Back in 2007, my alma mater’s football team (American-style) did something that garnered them national attention, quite rare for a 2,000 person university: they won a game with 2 seconds on the clock by having seven players run a ball 60 yards for the score. Why should you care? Because you need to do the same thing that they did: …
An Ancient Story About the Value of Hidden High Potentials
This is a followup to my earlier post (“Transitions Are Like Being Lost In The Pacific“) on high potentials and the number of transitions they go through in life, and how that increases their risk for massive failures. Here’s a story about a high potential who screwed up and failed completely.
Ah, yes. We come to your typical remark from a pragmatist CEO of a mid-sized firm. Although this cigar-chomping associate is a caricature in walking flesh, the opinion is shared by others. Lots of others. I can go into the psycho-sociological explanation for these opinions but instead, let me tell you a story from another land (I live in the U.S.) that I first heard years ago. It shows why I believe in hidden high potentials (HHPs), and although the story is somewhat dated, it shows what happens to HHPs even today.
Once upon a time, in a land far away, there were two types of people living in the same country. One dominated the economic, social and political life. It’s fair to say that they ran everything. The other type of people were a different ethnicity. Like many minorities before and since, during hard times they found themselves getting the shaft from the ruling ethnic group. But they persevered. Let’s call the ruling ethnic group “Greens” and the oppressed minority, “Blues”.
Now the Greens ran a country that was the envy of the entire world. All the nations acknowledged their power. Indeed, the land of the Greens was mighty and all their neighbors feared their great might and learning. This great wealth and learning did not trickle down to the Blues, however,
One of these Blues, a young man we can call “Fred” — old names from far away are hard to pronounce, don’t you think? — who by a stroke of good fortune found himself adopted by a rich and powerful Green family. His face and color was not quite as blue as other Blues, and he could successfully pass as a bluish Green.
Top Reasons Why High Potentials Have To Do Things Different For Job Security
If you are a Hidden High Potential (HHP) and you never hear anything else from me, memorize this statement: What is safe for other people is dangerous for you; what is guaranteed to fail for most people is what’s most likely to succeed for you. Or, as Pippin in the Two Towers movie put it: The closer we are to …
Why Is Career Advice So Useless?
eWeek, a leading rag in the corporate IT industry, has a new article by Rich Milgram on “How to Ensure IT Job Security Despite an Economic Meltdown“. It’s a great example of useless career advice. And you don’t even have to be in IT to see that. Here are his four points, if you can call them that: Provide meaningful …
Becoming the Enablement Vehicle for Others’ Unarticulated Desires
Back when I was working on the GO Society’s book, Organization Design, Levels of Work and Human Capability: Executive Guide, I had the opportunity to spend an Sunday afternoon talking to Julian Fairfield in his early Monday morning. (I love talking to Australia!) He’s an amazing thinker with a wide ranging interest that started years ago on the shopfloor, moved …
Crises Are Times of Opportunity
The chickens have come to roost, as my grandfather used to say. The insane practices around bundling loans that never should have been made, along with our own greed, have led to a massive crisis internationally. I was first warned of this a year ago by some Australian investors but it’s still shocking to see how much damage can be …
Stratum Transitions: Why High Potentials Keep Having Emotional Breakdowns
All transitions from one level of mental capability to the next can be hard. For high-potentials, who go through more transitions than normal people, they can be down right terrifying because they feel like a complete emotional breakdown.
Why Psychotherapy Can Be Worse Than Not When You’re A Hidden High Potential
I recently had an exchange in another site with “Marcy”, who talked about some judgments that she had about some of her previous therapists who didn’t fit with her. (One of her old therapists, with whom she did good work, wrote a book with Warren Rule. I think this says a lot about her.) She was trying to find a …
Best Secret For Succeeding When You’re “Smart”
t being August, I thought it a good time reiterate the most useful piece of coaching I can give you: do you what you’re good at doing.
It seems so simple that feels almost insulting to receive as advice: Do what you’re good at. It seems like such a truism.
Except that so many high potentials just don’t see it.
Reduce Career Risk By Moving Closer To Danger
There’s a reason why I talk about so many different ways of looking at your career, things like Levels of Work, the 7 Languages of Achievement, domains of work, and even personality differences. It’s all about helping you stop making career decisions that have almost no chance of working. For you. Because, you see, what’s risky for most people is …