Niles Daily Star: Are You Suffering from the Delusions of Success?

October 14, 2009 – Niles Daily Star – Niles, MI, USA

How did you get where you are today?

Was it skill, luck, hard work?

If you’re somewhat successful, it was probably all three.

But what’s it going to take to get you to the next level?

Will it be more of the same?

Or could some of your perceived “strengths” be holding you back?

If you ask most successful people why they’ve succeeded, they’re likely to cite some of their positive character traits.

For example, they might say, “I’m very detail-oriented,” or “I really know how to take charge of a situation.”

Or in my case, I would probably say something like, “I try to be helpful in every situation.”
But what if the very behaviors and traits to which we attribute our success are actually holding us back?

What if we’ve been successful in spite of our habits, rather than because of them?
Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith says that one of the problems with success is that it can delude you into overestimating your achievements, status and contributions.

Goldsmith, (www.MarshallGoldsmith.com) who was named one of the five most respected executive coaches by Fortune, has surveyed more than 50,000 people in his training programs.
He cites the “The Success Delusion” as the reason why 80 to 85 percent of people consistently rank themselves in the top 20 percent of their peer group, with 70 percent ranking themselves in the top 10.

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