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An Anatomy of Success: Proven Action Steps That Lead to Achievement

For the first time in our working history, we are asking so much more of ourselves. Not only what we can learn, what we can do, how we can progress, but what we should truly be doing with our lives. We crave to have our interior yearnings made congruent with our outward manifestations. We want purpose in our working lives not just for ourselves. We need to make a difference. We can.

But to do it, we have to give up old modes and behaviors that still haunt us. We have been acculturated by the very institutions we have relied on to lead us out—all of us, scientists and professionals, no matter whether we are deans in universities, directors of governmental agencies, or in private practice. Keenly interested in how we succeed at what we want to do the most, I’ve interviewed many accomplished people in dentistry, science, management, and the arts as well as practicing professionals. From mapping their lives, I’ve divided the world of professionals into two groups: Sustainers vs. Achievers. While it is more true that most of us slide between these poles at different times in our own lives, looking at the extremes will help identify the mindset that either captures or frees us to realize our dreams.

First, let’s look at Sustainers. This describes us when we are just doing our jobs well and waiting for recognition, waiting passively for rewards, praise, raises, promotions. Those of us who are in the Sustainer mode may feel stuck, frustrated as we wait for our managers to recognize our best efforts and then give us financial and emotional rewards. And when waiting doesn’t work—and it absolutely doesn’t because it makes you invisible to your superiors, just the opposite, ironically, of what you had hoped for—Sustainers then become resentful for not being selected when others who have done less or are newer are given opportunities instead. We may complain and grow cynical, but we slip back trying to do only better at our work.

Why? When we behave like Sustainers, we act like the good students we were in school, waiting for specific assignments that always came, for our teachers to grade our papers and exams, and then automatically promote us as they always did based on just grades. We never had to learn how to petition them or position ourselves. In fact, we regard that as brown-nosing, illegitimate, cheating—somewhat contemptuous to our moral sense. What we have learned, in addition to any content, has been system dependence. And that has unconsciously depleted us.

Now, consider the behavioral patterns of Achievers. Instead of only doing work well and waiting passively for reward, Achievers not only do well (just as Sustainers) but also actively seek both recognition and opportunity. Chances to do more interesting or advanced work depend on the recognition of others. Achievers learn along the way to tell others about the work they’ve done, what they’ve learned from their position or clients or research, and what they feel they are ready for as their next career steps as well as for those on their team. And they take the risks to get there.

Achievers learn that, to advance their careers, they must build contacts and alliances with others because it is these connections that give them a better perspective on their own work, provide them with different approaches to dilemmas, and illuminate them for what is possible, new, relevant, important in their work. The more information and people they know, the more they are valued. Contacts or networks release them from a feeling of dependency, emboldening them. Sharing professional ideas and experiences becomes a source of support, a way to expand the nature of their jobs and their own potential. Actively seeking vs. passively waiting are poles apart and represent two different worldviews.

Why aren’t Sustainers like Achievers? Not what you’d think: they are not smarter or better educated or from better families or even luckier. Rather, they have broken out of the trap of being just good students and have developed skills for success over their entire work lives.

Here is the key to each of these skills. You’ll see where you already have excelled and where you might yet venture. Know that these are developmental: we are never done; we are always in stages of exploring and creating.

	Developing Personal Courage

Top Developing personal courage Developing organizational savvy Developing professional... The learn-do-teach cycle of...

 
#1. Experiencing Doing: Building a Wardrobe of Behaviors and Roles
This very skill pushes out our boundaries of who we thought we were when we were young. Only by continually learning or experiencing something different, something advanced, do we sense more opportunity and gain self-confidence. It might be doing something physical, like mountain climbing or piloting a plane or learning to ballroom dance. What Achievers report is that they stop worrying about what others think and learn to trust themselves. It might be something more intellectual, like learning another language. And it might be more professional—joining a dental association and proceeding beyond the first level of engagement of only paying dues and coming to meetings into volunteering for a committee, chairing it, running for office, and then expanding that role to a state or national level. This process changes how others view you and how you view yourself.

The idea is to put yourself in front of others and risk the uncomfortable status of being invisible. If the idea of public speaking, for example, is threatening, then take up some short-lived activity like improvisational acting or join a speakers group in which you feel safe enough before your own peer group or a civic, religious, political, professional, or special interest group.

