We all define success differently. The cynic in me acknowledges that some measure their success by their bank account, their job title, or their perceived superiority over their friends, neighbors, and coworkers. The people I enjoy most are those who recognize that success is better measured by assessing happiness, realizing potential, and having reason to both give and receive expressions of gratitude. At work I have been finding it a challenge to measure success. We put in long hours, we complete numerous tasks, and we create a great deal of data, briefing slides, and thought pieces, but at the end of the day are we being successful? I have found that to be an impossible assessment to make because we all too often fail to define success.
Sure we claim success upon the completion of a task, at the end of an assignment, and at fulfillment of a service obligation. And while admiring our wake, it is rather easy to feel justified in qualifying our contribution as a success. But just like anything else in life, the easy isn’t necessarily right. It’s easy because we rarely define success on the front end. Being an extremely reflective person, I spend my drive home at the end of each workday assessing the contributions and progress made. As you might imagine, it’s too easy to fool myself into believing what we all want to believe…that the day was a success.
In an effort to help the team to which I currently belong better assess the success we may or may not be enjoying, I have initiated a little experiment. Each Monday we get together as a team and each Division Chief (Note: The title “Chief” is not used in the Navy sense) communicates their top priorities for completion during the week to the Director. After the Director either refines or validates the stated intentions, those commitments are documented for all to see on our webpage. Those commitments define success and serve as our collective main effort for the week. We make these commitments fully knowing that on Friday we will come back together as a team to assess our performance and hold both ourselves and each other publicly accountable for our ability to deliver on the promises we made to ourselves and our teammates.
Like a growing number of teams in the Department of Defense, we are required to do more and more without the benefit of additional resources. We need to decide what is most important, as well as which “desirements” will have to fall off of our to-do list. That said, I have found that too many are unwilling to tell their seniors “No”, only to hurt themselves and/or their team in the name of mission accomplishment despite significant resource shortfalls. Regardless, it is incumbent upon us to define success, hold ourselves accountable for continued progress, and honestly assess the level of success we are or are not enjoying. Success is not necessarily a task complete, but an outcome realized.
How do you define success? Do you make any effort to honestly measure success? How do you ensure that the time and energy you devote to your profession are in fact worthy of your time (and the pay you are receiving)?
source : http://seanheritage.com/blog/defining-success/
