Measuring Success
In your work with senior leaders you have found that success often leaves people feeling empty. Why is that?
In many cases, what people thought was a ‘meaningful purpose’ was merely their pursuit of success — and these are two very different things. Once we reach a career milestone, the gap between what we expect to feel and what we actually feel can come as a surprise. Emerging leaders often make basic assumptions early in their careers about what is driving them, but these drivers aren’t well defined and they are often prescriptive in nature: ‘land that job’; ‘snag a promotion’; ‘make a name for myself’, etc. As a result, milestones achieved along the way — which you assumed would be intrinsically valuable and personally motivating — turn out to be empty successes.
The role of in organizational life is squarely on the minds of today’s leaders. Of course, achievement still matters, but the impact of any achievement will only be one dimensional if it is disconnected from a personally-relevant reason as to why it matters. A focus on external achievements alone tends to leave us asking, ‘What’s next?’
