The Difference Between Successful and Very Successful People

I recently met with a capable and driven executive and asked him, “How are you?” He gave me a rapid-fire answer of all of the things he was doing: travelling, business updates, career changes and his children’s innumerable activities. It sounded like an intense but satisfying life.

Then I asked him again, “How are you really?” And the moment I did, he became emotional and the reality of his life just flooded out of him: his stress, his frustration of trying to juggle it all, his sense that he had no time to really think, or play with his children or enjoy any of it. The (cute) summary is this: his schedule was always filled but his life wasn’t fulfilled. What is less cute is the idea that he, and many of us, have been sold a bill of goods.

We’ve been sold on a heroic ideal of the uber-man and super-women who kill themselves saying yes to everyone, sleeping four hours a night and straining to fit everything in. How often have you heard people say, “I am so busy right now!” But it almost seemed like a back-door brag.

But it’s a bogus badge of honor. It suffocates our ability to think and create. It holds otherwise hard working, capable people back from our highest contribution. Below are a few of the myths of success that hold us back from becoming very successful.

Myth 1: Successful people say, "If I can fit it in, I should fit it in."
Truth: Very successful people are absurdly selective.
As Warren Buffet is credited with having said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”

As I wrote in a piece for Harvard Business Review, this means, "Not just haphazardly saying no, but purposefully, deliberately, and strategically eliminating the nonessentials. Not just once a year as part of a planning meeting, but constantly reducing, focusing and simplifying. Not just getting rid of the obvious time wasters, but being willing to cut out really terrific opportunities as well. Few appear to have the courage to live this principle, which may be why it differentiates successful people and organizations from the very successful ones."

Myth 2: Successful people sleep four hours a night.
Truth: Very successful people rest well so they can be at peak performance.
In K. Anders Ericsson's famous study of violinists, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell as the "10,000 hour rule," Anders found that the best violinists spent more time practicing than the merely good students. What is less well known is that the second most important factor differentiating the best violinists from the good ones was actually sleep. The best violinists averaged 8.6 hours of sleep in every 24 hour period.

Myth 3: Successful people think play is a waste of time.
Truth: Very successful people see play as essential for creativity.
Just think of Sir Ken Robinson, who has made the study of creativity in school's his life's work. He has observed that instead of fueling creativity through play, schools actually kill it: "We have sold ourselves into a fast-food model of education, and it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies. Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement."

Myth 4: Successful people are the first ones to jump in with an answer.
Truth: Very successful people are powerful listeners.
As the saying goes, the people who talk the most don't always have the most to say. Powerful listeners get to the real story. They find the signal in the sound. They listen to what is not being said.

Myth 5: Successful people focus on what the competition is doing.
Truth: Very successful people focus on what they can do better.
The "winningest coach in America" is Larry Gelwix, the former Head of the Highland High School rugby team. His team won 418 games with only 10 losses in over 36 years. One of the key questions he challenged his players to ask was “What’s important now?" He didn't want his players getting distracted with what the other team was doing. He wanted them to play their own game.

Last week I took a tour of the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the quotes there grabbed my attention. John F. Kennedy said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."

The myth here is celebrated in modern culture: it’s someone who is capable, driven and wants to win and be popular. They have been rewarded for their willingness to take it all on, fit it all in and just make it happen. They believe doing more is better than doing less. I call this type of person a Nonessentialist.

Still, there is a new hero in our story. She asks, “What is essential?” and is willing to eliminate everything else. He says no to the less important activities so they can give themselves fully to the few things that really matter. It is a path that takes courage. It may require making the tradeoff between short-term popularity and long-term respect. It leads to a greater sense of control and even joy. But as an added benefit it also seems to be the thing that distinguishes the successful from the very successful.

Managing cashflow: get more bang for your startup buck

A common error for fledgling businesses is to get bogged down by branding and marketing costs, says James Caan

 

It may be difficult to see where your money would be best placed at the startup phase. 

