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The Art of Transformation Spring 2022
QUESTIONS FOR
Ruth Gotian, Chief Learning Officer, Professor and Author, The Success Factor
Q &A How do high achievers thrive throughout life? An expert explains.
Interview by Karen Christensen
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You spent years researching the world’s most successful people—including medical superstars like Dr. Anthony Fauci, astronaut Nicole Stott, NBA Champion Steve Kerr and several Nobel Prize winners. How did you come to define a ‘high achiever’?
Success means different things to different people, but a definition I like is, ‘Someone who moves the needle in their field.’ These are people who have created a paradigm shift and a new way of thinking about things. But as they advance, they also give back in some way. They might do one-on-one mentoring or lead community programs, but as they ascend in their field, they bring other people up with them. That is the true hallmark of someone who is extremely successful. You believe that high achievers actually gain more control over their time, not less. Please explain.
People think if you’re a high achiever, you must be a lot busier than other people. But there are things high achievers do to alleviate that. For instance, they can decide which opportunities to accept and which to turn down. One of the high achievers I feature in the book, Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012. In addition to teaching at the Duke University School of Medicine, he also runs a lab there. Over the years he’s been offered many prestigious roles, including Department Chair and Dean — but he has always turned them down. He is perfectly happy focusing on his research and running his lab — and thanks to his success, he has the flexibility to do that. High achievers get to control their effort, their persistence and the initiatives they take on. And when anyone can do that, they are going to be happier and more loyal to their organization.
Research indicates that high achievers can produce more than 400 per cent more than the average employee.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who runs the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, has been in the same role for decades. He has advised seven U.S. Presidents at this point. At one point he was offered the top role at the NIH, but he, too, turned it down, because he loved what he was doing. These people work really, really hard, but they are passionate about what they do and are able to control what they work on. What effect do high achievers have on those around them in the workplace?
When you’re working with a high achiever, there is a high level of expectation and an atmosphere of success that raises the bar for everyone. One high achiever can singlehandedly change the culture of an organization, because success is addictive. When employees see someone achieving great things, they think, ‘How can I be part of this?’ This moves the culture from being about one individual’s goals to a group norm. Many Nobel Prize winners, for example, were trained by other Nobel Prize winners. It’s not all a bed of roses, of course. High achievers set the bar really high for themselves — and for others. When colleagues are only aiming for average or fail to rise to the level they are capable of, the high achiever gets really frustrated with them. They also get frustrated with people who don’t show the same level of care, attention and effort in their work. They want people around them who have that same level of dedication. Some people are definitely intimidated by working with a high achiever, but the ones who truly want to learn and excel will take advantage of being around these star performers and learn everything they can from them. Before long, they too are likely to start making connections that other people don’t see. A recent study found that people who experience failure early in their careers often become more successful later on than those who don’t. Why might that be?
Whenever you try something new or experiment, failure is
part of the process, but high achievers just dust themselves off and try again. They know hurdles will appear, but they never question whether or not they can overcome them. They know they will: They’ll work around the hurdle, over it, under it, or through it, but they will get to the other side. It’s a completely different mindset. They think, ‘What is a strategy that I have not yet considered here?’ At the end of the day, high achievers fear not trying much more than they fear failure. You have said success is a moving target throughout our lives. How so?
I interviewed Devon Harris for the book — one of the original members of the Jamaican bobsledding team. The movie Cool Runnings was based on Devon and his teammates. They knew from the outset that they weren’t going to win a medal. After all, they come from a tropical island and had never even seen ice until a few months before the Olympics. Their goal was just to get to the Olympics. And later on, it was to get to another Olympics. Likewise, future Olympians don’t wake up one day and say, ‘I want to win a Gold Medal.’ They start with, ‘I want to train hard so I can win my race at the regional championships.’ Then it’s the nationals, and then there’s another goal after that. They always have short-term ambitions in mind alongside longer-term aspirations. You have developed a framework for high achievement. Please describe your GROW model.
I use the this quite a bit in my coaching. ‘G’ is for goals. What are your one-, three- and five- year goals? ‘R’ is for Reality: What is your current reality? Think of all the Olympians who were training for the 2020 Olympics; then along came the pandemic, and there were no Olympics. Their reality had to completely shift and they had to rearrange everything for the next year. ‘O’ is for Options. What are the options before you? Let’s return to those 2020 athletes: Their options were either to quit or do what most of them did, which is say, rotmanmagazine.ca / 91
A Sample Passion Audit
TK Things I am good at
What I am not good at or do not enjoy doing
What I would do for free if I could
Operations
Grant writing
Social media posts
Networking
Budgets
Interviews with interesting people
Empathy
Forms
Writing
Grant writing
Editing
Talking to and helping people, especially women
Talking to people and making them feel valued and heard
Standardized tests
Mentoring, especially women
Mentoring, especially women
Setting up automated emails
Keynote speaking
FIGURE ONE
‘I can’t go to the gym but there are lots of other things that are in my control: my food, my sleep, my hydration, my exercise, etc.’ And they focused on those things. The ‘O’ can also stand for Obstacles: What obstacles are standing in your way? How will you overcome them? Lastly, the ‘W’ is for Will. What will you do next? What will be your next action step towards your goal? This is where most people get stuck. There is usually a buffet of options, and what works for one person may not be right for another. You can’t just copy other people’s choices or habits. Also, what works for you today may not work for you the next time you have a transition — a new job, a move, a pandemic, whatever it is. Research indicates that high achievers can produce more than 400 per cent more than the average employee. What’s the best way to find these people and keep them happy?
