This approach starts by building on your strengths and setting specific goals. It then involves doing the solid work and the superb work on the way towards achieving the picture of success.
This is an approach that can be followed by individuals, teams and organisations. They may do so when working in the arts, sports, medicine or another field.
Imagine that you want to follow elements of this approach in your own way. This involves focusing on the following themes.
Clarifying The
Picture Of Success
Great workers build on their strengths and love to explore future possibilities. Looking ahead, they use their imagination to create potential pictures of success.
Some follow the path described in the often cited quoted by Arthur Schopenhauer.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Imagine that you want to follow this approach in your own way. Bearing in mind your strengths, you can clarify: a) the specific goals you want to achieve; b) the strategies you can follow to achieve success. One approach is to explore the following themes.
What is the piece of work I want to do? What are the real results I want to achieve? What is the picture of success? What will be the benefits of achieving these goals?
What are the strategies I can follow to give myself the greatest chance of success? How can I do the required solid work and create the right foundation?
How can I deliver high professional standards and do superb work? How can I go further and, if appropriate, do something spectacular? How can I add that touch of class and deliver the picture of success?
Imagine that you have explored these themes. You may then want to do the following exercise.
Let’s assume that you have clarified the specific goals you want to achieve and the strategies you want to follow. The next step will be to move into action. One approach is to focus in the next theme.
Solid Work
Great workers follow their chosen strategies and do the required solid work. The kind of solid work they do will obviously depend on their chosen activity. Whatever work they do, however, it may involve aiming:
To prepare properly … To rehearse following their chosen strategies … To plan how to manage any potential challenges … To move into action … To keep follow good habits … To get a quick success.
The professional worker prepares properly – both physically and psychologically. The leader makes sure their team will be following the right strategy with the right people in the right way
Great workers continue to do the basics and follow good habits. Bearing in mind their chosen strategies, they do the right things in the right way every day to get the right results.
Such people keep doing the solid work required to deliver at least 7+/10. This provide the platform for moving on to the next stage and moving closer to achieving 10/10.
Superb Work
Great workers continue to deliver high professional standards and also perform do superb work. Different people, teams and organisations do this in different ways.
James Kerr’s book Legacy describes how the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team took this approach. They did this after the team had failed to go beyond the semi-finals in the Rugby World Cup.
They encouraged the players to behave in ways that would create a positive legacy. They created a mission that was based on the words of Jonas Salk, who pioneered one of the polio vaccines. They encouraged the players to be good ancestors.
The All Blacks were then urged to follow certain principles that would help them to achieve this mission. Here is an overview of the approach that the players were urged to take.
Success
Great workers deliver consistently high standards and find solutions to challenges. They then keep doing their best to achieve their picture of success.
Some may also go into another dimension. The footballer scores a remarkable goal. The dancer does a quadruple turn. The inventor has an enlightening breakthrough. Some go beyond doing superb work and produce something spectacular.
Danny Boyle took this approach with the Isles Of Wonder segment for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. He helped to coordinate a cast of thousands to create something special.
In 2022 The Guardian newspaper looked back at the ceremony which had shown the best sides of the Britain. It described it in the following way.
Isles of Wonder was one of the few attempts to tell a fresh, modern, inclusive story about what Britain was, is and could be.
We might not have lived up to it in the short term, but the fact that the vast majority of us responded so positively to it is as important now as it was then. Given all that’s happened since, Britain needs stories like this more than ever.
There are many ways to do fine work. One approach is for people to build on their strengths and set specific goals. It is then for them to do the solid work and superb work on their way towards achieving the picture of success.
Let’s return to your own work. Looking ahead, can you think of a specific situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? How can you do this in your own way?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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