 

Getting the finance to start your business is often seen as the biggest obstacle to starting up. But what is even more significant than accessing those initial funds is how to make your money go a long way. Sometimes it is difficult to see where your money will be best utilised, particularly at the start-up phase of any business. This is all the more important when you are invariably bootstrapping, putting some of your personal savings towards your venture to keep your business developing. So how can you get your money to make you money?

In the first six months of 2013, the UK's startup activity was up by 3.4% on 2012, with more than 90,000 new ventures. With this rate of business creation in the UK, it is inevitable that many will fail. To avoid this, you need to steer clear of making big financial mistakes, because there is nothing worse than your business losing more money than is necessary. As I have always said, if you're going to fail, you should do it quickly. Failure can be a great lesson, but it should not destabilise any future ideas from coming into fruition because the financial cut is so deep.

Today 49% of small business owners say they started up with less than £2,000, a seemingly astonishing feat. But there are clear ways you can avoid extra costs. A big one is not hiring until you are ready, employees are one of the biggest costs in any new business. That being said, there is no doubt that they will be the ones who in the future can drive your business forward, but you must be able to justify new hires, especially at the early stages of a business. Bringing on board people you do not greatly require is an expensive problem, so you may want to consider hiring part-time support or sub-contractors, depending on the demands of your startup. And although admin work can be exhausting, juggling it along with other aspects of the business can help to make you a more dynamic entrepreneur and help round your skillset.

Do not underestimate the time it takes to set up. Starting a business will always take up more time than you will have imagined, and cost more than you would like it to. For these reasons you have to be flexible, and should not drain your resources too soon. With human error, slow vendors, changes to technology and extenuating circumstances – both personal and professional – not everything will go perfectly to plan. This is why you must be more tactful and cautious with spending, so that when you have to compromise on timing, you have a cushion of support.

A common error for startups is to get bogged down in branding and marketing costs. It is unbelievable just how much you can promote your business at little cost. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are brilliant ways to engage potential customers, and SEO is a valuable and free content-based tool to get your business noticed. Of course, the cost of your time is valuable, but spending money on expensive branding companies can harm your resources, particularly as a new venture when your direction is evolving and most susceptible to change. Wait until you have been trading for at least six months before heavily investing in the branding side of your business. You will be in a much better position if you do.

Start-Up Loan recipient Karine Bono, a young fashion designer from London, understands the difficulty of starting up on a budget. With her £5,000 loan, Karine minimised expenses by producing all her garments and designs at her home studio in Hackney. By trading her clothes on Etsy, a popular clothing site, Karine is gaining exposure without breaking the bank, not spending too much on marketing but still benefitting from an online presence.

It is undeniable that new businesses have to find a way to manage their costs if they have any chance of survival. This is why the first sale is so important, and creating a profitable business is key. At the start be frugal and push yourself so you don't have to push others. After all, taking on challenges is what being an entrepreneur is all about.

James Caan is chairman of the Start-Up Loans Company. Each fortnight he tackles a different business issue for the Guardian Small Business Network. 

Never Be Smartest Person In The Room

GENERATING NEW REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES

In almost every organization in which I have been involved, ancillary business opportunities have often provided, what I describe as, "low hanging fruit" new revenue sources.

In most businesses, our primary focus is on the mainstream products and services our companies offer. These provide the bulk of any organization’s revenue growth. They are the mother nest business. We train our sales forces to doggedly pursue growth in these revenue centres. Our sales staff are rewarded on their success achieving their targets.  But what would happen if we stood back occasionally and looked objectively at our businesses  and analyzed the operations of our clients with the objective of identifying what else we could be doing with the assets we already have to provide additional products and services to the client. Allow the thought process to move in every direction in search for new opportunities. You might be amazed at the revenue opportunities that exist which require very little additional investment and could represent significant high margin business.

