Stories
Stories
Faculty Opinion: No Magic Bullet
What does it mean to be "successful"? How do you achieve your dreams? For many of us, it may mean creating an impressive list of achievements or gaining significant wealth, status, position, and power. It may mean impressing our parents, family, and friends.
Having wrestled with these issues for the past 30 years, I have come to believe that achieving your aspirations lies not in "being a success" but in working to achieve your unique potential. This requires you to create your own definition of success rather than accept a definition created by others.
Navigating this road is very challenging, because it forces us to understand ourselves and screen out many of the external forces that profoundly impact how we think about our careers and our lives. This approach takes courage and hard work. It doesn't yield easy answers or get you to a final destination. It is a multistage, lifelong effort that involves developing a different mindset and a new set of work habits.
Each of us is unique. We have different passions, life stories, and idiosyncrasies. Doesn't it make sense that the ideal path would be somewhat different for each of us? Why, then, do we so often try to mimic others and shoehorn ourselves into a cookie-cutter definition of success?
There is a perspective you can adopt and specific actions you can take that will help you realize your unique dreams. There are habits you can practice that will help you understand yourself better, improve your capabilities, and follow your own convictions.
In True North, Professor of Management Practice Bill George describes a process to help you in this effort. At HBS, we teach his methods in the second-year course Authentic Leadership Development. In my own book What You're Really Meant to Do, I also describe an approach to reaching your unique potential. This includes:
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Many people I speak with do not have a clear sense of their core strengths or an accurate assessment of their weaknesses. Assessing and reassessing your skills is a lifelong process.
Finding your passions. What tasks do your really enjoy? Which activities bring out your best? It is difficult to perform at a high level without having a passion for key elements of the job.
Understanding yourself. What is your life story? Are you aware of negative narratives in your head that may be hindering your performance? Understanding yourself is critical to the choices you make in your life.
Making the most of your opportunities. Do you match strengths, weaknesses, passions, and who you are with your current job or a prospective job? Do you know the three most important tasks critical to effectiveness in your current job? Do you take ownership of focusing on those tasks?
Character and leadership. Do you speak up and generally act like an owner in your job?
Relationships. You won't reach your potential all by yourself. You will need to cultivate trusting relationships that you can turn to for advice, feedback, and counsel (while offering the same in return). Who tells you the brutal truth—things you need to hear even though you may not want to hear them? Relationships serve as a powerful support and reality check.
Reaching your potential is hard work. Like losing weight or getting in shape, it is a process. There's no magic bullet, but in the long run, this process will help you experience a greater level of satisfaction in your life and career.
—Robert Steven Kaplan is the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration. He is the author of What You're Really Meant to Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential (HBR Press).
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