First of all, high achievers tend to hang out with other high achievers, so take a look at who their friends and associates are. In terms of retaining them, a few things come to mind. Nobody wants to be micro-managed, but these people real-
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ly need a long leash in terms of what they do and how they do it. The best thing to do is leave them alone. Give them latitude and you will see them soar. How can people get started on the path to high achievement?
There are four things all high achievers have in common. First, they are intrinsically motivated. They have found an area in which they excel, and they have a passion and purpose to improve continually. It is the reason they wake up every morning, eager to get to work. They recognize that perfection, like success, is a moving target, and they put in more time and effort than anyone else to produce the best work they can within the constraints before them. The second characteristic is perseverance. Their road to success, like everyone’s, was long and filled with many challenges and hurdles. But for them, these things were not viewed as negatives; instead, they considered them learning opportunities to improve their craft. They never doubted whether they could overcome the challenge. Instead, they concentrated on finding a solution to overcome it. Third, high achievers have a strong foundation in their
skill, which they constantly reinforce. They often use the same techniques throughout their careers to stay sharp. Last but not least, even with all their accolades, these people are constantly learning through informal means. There are so many ways to do that these days. You can read, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube. Lifelong learning is essential to high achievers. What is a ‘passion audit,’ and what purpose does it serve?
If your readers want to start with one thing, I would encourage them to do a passion audit to pinpoint what they are great at and love to do. Here’s how to do it: Create a table with three columns. In the first, list the things you do really well. It doesn’t matter if you enjoy doing them; you just happen to be good at them. Do you write really engaging social media content with ease? Are you an Excel master who loves to analyze data? Perhaps you are an excellent public speaker or mentor?
In the second column, list everything you’re not good at or don’t enjoy doing. Notice I said ‘or,’ not ‘and.’ You might excel at writing grants, which would appear in column one; but if you don’t enjoy doing that, also list it in column two. Ask yourself, which tasks fill you with dread? If you don’t enjoy the spotlight or giving talks, list it here. Lastly, in the third column, list the things you would do for free if you had the time. Maybe you really love developing creative content for social media or organizing events and masterfully connecting people. To get some clues, ask yourself what you enjoy doing on your day off. This will offer you an unedited view of what you love. You can also pay attention to what you get excited about and keep a running list for a few weeks. Now that you have a first draft, carry it around with you and add things as they come to you. Ask friends, family and colleagues what they think you’re great at, and what you always avoid.
Success Factor Research Project: Sample Interviewees Peter Agre, MD, Physician-scientist, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Anthony Fauci, MD, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Dori Bernstein, Former Director of the Supreme Court Institute, Georgetown University Law Center
Scott Hamilton, Olympic champion and two-time Olympian, Men’s Figure Skating
Candace Cable, Three-time Paralympic champion Charles Camarda, PhD, Astronaut Lee Cockerell, Former Executive Vice-President, Walt Disney World Resorts Jonathan Cohen, MD, Executive Chairman, BioReference Labs
Steve Kerr, Eight-time NBA champion and head coach of the Golden State Warriors Robert Lefkowitz, MD, Physicianscientist, recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Arthur Levitt, Former chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Scott O’Neil, Former CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and
the New Jersey Devils Daryl Roth, Tony Award-winning producer of over 90 theatre productions, including Kinky Boots Haley Skarupa, Olympic champion, Women’s Ice Hockey Nicole Stott, Astronaut Bert Vogelstein, MD, Physicianscientist and professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Peggy Whitson, PhD, Astronaut, Former NASA Chief Astronaut, Former Commander of the International Space Station Anne Wojcicki, CEO, 23andMe
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Once you have a list you are happy with, the idea is to use it to come up with a statement that embodies the activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. For example: ‘I love working with people who I know well and I get excited about bringing ideas to fruition’; or ‘I enjoy and am really good at getting people to rally around a new program and making ideas go viral through social media.’
I have always felt that people want to achieve more but don’t know how to go about it. They have the potential, but they need a plan. My goal with this book is to lift the veil on success and offer a way forward for those who want to achieve more. The fact is, no one wakes up in the morning aiming to be average in life.
Can high achievers be developed, or are they born that way?
There are numerous ways to develop high achievers, including giving them stretch assignments, offering them professional development inside and outside the organization, extending opportunities for exposure and providing mentoring opportunities. For managers, I have found that developing a team of high achievers requires putting together a blend of senior, junior and mid-career top performers so they can learn from and support each other.
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Ruth Gotian is the Chief Learning Officer and Assistant Professor of
Education in Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, whose collaborators include its parent university, Cornell University, as well as New York-Presbyterian. She is the author of The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance (Kogan Page, 2022.)
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