I have led the growth strategies for numerous organizations which provided products and services across a variety of verticals. It has been my experience that the following questions are universally applicable when identifying and prioritizing ancillary opportunities:

• Is there additional revenue being left on the table that should be ours?
• Are we already knocking on the door(s)? I recommend looking beyond just sales staff activity, examine all aspects of your operation. I recently was involved in discussions regarding a business services company that had staff entering the offices of over 30,000 small, medium and large businesses on a monthly basis fulfilling their services. This company was not in the delivery business but we did identify a number of opportunities where these service reps could be used to provide deliver services for other non-competitive companies. 
•  Is any additional investment minimal both in terms of money and human resources? 
•  Does the opportunity have the potential for synergies beyond just revenue? There may be circumstances where your organization can provide a service that may not directly generate revenue but strengthens your brand, competitive position, customer/client relationships or provides opportunities for you to generate new challenges for underutilized staff or management that you may be at risk of losing.

Based on my experience, following are some examples, taken from different industries, that you may find helpful.

 
1.  NEW MEDIA 

I was COO of a new-media company that provided products and services to the “enterprise software development” community. Their website was an intriguing example of ancillary revenue generation. Those who contributed content to the site were paid based on a fee schedule that had fixed and variable elements. The company broke their content into categories (articles, news posts, interviews etc.) established a core value on each category (the company established a fixed fee for each type of content based on degree of effort....e.g. an article was worth more than an interview etc.). They paid that set amount plus a variable amount based on views of the specific piece. They would generate approximately 150 new pieces of original content/topics monthly. 

Their content just kept getting better and more relevant because they could continually monitor its popularity and the contributors were motivated to keep abreast of what were popular topics because it was in their best interests to give the readers more of what they wanted. The company also aggressively tagged all content (probably 4-5 tags per topic). The tagging allowed for cross referencing to items for sale such as online books (most of these books were custom written just for their audience), lead generation assets etc. They could target advertisers or product/service providers based on readership patterns. Client products or ads would be posted on pages where articles or other content appeared that contained words or phrases tagged to their product or service offering.

The company also published e-books. E-book titles were selected based on an analysis of the traffic. Since the site had a B2B focus, the content of the books tended to be need-to-know information.  The writers that created the online editorial content were the authors of the books. Management tracked a given writer’s popularity with readers and because of their tagging and tracking they could identify which of the writer’s subject categories were most popular.  The writer would then be contracted to write a book on a specific topic. The books were then sold as e-books or they could be purchased in print through Amazon. Companies that sold products or services that were relevant or related to a book’s content were invited to sponsor the book if they wished. The sponsorship deal could take 2 forms. One form was for the sponsoring company to pay a sponsoring fee. The other arrangement would be for the company sponsoring the e-book to have it made available as a free download but the e-book customer was required to register for the download and the company sponsoring the e-book got the registration. The client company paid the site operator for the leads that were generated.

By exploiting every possible ancillary revenue opportunity. This company site generated several millions of dollars relying very little on traditional advertising revenue.


2. ADVERTISING - CONSUMER GOODS - AGRI-FOOD 
 
Consider consulting services as a potential revenue stream. I was a founding partner in a firm that provided marketing services to software companies. The main revenue generators for the company were creative services, call centre services, printing, event management, advertising and the production of various marketing assets. In an effort to differentiate ourselves we added a consulting practice.

Because we specialized in providing marketing services to software companies we decided to promote that we were experts in developing branding and marketing strategies for software organizations. We did not know that much about software but we had credibility in the eyes of the market segment we served and we knew about branding and marketing. Initially the consulting was positioned as a value-adding free service and was used to move the client a step closer to the revenue generating activities associated with marketing asset development. Eventually the consulting activity became popular and evolved into a successful revenue stream.
 
I am currently working with companies in the food and consumer packaged goods industries discussing and launching consulting practices as extensions of their conventional revenue streams.

 
3.  MEDIA

A. When I was running the Canadian acquisition program for US based media organization, I went through a due diligence process with a Canadian engineering firm that had an intriguing business model. 

