Success

A specific aim of human development is to be perceived as a success by others and to feel that one has acted successfully and has a personal sense of being successful. Much ambition is focused on the process of achieving such success. Although every success is unique (Robert Heller) there are key supporting factors which successes have in common. Individuals need leadership, challenge, decisiveness, speed, clarity, mastery of the basics, firm objectives and acceptance of change. Above all, there is the inbuilt incentive to achieve. Each individual has a certain potential for success which may be accentuated or underexploited. However, failure to achieve more than relatively little of his imagined potential tends to make the individual deny his ambitions and reduces achievement still further. An environment of failure makes personal success difficult. A number of factors have been shown to improve individual performance:< 1. Clear recognition and belief in talent. The individual builds on and develops the talents he has rather than spending time and resources on trying to create ability that does not exist.

2. Studying what has already achieved success. Rather than agonizing over what went wrong in the case of failure, the emphasis is on what went right in the case of success.

3. Recognition of excellence. The individual brings out the best in others when he recognizes excellent performance.

4. Moving from strength. Consolidation and developing strong points means that weaknesses can be managed.

5. Building relationships. The individual who encourages relationships with others finds they are more willing to work with or for him.

6. Matching of expectations with potential. People do not achieve if nothing is expected of them; conversely, repeated requests to achieve something for which the person asked has no response is destructive.

7. Decision-making. Delegation of decision-making to a person close to the action gives a sense of ownership and an impetus to do well.

8. Clear organization. Constant reorganization creates misunderstanding, while a clear concept of how things are done gives clarity of action.

9. Objective measurement of achievement. When the individual knows how well he is doing, his performance improves.

10. Teamwork. Success is based on maximizing the individual's talents within the overall team effort.