How the Elite Become That Way

“The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal.  The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.”

Benjamin Mays

How do people become elite?  And once they do, how do they sustain it?

In a fascinating in depth interviews with 50 people who have achieved high job and personal success, Eva Perea and her associates have distilled out a set of common factors unique to each of these “high flyers” in a soon to be published book called “Cambio de Rumbo”, or “change in the course of life”. It will be published in Spanish in September 2008.

The in-depth two-hour interviews were conducted from September 2006 until May 2007 targeting people who had achieved something “great”: a deep and relevant change in the course of his/her life; keeping a significant representation of the different characteristics: men and women, different ages, different education levels, from different socio-economic backgrounds, and finally, mostly Spanish but a significant representation from other nationalities, British, American, French, Cuban, etc.

Her findings suggest these cluster of factors that distinguished these elite individuals:

Ability to take on risk.
Combined with some level of non-conformity to break a situation that perhaps is not ideal, but is perceived as easy and comfortable.

Motivation. All these persons had a great inner strength, a positive feeling that they wanted to change their lives.

Creativity. The skill to look at things from a different angle was, curiously enough, found in all the people who were interviewed.

Experience. Most people has attained quite some experience before they knew where to move on. Most people need to reflect and live long enough before knowing exactly where their dreams lie.

Honesty. When all the outside forces have the effect of anchoring you in the old habits to maintain a ’status quo’, it is very necessary to have a significant amount of clarity and honesty to face the mirror, to look at your soul and ask yourself what you really want to do with your life.

Self-analysis. Before finding the answer, most people who had the courage to take the big plunge had to go through a difficult process with their inner selves.

Move into action. It is fantastic to have a dream, a passion, but if it doesn’t move us towards some action, it will only be a deceptive shelter for the day-to-day disappointments, a mere mirage.

Perseverance. Let’s not fool ourselves: to pursue a dream is not normally a bed of roses. Very often, obstacles appear in the ways that take us to failure or to difficulties. It is necessary to be persistent and try again, and again, in spite of everything and everyone. Each set-back should only be considered as a detour that will lead us to the final victory.

Getting to the top is one thing–staying there is something else.

In the recent June 2008 issue of HBR Graham Jones in his article “How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better outlines four unique characteristics of top performers ((Jones, G. (2008) How the best of the best get better and better. Harvard Business Review, June 2008, 123-127)).  These themes can be summarized as:

1. Top performers compete against themselves and their own standards continuously pushing themselves to new limits–particularly when they are the new benchmark.  Their perspective is longer term with respect to goals and accomplishments.

2. Top performers can block out distractions very effectively whether it is competitor behavior (e.g., victories) or personal/family issues (e.g., death of a family member).

3. Top performers play with other elite talent to stretch their skills and abilities.

4. Top performers seek immediate and candid feedback geared to helping them become even better (i.e., they want honest and constructive feedback not admiration and gloating praise).

5.  Top performers both celebrate successes and reflect on what got them there–they are strongly interested in their own continuous improvements to sustain their excellence.

I guess I better get back to work to compete with myself a bit more, seek out even more feedback and celebrate my small successes….Be well….

[tags]selecting talent, talent development, executive coaching, performance, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, envisia, deliberate practice[/tags]

Ken Nowack

Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)