Their engineering practice had been quite successful and they had projects in numerous locations globally. In the course of their activities, they were required to hire significant numbers of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour and they faced a number of training related challenges. This labour force was spread out around Canada and the world. The available expertise to train new hires or to train existing hires in new techniques was limited. There were also language issues which further restricted the available trainer expertise. In order to resolve this problem they starting to create instructional videos that could be sued to teach the required skills and techniques.  

Eventually they began sharing these videos with suppliers and other non-competitive engineering firms. This training and development video activity eventually evolved into a revenue stream and their videos were in demand around the world. The training business helped them survive some very learn years for their engineering practice. When it came time for the owners to consider their exit strategy, it was the training business that was the most marketable business. Its revenues were in the millions and surpassed those of the engineering practice. Another major benefit was that the inventory of potential acquirers was no longer limited to engineering firms or engineering focused organizations but had now been expanded to include media companies which had a significant interest in expanding their training and development businesses.

B. When I was President of Canadian operations for a European based multinational media organization, we published close to 100 classified advertising magazines, directories and associated websites that provided businesses and consumers with product and/or industry  information on the IT sector, the automotive and transportation industries and real estate markets. These products and services were the market leaders.

A number of these publications and their websites were highly regarded sourcing tools or buying guides for consumers wanting to source a variety of automotive, general merchandise and real estate products.

The business model was very simple. Gather photos and data on used inventory from consumers and dealers and publish it in appropriate publication or post it on the appropriate website. Every week, thousands of products were advertised. The company maintained some of Canada's largest databases on vehicles and real estate.

My innovative staff in the Quebec operation identified a unique opportunity to generate additional revenue using this data that they were already collecting. The company negotiated with the government to be the government’s source of pricing data on used cars in the province. At that time, in Quebec, if you purchased a used car, when you went to the motor vehicle office to register the car and pay the sales tax, the government official would go a database to determine the “book” value of the vehicle and the tax would be based on that “book” value rather than the actual receipt received at time of purchase. Our Quebec operation convinced the government that they were the leading authorities on used car prices and their database should be the one referenced by the government. The agreed upon arrangement was that the government agency would have an exclusive online access to a database that was setup and administered specifically for the government. The online database was constantly updated and it was accessed daily by several Quebec government departments.

The revenue generated from this online data management arrangement was significant and the margin was impressive for the following reasons:

• The data used was already being collected due to the nature of my company's ongoing operations.
• There was very little additional administrative expense required to operate this ancillary business.
• The service was provided online so there were none of the usual publications costs involved.

Keeping in mind that this data was being used to determine the true market value of a used car or other vehicle, it was in the best interests of the used car dealers to ensure that whatever price they charged for the vehicle it was consistent with the price sourced by the government office when the buyer went to pay their sales tax. While the dealers could not have access to the actual online database, they were given the opportunity to subscribe to a service whereby each month they would receive a pricing directory which was basically a download of the database done every 30 days. Needless to say almost every used car dealer in Quebec subscribed to this print service. In addition and annual pricing directory was made available to consumers through retail stores.

Here was a case where the data was originally sold to my company by the consumer or used car dealer through the purchase of an ad. The data was then resold to the government and again to the dealer as well as the consumer. When you think of it, from the perspective of those consumers and dealers who paid to advertise their vehicles in our publications, they were in effect re-buying the same data they had originally paid to have advertised.

4. REAL ESTATE
 
The real estate market also provided another lucrative opportunity for my company.  We published approximately 24 real estate titles in Quebec. The primary advertisers were real estate agents selling residential properties. This site was the third most visited site in Quebec after MLS and, I believe, ReMax. The main reason for the site’s popularity was the nature of its content. The site advertised real estate from any agent or agency that wanted to advertise. Unlike most other sites, such as ReMax, our site was not restricted to carrying product being sold by one company. Consumers liked the site because they could search a large selection of real estate by visiting only one site.