If you think of life metaphorically as a party, then you see both roles. The guest, ready, willing, and waiting like a Sustainer, takes only a minimum amount of courage. The host, however, requires thinking for the group, whom to invite, connect with, entertain. This focus brings the most rewards. Then expand that and imagine that if your profession or your organization or group is your party and your role becomes host, how would you act?

Experimenting with new behaviors allows us to redefine ourselves, reclaim ourselves, get to know and trust whom we want to become. In the doing, we understand that success is not an end in itself, an ultimate goal with tremendous fears related to it and on which we stake it all, but rather of the process of moving, of growing.

#2. Risking Linking: Connecting to Individuals, Organizations, and Ideas
This skill is about taking a risk and making vital connections to people, groups, and ideas. It is a search for concrete opportunities, new directions, even without knowing what the end goal will be. It is most needed when there is a longing for change in goals.

The term "linking," of course, suggests connecting. The harder term is risking. What we can more easily risk is time or money; but what is the most critical is risking "face": daring to meet others to brainstorm an idea or even talk about a new position. Our own terror of being found out not to be so smart as we seem, found out to be a fraud, is so intense that we stop ourselves even before we begin. The term "networking" is nothing simplistic; it requires a mutuality within a professional circle. You have to be able to support each other in good times in order to help or be helped in the tough ones. Such linking extends beyond the exchange of cards or smiles. Often, the way of linking best is done over volunteer professional work that allows us to know and trust the other.

We can try risking linking in a variety of ways: whom we think to contact, to have lunch with, to explore a project with. To try cracking your comfort zone, then consider starting a Strategy Group. I have set up this kind of brain trust in many organizations and private groups. Some groups have lasted one year; others have continued for decades. It always works if you follow the structure. Here’s how:

Invite up to five others who are interested in making changes or advancing. Ask them to commit for at least six meetings, held monthly for two hours. Each person will get a fifteen-minute turn (which is timed) in front of the group. Each fifteen minutes is divided into three parts initially: five minutes of telling your accomplishments so that no one under- or overestimates you; five minutes of describing your dilemma or goal in detail; and then five minutes taking notes of the group’s advice, suggestions, contacts. Each member takes such a three-part turn. The following months spend the first five minutes for your progress or lack of it; your dilemma and goal might stay the same over a period of time. Your group will get better about giving you ideas as you improve with them.

Some caution: everyone gets excited at first, but at some point in the process, one or more in the group will become frustrated about not progressing so much as another. Know that this process is not a competition: each is there for the others. It’s about meeting profound fears and a bit of timing. With commitment to practice, you have the power to transform each other’s lives.

	Developing Organizational Savvy

Top Developing personal courage Developing organizational savvy Developing professional... The learn-do-teach cycle of...

 
#3. Showing Belonging: Creating a More Productive and Interactive Division
Achievers are the ultimate team players: they actively support the group they work for and create a more interactive, supportive, and productive group, regardless of their title. Nearly unconsciously, Achievers show belonging in the way they answer a call, talk with a staff member, or discuss a problem in a meeting. They send congratulations to colleagues who have published an article or book, who are cited by others, who brought in a new grant. They extend themselves to those who are in distress, sharing resources and knowledge, showing empathy.

It doesn’t take extraordinary circumstances to bring out feelings of belonging though they are spectacular. Often it is demonstrated in the ordinary events of daily life: how you walk into your office or clinic, whom you greet, whom in your own group you praise or encourage. At meetings you have a chance to contribute by validating or adding to a good idea another has suggested. In projects, you could, midway through, call for a time-out to see if there is a better way to proceed. At the end of a major project or event, you could ask the group to tell what they are proud of doing, what else they might like to do next, how they’d redo the project if they had the chance. By not ignoring members of your group, but rather in concentrating on them, you will raise the level of involvement and fulfillment. Success demands a dual effort: opportunity-taking and meaning-making.

#4. Exhibiting Specialing: Demonstrating Worth by Enacting a Special and Necessary Role Exceeding the Scope of Your Job Description
Achievers are simultaneously the ultimate stars. They exhibit their special talents even as they demonstrate their worth to their organizations. It requires more than just doing what they are good at. It often extends beyond their job descriptions. It requires that they find out what their colleagues may need and offering that skill.

This skill asks you to look at how you hold yourself back. Think about what you would be doing if only you could be doing it, and then do it. It often clarifies your own calling, that latent longing for fulfillment in some special arena. If you see that you are also interested in promoting your organization, start with marketing your own projects. You might realize a new way to generate business or handle accounts, commit to further research, or devise a needed system of handling cases. If you can conceive of it and if you do it, you might change the direction of your life. If you are bored with what you are competent in, even expert at, refocusing your attention to your organization’s challenges might lead to another success.

