What is success? And what are the ingredients needed to achieve it?
Analysts from McKinsey asked this question to hundreds of PE CEOs. These people say they are successful managers (and therefore lead successful companies) because:
- They are people with the attitude of always wanting to learn and improve;
- They have the humility to ask for help when they need it;
- They have broad experience, in sectors that are functional to their role;
- They have gained long experience in the past on the boards of directors and committees of other companies, learning leadership on the field;
- They have learned from failures to adapt quickly to changes.
It seems almost too simple. If you only need five ingredients to be a top manager with huge wages and incredible benefits, well, it looks like we have solved the economic and financial crisis we are living.
In fact, it is not that simple and success depends on a series of factors that often dodge our control.
However, let’s focus on what is within our possibilities. Let’s try to ask ourselves some questions about the effectiveness of the disciplines we practice. An effectiveness not in combat but in personal, evolutionary change.
How many training sessions have we experienced or do we live with a sort of apathy that makes us impervious to the possibility of learning? And, after all, how many environments are capable of stimulating curiosity and satisfying the need for physical, technical, personal improvement?
How many times have we had the patience (with ourselves, with our companions, with the instructors) to admit that we are not as perfect as we think we are? And how many times, consequently, do we accept the condition of having to ask for support from others?
How much do we limit ourselves to the single experience we live and how much do we try to broaden our horizons, without losing sight of the importance of the work we do at the dojo?
How much are we hostage to disillusionment, to our difficulties? What weight do we give to the disappointments that our body, our system, our character and that of others generate? Are we able to see them as a tool for personal evolution?
Small, simple questions. Which highlight a great truth: we often desire impossible goals because we are responsible in setting an impossible route.
Back to the results of the survey on CEOs… We must, for intellectual honesty, remember that it is quite easy to tell about one’s own merits.
We live in the world of illusions and images, which tickle our ego. From selfies with the “magnum face” to showing others that we are beautiful, good and that everything is always going well.
It is actually more difficult to identify our talents. And those of others.
And work to be able to develop not only those we have, but those that are needed.
Being a person who always wants to learn is certainly a useful attitude but… knowing what is a priority to learn and what is really useful to learn is perhaps even more important
Being humble is certainly a good thing and getting help teaches you to face and solve problems that seem insurmountable but it can also get you used to always playing your own game on the sidelines.
Having vast experiences enriches, if and only if you have solid roots, cultivated and cared for day after day.
Learning leadership on the field is possible but knowing how to serve yourself and others through leadership is an art that cannot be learned if you do not possess it.
Finally, failing is a common and cyclical human experience. Accepting failure and not wallowing in defeat, rather using it to get back up, is not easy.
We therefore appreciate how the practice of a discipline gives us a healthier perspective on success, that is, the identification of talent and its real cultivation. It is this dynamic that gives strength and credibility to the practice and it is on this ground that a better version of the person and society can be generated.
Disclaimer: picture by kumar gaurav from Pexels