The site attracted a large number of real estate agents of all sizes. Many of the real estate agents who advertised had limited, if any, web presence beyond their involvement with our site. While this was good for our business, we realized that eventually they would want to have their own web identity and when that happened they may reduce their commitment to our site. We therefore decided to offer web development and web hosting services to individual real estate agents.

This business had a lot of benefits for us.

• We managed to get additional revenue from the real estate professionals that we were already dealing with.
• We kept these agents “in the family” as we helped them develop their own web identities. This allowed us to continue to nurture existing relationships and identify value add opportunities.
• Even with their own websites, they tended to stay committed to us because we could constantly offer upgrades to their web capabilities that they could not afford to do independently.
• Their exposure on the site drove traffic to their own site but they liked the synergy of having their business exposed on both sites.
• This made good business sense to us because we already had made the investment in web development and hosting assets. To do this work for the agents was not a huge strain or require significant additional cost. The real estate professionals selected their web design from templates we had pre-designed and hosting requires very little administration or cost. It provided us with opportunities to better utilize existing staff or add new staff that we could not have rationalized based on just our internal requirements.
• The value adds we were providing solidified our customer relationships.
• We created additional revenue opportunities for sales staff.

5. EVENT MANAGEMENT 

I was head of business development for a market leading conference management organization which organized over 100 conferences per year. The attendees at their conferences were professionals mainly lawyers, investment bankers. While their events were well attended, they realized that in any given firm only 1 or 2 professionals would attend an event. Efforts to attract more attendees were unsuccessful.

The answer was to assemble the proceedings from each event into a publication. Wait a few weeks after the event was over and then make the publication available to others in firms that had sent a delegate to the event. The rationale was that those who attended the event would return to their offices and discuss the event. Ideally this would stimulate a demand for the information from the event. Delegates would be able to reap the benefits of the knowledge or information they acquired from the event for a week or two before the opportunity to acquire the proceedings was provided to their colleagues. The proceedings were sold to their colleagues at about half the price of the event. The only people eligible to buy the proceedings were members of firms that had sent a delegate to the actual event.

This strategy served a number of purposes:

• It re-purposed the proceedings providing the opportunity to generate revenue beyond the event itself. 

• The margin of the sale of the proceedings was high because the costs associated with preparing the publication were quite a bit less that organizing an event.

• The publication would be passed around within the respective firm and thus continue to promote not only the event but also the event organization. Basically the client was paying for the privilege to promote the event company. 

What new revenue opportunities are waiting for you? If I can be of any assistance please get in touch.

Richard Peters

President

Leader Logic Ltd.

richardpeters@leaderlogic.ca

Dick Peters is a senior executive who specializes in transforming businesses. In leadership and senior executive roles in the media, software, digital technology, finance and consumer packaged goods industries he has gained the reputation for designing and leading  successful  growth programs  reigniting under-performing organizations, maximizing existing business opportunities and taking organizations into new markets and revenue streams.

A Complete A to Z Guide To Personal Branding

Turn Your Next Interruption into an Opportunity

Modern life, particularly work life, has become increasingly hectic. There are relentless demands from meetings, emails, text messages, questions to answer, problems to solve, fires to put out. It can begin to feel like there is never any time to get “real work” done.   If you feel overwhelmed by endless interruptions at work, you are not alone.

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned in my over thirty five years of leadership experience is that these thousands of little interruptions aren’t keeping you from the work, they are the work. When you look at it this way, a whole world of opportunities opens up. Think about it. Every single interaction is rife with the potential to become the high point or the low point in someone’s day. Every “interruption” offers an opportunity to lead impactfully, to set expectations, bring clarity to an issue, or infuse a problem with energy and insight. To reframe these moments in an empowering way, I call them “touchpoints.”  If we choose with purpose to see these moments not as distractions from our work, but as the work, then we can begin to lead more meaningfully in each and every moment.

