What Success Means

On Thursday, I was with a group of managers and entrepreneurs with whom I shared some ideas on how to build a success foundation that their employees can own and strive for. The first idea that I shared with them is the fact that we all have a personal definition of what success is and most of the time , a manager's definition of what success is entirely different from that of a subordinate simply because a manager's scope of factors in determining success is inevitably larger than his subordinate's. Let me explain.

In a project management scenario, a manager's performance will be judged as a success or otherwise based on factors like cost control, on-time delivery, resource management, overall people management, creative new ideas produced, etc. On the other hand, his subordinate in the team who is responsible for keeping accounts will be judged only on how well she has balanced the account. She need not worry about anything else. You get the picture? So is it fair o expect the individual team members to have the same definition of what success should be? I suppose not at t least not until the manager has managed to create an ownership for his definition of what the team success should be by the team members.

Hence, the concept of what success may be basic but not universally understood or agreed upon. The solution to this apparent dichotomy is simple : Ensure that the team believes in a collective definition of success whereby each and every one of them will be held responsible for the 'SUCCESS' as a whole rather than to only a few tiny facets of it.

In doing so, I would also suggest to managers, as I did on Thursday, never to underestimate the 'good-old-values' like honesty, trust and fairness. I believe that in our rush to acquire more and more of the latest management skills, knowledge and tools; we have forgotten the power and energy behind such values like honesty and trust. I would suggest to managers not to feel old-fashioned when speaking about these values as without them no success is complete.

I am going to meet a group of managers of a private higher education on Monday to discuss about their Change Management project...I will talk about these values. I strongly believe that success without these values is empty no matter how we define it!