Success belongs to those who have these two attributes:
⢠An insatiable desire to learn
⢠An unquenchable bias for action
Those who win are constantly looking for better ways to do things and to improve. They donât sit back and let others pass them by. They use their tools and resources to attack issues and make things happen.
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... the truth is that large success is the aggregation of small successes, and that therefore improvement consists of finding out, in each trial, what works, seizing hold of it, and figuring out how to make more of it. Failure by itself doesnât teach us anything about success, just as our deficits by themselves donât teach us anything about our strengths. And the moment we begin to get better is the moment when something actually works, not when it doesnât.
Finally, it means creating a growth-mindset environment in which people can thrive. This involves:
- Presenting skills as learnable
- Conveying that the organization values learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent
- Giving feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success
- Presenting managers as resources for learning
In an unhealthy culture, each group believes that if their objectives trump the goals of the other groups, the company will be better off. In a healthy culture, all constituencies recognize
the importance of balancing competing desires - they want to be heard, but they donât have
to win. Their interaction with one another - the push and pull that occurs naturally when talented people are given clear goals - yields the balance we seek. But that only happens if they understand that achieving balance is a central goal of the company.
More precisely, traits such as confidence, narcissism, psychopathy, and charisma advance individualsâ careers without improving the success of the groups they lead. Clearly, we would be better off if we sifted out individuals with such traits, as opposed to rewarding them. The success of teams and organizations is more important than an individualâs personal success, especially when individual victory harms the rest of the group.
The principle of Win/Win is fundamental to success in all our interactions, and it embraces five interdependent dimensions of life. It begins with character and moves toward relationships, out of which flow agreements. It is nurtured in an environment where structure and systems are based on Win/Win. And it involves process; we cannot achieve Win/Win ends with Win/Lose or Lose/Win means.