So, how do we do this? How do we begin to change our approach towards these interruptions? Where do we start? If we’re to treat each interaction as spring-loaded with possibilities, then we must prepare to engage within these moments in the most effective way possible. One way to train ourselves to do this is to identify the key components in each exchange. It is helpful to consider the three variables of every touchpoint.

Is the issue itself something important, such as a question, a problem, or decision that affects the performance of individuals, teams, or the whole organization? Remember, importance is in the eyes of the beholder, so it is critical that one be alert to the perspectives of everyone in the interaction. This could be how to address an employee complaint, replace a key team member, or how to make a project come to fruition in the face of budget cuts. In each interaction it is necessary to assess if the issue is “yours,” “theirs,” or “ours.”

David, a former plant manager for P&G, has a visceral appreciation for the importance of this component. During his tenure, he made it a habit to walk through his plant every single day with the goal of addressing 10 of his own to-dos. David would carry his list of 10 pressing issues on a slip of paper as he roamed throughout the plant. They could range from getting an update on a safety issue to spreading the news about an award the company had won. Although he would embark on his walk with just these 10 items in mind, something wonderful happened again and again. David was interrupted. People would notice him walking the premises and take the opportunity to raise their own ideas, problems, and questions. Rather than avoiding these interactions, David would embrace each and every one. He would listen carefully to swiftly assess who owned the issue, consider all the other people who might be involved, and help to bring clarity and energy to resolve each new concern he encountered. All while simultaneously moving through his own to-do list. Pretty efficient. With this approach, he achieved infinitely more in a single minute than he could sitting isolated at his desk, sending emails for an hour.

Whatever you say or do in a touchpoint may be quickly transmitted exponentially throughout the other people involved – and then relayed again and again. Remember, organizations are living systems in which people are connecting all the time: individuals who report to you directly, colleagues, and anyone with whom you have a straight or dotted reporting line. Consider that every single person with whom you interact is embedded in complex webs of relationships. It is crucial to think about all of the people who will be affected by your words and actions, even those who are not present in a particular interaction.

Who is the leader in the interaction? Who is bringing clarity and focus to the issue? It doesn’t have to be the person with the most seniority or the most impressive title; behavior dictates leadership. You are the leader in the touchpoint if you listen intently, help frame the issue, and spread infectious positive energy exponentially throughout the organization.

To see how these come together and take it a step further, consider the example of George, head of a 500 person R&D department. He was involved in a tense meeting with senior executives. A very specific and narrow point was being heatedly debated. After listening intently, George realized the issue was being framed too narrowly. Although he was not the most senior person in the room, he felt he needed to speak up. In this case, he knew he might have to disrupt the flow of the meeting to make a productive point. He chimed in, initiating a touchpoint. George boldly articulated a broader strategic view that allowed his R&D team more decision making power. It was a lonely view, but he advocated it passionately. Later that day, he ran into a colleague from the legal department who had heard about his argument. He was surprised. How did she know about it? It turns out his team members were proud he had taken a strong stand, felt energized by his advocacy, and had spread the word throughout the organization. His message had spread exponentially and invigorated his people! What if he had stayed silent? An opportunity would have been lost. The role of the leader extends beyond embracing interruptions as opportunities for touchpoints. It also involves initiating touchpoints when your instincts and experience signal to you that a re-framing of the issue is necessary to advance the agenda. When executed correctly, word gets out. This is the power of embodying the role of the Leader in any particular touchpoint.

Using this structure to reflect on the variables in each touchpoint, you can begin to unlock the full potential of each interaction. I encourage you to treat every interruption as a golden opportunity to contribute meaningfully. You’ll become more fully present in your leadership. Each moment will become a chance to inspire a sense of possibilities and stimulate the desire for betterment throughout the entire organization.

