We have all heard the mantras of “You have to work hard.” or “You have to be persistent” as prime directives for getting on the road to success, and both are quite true. In any endeavor there has to be a willingness to work at it and then keep working at it to move one to the heights of what we would call success. But is there something beyond this that makes the high achiever different from the rest of us?
I’ve been reading the research of Chris Argyris, a leading business theorist, and the relationship of double loop learning to high achievement What stood out for me is that high achievers seem to have the ability to question their assumptions (the double loop), sometimes to the point of changing tactics or the goal itself. Outside of hard work and persistence was their ability to hold themselves up to rather harsh, sometimes soul deep questioning in terms of what they were doing and how it was working. A lot of us are not great at self examination and there in is the key. One has to be willing to bring in new information and question everything you thought was true, right down to the methodology you followed, and one’s basic mindset in order to reinvent the overall approach that will lead to success.
What quickly came to mind was a friend back in Denver who years ago opened a transport business. He kept saying “I know the business is out there” as the sales failed to materialize. At no point was he willing to examine what he believed to be true, or the tactics he used to attract the numbers he wanted. All he figured he had to do was work harder at doing what he was already doing (single loop learning) as he slowly went out of business still thinking the “business was out there” but somehow he had failed to tap into it when in reality the business really was not there.
Another example that comes to mind, love her or hate her, is Serena Williams. It is well known that she enters major tournaments and
plays herself into fitness. This had worked for almost twenty years and she has the trophies to prove it. And then, in 2012 she was eliminated in the first round of the French Open. Everyone has a bad day at the office and this French Open might have been hers. A convenient way of explaining a crushing loss especially when you consider how far talent and instinct had already taken her. And yet, she used this as a wake up call that something was not working, moved to France and began a fitness regime that was followed by a win at Wimbledon and then the U.S. Open.
Self examination is never easy because it requires us to admit things we sometimes wish had remained buried. And keep in mind I’m not talking about beat yourself over the head sessions but sincere questioning of “Is what I am doing getting me what I want?” coupled with a willingness to try something new or go in a different direction. Sometimes it might help to get feedback from a trusted friend to begin the conversation with yourself. I say that because all of us have a capacity to see only the things we wish to see when other options are apparent to someone looking in from the outside. One need not accept the feedback as true but use it as a tool that allows us to begin the process of first examining our assumptions and then the painstaking questioning of them. Self examination has the power to move us to new levels of accomplishment, but if the goal is high achievement no matter how painful, it first must be employed!