Today I had the privilege to sit with the Chairman and Board of a highly successful business. On every scale and measure this business is doing well. Financially it’s gone from strength to strength and now, as they celebrate over 20 years in business, their growth and success stretches out well beyond the city they are based in.

They recently secured a small job in another capital city. Their dedication to doing a great job has seen that one small job turn into five major projects for five different clients – all referred by their reputation.

When you walk down the main corridor of their office, one whole wall is covered with certificates of merit, industry awards, all measures of excellence. I reckon the wall itself needs reinforcement from the weight of achievement!

Given all of this, why is it that the leadership team in general do not believe themselves to be successful and results oriented? One point of view is that achievements are now so expected that they are no longer acknowledged or celebrated. Another perspective is that the ‘marks of achievement’ are not why they are in business.

I cannot help but think that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Questions I would rather ask include;

Do you actually celebrate your achievements?

Do you link your achievements to the purpose and reason for being in business in the first place?

Do your achievements help you move towards your vision?

How do you link your achievements to the values you hold?

Each achievement has a powerful story behind it because you’ve helped a client realise something big in their world. What is that story? How do you capture it? Share it? Acknowledge it?

Are you measuring your achievements from the context of being “only as good as my last job” or do consider your next job as “going to be better than the one before?”

Are your achievements burdens or do they liberate and energise you?
Ak Sabbagh
Partner

AltusQ
We bring Passion to Strategy & Strategy to Passion