Douglas R. Conant

Douglas R. Conant is Non-Executive Chairman of Avon Products; Founder & CEO, ConantLeadership; Founder & Chairman, Kellogg Executive Leadership Institute; Chairman, CECP; Board of Directors, AmerisourceBergen; Former President, CEO & Director, Campbell Soup Company; and NYT Bestselling Author of Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. 

The Eight-Minute Test That Can Reveal Your Effectiveness as a Leader

How can I determine if I am a good leader, or perhaps even a great one? What are my strengths, and do any rise to the very highest levels? I know I have some weaknesses (as everyone does), but are any of them so appalling as to derail my career? 

Many people have asked us those questions over the years. For a truly comprehensive answer, we always recommend a well-constructed 360 evaluation, in which your own views of your strengths and weaknesses are enriched by those of your boss, your direct reports, your colleagues, and other associates.

But as a first step that you can do on your own, we’ve developed an abbreviated self-assessment which you can take here. That will give you some sense of what your leadership skills may be and how they compare to others, right now.

It will take you about eight minutes, and you will promptly receive a feedback report, which will compare the way you’ve rated yourself with similar self-scores of 45,000 leaders in our global database. The survey will also measure your current level of engagement and satisfaction in your leadership role.

Obviously, a brief self-assessment is not as valid as a more-extensive assessment that includes feedback from 10 or more of your colleagues, but it will help you understand which of the 16 leadership competencies we measure — such fundamentals as thinking strategically, displaying integrity, focusing on results, taking initiative, developing others, championing change, exhibiting expertise — are your likely strengths.

A score in the 90th percentile means you have an outstanding strength. A score in the 10th percentile (meaning you’re worse than 90% of the people taking the test) may indicate a flaw so profound it could derail your career. We expect most of your scores will be somewhere in the middle.

But the answers may surprise you. You may think, for example, that your strong points are your technical skills only to find your own responses score you far higher on inspiring others than you might have believed.

With such an understanding you might embark on a personal development plan in which you move toward the goal of becoming an outstanding leader by developing a few of your middling strengths to the very highest levels. Sadly, we’ve found that fewer than 10% of leaders take the initiative to create a personal development plan with the explicit goal of becoming a better leader. Yet without a plan you are relying on luck and circumstance to make yourself more effective.

More’s the pity since, as is often the case, we find a straightforward approach to be most effective: Once you identify your strengths, we’ve found, the surest path to improving your overall leadership effectiveness is to pick one and focus on improving that.

Which one should you start with? Think about which of the leadership competencies you have the passion and energy to pursue. Working to improve a competence that you’re passionate about makes the possibility of change much more likely. At the same time, though, consider what your current organization both expects and needs from you. The intersection of your strengths, your passion, and your organization’s needs defines the ideal place for you to target your development.

Once you identify a competence that meets those criteria, what’s the next step? Can you turn a moderately scoring competency into a profound strength? The answer is yes, though perhaps not in the way you’d expect.

To improve a weakness, people typically use a linear approach. If you were a novice, for instance, who wanted to gain some technical expertise, you might take a class at the local university, read up on the subject, or ask an expert in your firm to be your mentor. But if you’re already strong technically you won’t get very much better with further classes or reading more than you already do.

Instead, you might use your already-strong technical skills to improve your leadership effectiveness if you learned, say, to communicate your expertise more effectively or teach those skills to your team. That is, you could strengthen your strength by developing skills that complement it, just as elite athletes do when they improve their already formidable talents through cross-training.

We have discovered in our research that between eight and 12 of these companion behaviors are associated with each competency. (You can see the entire set for all 16 differentiated competencies, and a fuller explanation of how to apply them, in the October 2011 HBR article “Making Yourself Indispensable.”) By focused attention to applying these companion behaviors, leaders can and do make striking improvements.

What are your own greatest competencies?

Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman

Jack Zenger is the CEO and Joseph Folkman is the president of Zenger/Folkman, a leadership development consultancy. They are co-authors of the October 2011 HBR article “Making Yourself Indispensable,” and the book How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths (McGraw-Hill, 2012).