It is important to consider the differences between men and women in relation to these skills. While I have seen many successful people demonstrate them effectively, I still see that women find it more difficult to take risks, demonstrate their talents, ask for advice from authorities, and take active roles. The good student role is even more carefully taught to females. Only recently has the world of work been truly open for women to be able to equally demonstrate their talents, enthusiasm, and interests and compete for opportunities.

	Developing Professional Furtherance

Top Developing personal courage Developing organizational savvy Developing professional... The learn-do-teach cycle of...

 
#5. Using Catapulting: Using Higher-Ranking Contacts to Mentor the Careering Process
Achievers turn some of their professional associates and expert contacts into mentors and, as a result, catapult themselves to levels that they could not otherwise easily achieve. They understand that this is a two-part skill that requires, first, the establishment of a significant relationship with a more experienced person and, second, the carrying out of moves that are taught or suggested by the mentor. This second part requires independent effort and active participation but cannot be realized without the mentor’s connections, expertise, and encouragement. The alliance between mentors and mentees must be strong.

Like wished-for respected parents, mentors guide us in how we present, position, and connect ourselves. We need such experts in our corner to help defend ourselves against attack and help us plan our best strategies for success like career coaches. Mentors work in the same profession at higher levels. As we move up, we need additional mentors at the top. During our careers, we need advice based on mentors’ life experience to understand the political nature of work and the way our specific system functions and to provide clues that only veterans can know. Identify people whom you respect who might be helpful to you, explain why you admire them, and ask for specific advice. Find bonds between you, including values and interests shared. Remember, every successful person needs to be needed, appreciated, and have his or her concepts carried out.

The mentor relationship is a two-way one and requires that we respond and give back through reporting our progress and our appreciation. The mentor-mentee relationship is informal, even personal, and not bound by time. It has no explicit contracts nor can it be overused. We can’t continuously complain or not take any action. We call on a mentor because we recognize our inexperience and need their counsel on a specific issue, a negotiation, or a career move for which we want seasoned, reasoned advice.

Because we share our mentor’s connections and experiences and because we are given entree into their world, we become a reflection of them. We need, therefore, to be aware that by excelling we enhance them.

#6. Magnifying Accomplishments: Bringing Recognition to You, Your Organization, and Your Profession
Magnifying accomplishments is the culmination of the six competences, a synthesis of these nontechnical skills. It is the supreme skill of displaying your ideas and expertise not only inside your organization but within your profession. It involves not only intense participation in your organization but also taking on leadership positions in professional associations, lecturing, and moderating panels before professional and community groups, writing books and articles for journals, and, finally, becoming a mentor to others. This is the natural result of successful careering when we are in a position to broaden our accomplishments, collaborate with our colleagues, and make our expertise and experience available to others following us. It is the highest form of teaching. And through it, we increase our own knowledge in the process.

	The Learn-Do-Teach Cycle of Careering

Top Developing personal courage Developing organizational savvy Developing professional... The learn-do-teach cycle of...

 
This three-part cycle, Learn-Do-Teach, if followed through with a spirit of commitment, ensures a successful career. We all need to learn new things, to practice and master them, and then to teach them to others. It is the movement through the complete process that provides us with perspective and understanding. It also provides us with a system for involvement in our work and in our personal growth. Without this kind of progress, we stay stuck as perpetual students, or dissatisfied workers, or uninspired professors or administrators.

Each one of the six skills described here is developmental—that is, each one is infinitely expandable. In the most profound sense, we are never finished with any one of them. But we do seem to move on from the first to the second and on to the sixth in developmental sequence. Some of us will take our whole lives to move once through all of them. But increasingly, more of us will move through these competences, completing the cycle, and then begin again. This return seems to be on a level more profound than when we started out the first time.

This anatomy of success presents the hidden structure in the system of working and advancing. It acts as a guide to make our own careers work in more satisfying and fulfilling ways and to stimulate a thoughtful investment of talent and aspiration toward realizing our potential.

We are each at a threshold: about to take new risks and experiences to make our dreams come true.

	Footnotes

 
Dr. Scheele is a career life strategist and author. Direct correspondence to her at 14115 Moorpark St., Suite 201, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423; 818-981-6114 phone; 818-981-6117 fax; adelesche{at}aol.com; Dr.Adele.com website.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Scheele, A. M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Scheele, A. M.