How Current are your Current Measures of Success?
By Jim Boneau
One afternoon, inspired by a desire for nostalgia, I toured my boyhood hometown and found myself driving through an area I had thought 30 years ago was my dream neighborhood. I always imagined buying a home there and settling my future family into that community. Remembering that goal, that previous measure of success, I rather quickly judged that particular goal a failure – a measurement of success that I had not met. As I reflected further, I began to challenge my quick label of failure. The reality is, my life today, the community I live in, the home I have, the family that lives there – those are my dream – not that outdated dream. In fact, that outdated dream was no longer relevant to my own current values and measures of success. There was no reason for me to label not living in my 30 year old dream neighborhood as a failure because not settling there was actually a contributing factor to what I now define as my success. My current view of success was something I could not have even imagined 30 years ago.
A few weeks later I was leading a leadership development class through a values identification activity. Half-way through the process, a woman raised her hand to share an observation. The values she had been identifying as most important were actually outdated from her current value set. She had not truly realized, until laying out values side by side, that what she thought were her values were actually reflections from her past, not truly what she believed today as a leader in a large organization. As we spoke further, I found that she too was measuring success today through an outdated set of values and goals.
As I considered this phenomenon of outdated views of self and old goals, I began to see more and more examples in my and other leaders’ behaviors:
Using a definition of success from prior to 2008 and the recession instead of adjusting my measure of success in our new economic reality;
identifying and developing talent based on my view of how I saw talent 20 years ago instead of looking at how to identify and develop talent now;
looking for new business opportunities from a value set and belief of business that was far from
the actual business person I am today.
For me and other leaders I have worked with, our outdated sense of self and measures of success were causing us to be blind to the new, innovative opportunities that were right in front of us. We were blind to these innovations because they were blocked from our sight by our outdated views of ourselves, what we valued, and how we measured success.
Every leader I talk to from Asia to Europe to North America speaks of the need to be more innovative. They focus on innovation techniques to generate new ideas. I wonder if they too are surrounded by opportunities for innovation, but blind to them because of outdated views of themselves, those around them, and the businesses they lead. Think of the implications of this: If I can update how I see myself and the world around me to be more in line with today’s reality than yesterday’s history, I could actually see the innovation opportunities that are right under my nose.
What can you do to open up this new window to seeing innovation?
1. Begin by reflecting on your values, goals and measures of success from a critical time in your early adult life–graduating from college, your first job, or your first remembered adult dreams of success. Write down as much as possible
2. Next, reflect on your values, goals and measures of success today. Again, write as much as possible.
3. Now write down all your most recent successes, times when you felt most satisfied with work and life. Create a mental video tape of one of the best days of your life.
4. Compare these 3 sets of data. What do you see? Are there clear connections between any of these? Rate how up-to-date your measures of success are.
5. Finally, sit down with a trusted friend or colleague. Tell them what you have learned in this reflection process. Ask them how they see you today and how they think you measure success. What information does that give you about how you see yourself and how you measure success compared to another’s view?
What meaning can you make for yourself after completing this reflection process? Do your current successes fall in line with how you think you measure success now or in another time of your life? Is it time to update your personal and professional values, goals and measures of success?
I heard this line once in a movie, “Don’t let your past dictate who are – let it be a part of who you become.” In life and in business, the past could be a hindrance to seeing new possibilities.
The innovative, up-to-date leader may realize that the biggest blocker to innovation is their outdated measurements of what it means to be successful.
Jim Boneau is Vice President and Master Facilitator at Bluepoint Leadership Development. He welcomes your comments by email.
