as well as numerous hi-tech start-ups.

Additionally, he has served as a venture partner with Outlook Ventures in San Francisco, an early-stage venture capital firm. He has been Board Director and strategic advisor to technology start-up companies, including eBook, True Balance Solutions and Comvergics Systems [1].

Goldman was the Chairman of the faculty of the Center for Management Design, a “corporate university” for senior executives. He has lectured on consultative strategies at John F. Kennedy University.

He received the “Breakthrough Award,” and “Leadership Award” from Transformational Technologies, his peers in the global consulting industry, in recognition for outstanding accomplishment.

He lives in Northern California, with Lisa Goldman, his wife of over 30 years, and business partner. He enjoys spending time with his family and grandchildren, as well as cooking, golfing, skiing, biking, and international travel. He has 2 adult children, Hazi and Rose.

• "Being a creative agent is about being able to position yourself as someone who is responsible for your career success as opposed to being someone who is victimized by the economy, globalization, or your boss."

• “Something is often lost or diminished when every detail is explained. Stay with questions that go beyond the obvious, such as “How do I know that to be true?”

• "A visionary is someone who sees what’s missing first and acts to provide it."

• “Leadership starts with courage…the courage to communicate, to influence, to go past your own resistance - fear of rejection, and inspire what’s great in people”

• “Don’t chew on the menu thinking you are eating the meal.”

• “Responsibility begins with the willingness and the openness to see a situation differently.”

• “Our basis for creation is the dialogue we conduct with life. Knowing your intent and clearly seeing what’s present in your environment yield opportunities to supply what’s possible.”

• “Coaching is founded in possibility. It is a relationship formulated and tuned to the achievement of high performance.”

• “We operate within the bandwidth provided by others. We also operate in the bandwidth we are willing to grant to ourselves.”

• “Your power is directly correlated to your ability to make big requests.”

• “What you are willing to risk in your career, in your passions, and in your relationships largely determines the quality of your life.”