THE ACHIEVER’S PATH

THERE is one great mystery in the area of human resources. Some people seem to achieve great things while others do not. It is interesting because research and analysis of human behaviour cannot truly predict success with accuracy.

How often do we come across people’s “counterlogical behaviour” such as: People who have the knowledge and skills and are not achieving their goals; People with experience are not performing at the level that are justifiable;

People who simply do not do those things they are supposed to do;

People who sabotage themselves and perform much lesser than they are capable of; and,

People who simply do not sustain their achievement.

To unravel this mystery of strange work behaviour, I have studied the path of achievement of people. In my search for answers, I have interviewed thousands of leaders and executives and studied regarding factors that lead to achievement. Our consulting experience with companies have also provided much insight into the path of achievement of people. KL Strategic Change Consulting Group has developed The Path Of Achievement Model which can explain that path achievers take to obtain success and its sustainability.

BELIEF

In the workplace, we come across too many people who are performing lower due to their lack of self-belief. They do not utilise their capability and are resigned to little achievement. Knowledge and skills will only come to bear, with self-belief. Often nonachievement can stem from self-sabotage where a person deprives himself a chance to perform due to a lack of selfbelief. Napoleon Hill, the famous writer, said it best, “Whatever the mind can conceive and belief, it can achieve”. However to achieve, conceiving is not enough, self-belief is needed to compel one to take action.

SKILL SET

With self belief, one can then move forward to achieve the knowledge, skills and experience needed to do the task. If after doing all these, the task still cannot be accomplished, one would then use creative approaches to achieve the goal. It is beneficial for human resource managers to know that knowledge and skills can only be unleashed if staff first have self- belief in themselves.

MINDSET

One counter-productive behaviour of human resource is that a lot of people know what to do but they do not do what they know. One reason is because they are not motivated to perform. The role of leaders here is to find ways both monetary as well as nonmonetary to motivate people to perform. The other reason is courage. People are afraid to make mistakes and more so if they are punished for them. Hence, encouraging people to take risk and providing a safe environment is important.

Encompassing more than motivation and courage is the overall mindset of an individual which might include the way he or she perceives the task to be undertaken:

• He might have a blindspot or outdated assumption which prevents him from doing the work well;

He might become too complacent with the status quo;

He might have ingrained habits that block him from moving forward; and, He might have such a negative attitude towards the task.

To get such people to achieve, leaders may have to uncover their blindspots, change their outdated assumptions, reduce their complacency, rid their bad habits and inculcate a positive work attitude in them.

ACTION

All being said, nothing is done until action is taken. In essence, achievement is not just taking action; but taking the right action at the right time. Action taken too late is futile as, for example, a missed critical deadline for submission of tender. Wrong strategies taken may make the achievement of a goal less efficient if not impossible. The enemy of action is procrastination. To move forward in the right direction towards the path of achievement requires one to plan and strategise well and then battle procrastination to take action speedily.

SUSTAINABILITY

The path of achievement is not one time success but sustainable success. In my book, LESSONS OF SUCCESS, I propounded on the factors that explained why Public

Bank was able to sustain a track record of an unbroken string of profits for over 50 years to date. Achievement can only be sustainable if leaders can inspire their people to have a sense of satisfaction and meaning for what they do.

And from their achievement, it reinforces their belief that inspire them to continue their path of achievement as their work brings them not only a sense of accomplishment but a sense of fulfilment.

Allow me to conclude with a story. Three Tibetan monks were meditating by the river. Two were senior monks and one a junior monk. The junior monk noticed that after meditating for 5 minutes, his seniors both opened their eyes and walked towards the river. Rationalising to himself that being junior he needed more power, so he continued meditating. The junior monk noticed that the two seniors walked on the water and crossed the river. Upon his meditation, the junior monk also attempted to cross the river. As he stepped into the water, he struggled and fell into the river. He managed to finally hang on to the side of the slope. The two senior monks noticed this and one whispered to the other , “Should we tell the poor guy where the rocks are”. Moral of the story: the results of any achievement may seem magical but the steps behind are very logical. Follow the path of achievement as described in the model above will lead one to success and sustainable growth.