INSIGHTS (on leadership/self-leadership)
A CEO of a major company once told me, “Winners exude a desire to win and willingness to put themselves out there to push through setbacks. Losers hide.”
Harsh, but an important point. High-potential employees stand out, in part, for developing an undeniable drive to succeed. You can too, with the “Five for Drive” – 5 ways to fuel your drive to succeed (or to fuel that drive in others). It’s featured in my new LinkedIn Learning course, 10 Signs You’re a High-Potential Employee.
1. Be clear on what you want and motivated by its reward.
When you get into a car and drive, you gotta know where you’re going. If you want to show the drive to succeed – you still gotta know where you’re going. Set a clear vision for what success looks like, drawing motivation from why it matters and what it will feel like to achieve it.
2. Find the “Agreeable Adversity.”
Not everything about adversity is bad. Those with a drive to succeed excel at pushing through adversity, even seeing the good in it. They ask, “What’s beneficial about this adversity? What possibilities does it present? What might we learn? ”In this way, adversity doesn’t prevent success, it propels you towards it.
3. Accept the grind.
Of course, a drive to succeed requires discipline, focus, and a willingness to stick to it, day after day. It’s often said you must learn to “love the grind.” But in truth, we rarely do. Instead, think about the grind on a spectrum, you can hate it on one end (not good), or love it on the other (not realistic). But right in the middle is something you CAN do, accept the grind. Keep reminding yourself that while you might not love the grind, you can live with it, and stick to it, because you know you’ll love what it produces.
4. Commit to resourcefulness.
Another CEO told me, “There’s rarely a shortage of resources, only a shortage of resourcefulness.” Resourcefulness is using your creativity to find clever ways to solve a problem or accomplish something. Make it a habit.
5. Make the drive a mindset.
Here’s how to make the drive to succeed a habitual mindset. Write down this sentence at the top of every meeting agenda, or on an index card you can easily access:
AM I ASSISTING SUCCESS OR AVOIDING FAILURE?
Many of your actions as a leader boil down to one or the other. Your actions look very different depending on which. For example, if you’re assisting success, you make yourself available for coaching, you remove barriers for others, you proactively share relevant information. But if you’re avoiding failure – very different behaviors. You micromanage. You’re indecisive. You ask for too many reports or studies to cover your butt. You’re too conservative and unwilling to take risks. Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re doing is actually just trying to avoid failure. Be mindful of your actions, and switch to success driving mode as needed.
The Five for Drive. Practice them, and accelerate success.
IMPERFECTIONS (a mistake many organizations make)
I recently gave a keynote, and had the opportunity to see the keynoter after me, Rishad Tobaccowala, former Chief Strategist and Growth Officer at Publicis Groupe. His talk opened my eyes to his work, including his expertise on encouraging candor – something most organizations are very poor at. Tobaccowala cites four common fears1 employees have about being candid, which keeps them from being so:
1. Being punished
2. Being wrong (self-doubt is a powerful censor)
3. Being asked to do more work (raising problems could mean being asked to deal with those problems)
4. Being disliked
Encouraging candor starts with role-modeling all the behaviors that will overcome these fears. So, that means commending, not condemning, an opposing point of view. It means not punishing someone who spoke up by piling on work associated with what they spoke up about. It includes showing you appreciate the person, and the perspective, they raised. It also includes ensuring what Taboccowala calls the “three magic words” are in play – data, trust, and intent. Meaning, encouraging people to speak up – with some ground rules. Before speaking up, they should have good answers for these questions:
• Do you have good data that supports your point of view?
• Can you be/are you trusted?
• What’s your intent in communicating candidly – i.e. because you believe it will benefit the organization or another individual, or because it will benefit you?
Footnote: 1. Tobaccowala, R., “Restoring the Soul of Business,” HarperCollins Leadership, pages 56-60.
IMPLEMENTATION (one research-backed strategy, tip, or tool)
“Climbing and falling are the same thing. They just happen at different speeds, in different directions.”
I recently heard this wisdom uttered by the always-funny Rob Lowe, on his Netflix show, Unstable. I share it because it’s a great strategy for reframing the way you think about failure, or “falling.”
The next time you find yourself on the ground after a hard fall, or in progress plummeting downward, remember Lowe’s wisdom. While falling might be what happens after you climb sometimes, it’s also what happens right before you’re climbing again. The two movements are closely related not only in verticality, but in value. Sure, one’s more painful, and that pain comes upon you quicker than the benefit does of the other. But they’re inextricably intertwined, and should both be held in the highest regard.
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