The Success Factor, Developing The Mindset And Skillset For Peak Business Performance by Ruth Gotian, with Foreword by Marshall Goldsmith,  KoganPage 2022 

Warning!  This book is not intended for wimps, fakers, the over-the-hill-gang, or other sub-zero performers.  Ruth Gotian designed this book for HIGH PERFORMERS!  

You know the type - astronauts, Olympic champions and Nobel laureates -  people driven to succeed, most definitely with a Plan.  In fact, we would typically call these people "high achievers," and we know them when we see them, although the how of their journeys might be a challenge to uncover.  In tennis, think Roger Federer, whose career was only slowed by inevitable injuries, and Andre Agassiz, whose father trained and trained and trained his young son to get out there and win!  While these high performers might not always be the ones we want to be neighbors with, or go camping with, they are definitely per this author, the humans whose Plan we want to study and memorize.

"High achievers are 400 percent more successful than the average person" (O'Boyle and Aguinis, 2012)"

The author does not recommend that we attempt to force superior performance on people whose passion lies elsewhere.  In fact she recommends completing the "Passion Audit" to discover not just what we are good at, but what we are truly passionate about.  She reminds us that working on projects that do not excite you will lead down an isolating road of burnout and resentment.  Instead, she shows us how to evaluate our current position relative to its potential for success.  Included is a list of passion killing questions that may confirm what you might already know about your current situation: - 

Which tasks cause you to procrastinate?  What tasks fill you with dread and deplete your energy?  Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

In the section titled "Name it and claim it" Gotian takes us out of the starting block with "the key is not to work on your ultimate goal but to start identifying your next goal."  Venus and Serena Williams did not enter the US Open immediately, although they were, even as teenagers, high performers,  Instead, they kept practicing and preparing at home, and by the time they hit the big tournaments, Serena's powerful serves were more than enough to take out any female opponent.  Psychologically the sisters were not stopped by the potentially overwhelming power of playing in the big time. 

Gotian offers readers one more unique and useful strategy to sustain the gain and be comfortable in the higher elevations, and that is her Chapter 11, "Finding your people," because you know that once you get there, you will need to surround yourself with "the right people."  The author illustrates this sustaining point with stories about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who consciously built and gathered a following of all her former clerks.  You see, every five years the Justice invited all her former clerks to a reunion on a weekend afternoon.  The event became an annual tradition that built a powerful network of current and former Ginsberg clerks, what the author would describe as a wider community of practice.  

For those in industry the author warns of a somewhat ignored phenomenon - performance tests, particularly in larger organizations, that measure and drive employees to "average out."  These tests may, for example, decide bonuses or promotions, but they should not be your only or final evaluation.  You have your own goals, your own passions, and, she says, now you have your own Plan to make them work.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com