Online With The Professional Image
A bi-monthly newsletter on building professional presence

Are You Maximizing Your Potential? Part Two

The PI Online April 2003 topic encouraged you to determine how to maximize your potential. The first two areas we asked you to explore were: 

    1.  Have you examined what you believe your full potential
          to be? 
    2.   Have you assessed and recorded your strengths?

Let's continue the journey into maximizing potential. Since any strength overused can be a weakness, the next logical questions are:

3. Are you aware of your blind spots, areas of development, derailers, or weaknesses? Use whatever terminology you want, but do you know what will get in the way of your next promotion, level of excellence or being your personal best?

The higher we climb in a company, the more savvy we become at negotiating the politics in our organization. The greater expertise we acquire in our chosen field, the more difficult it is to receive honest feedback.

The common experience is that those who work for us and even with us are more likely to take "the emperor isn't wearing any clothes approach" rather than tell us what they really think. It is up to each of us to pursue leadership training, a coach, mentor, or experiences that help us examine traits or behaviors that can hinder our growth.

4. Do you know what you want? If so, are you on the right path to achieve it? Do you have the right resources in place to keep you on track and hold you accountable?

In the book What Makes Winners Win? by Charlie Jones, an interview with Pat Riley stated that "Earvin Magic Johnson developed the most important skill that any player, any person can develop. He knew exactly what he wanted. He knew that he wanted to be a basketball player, and he found role models. He modeled himself after these people and he dreamed about it all the time. He visualized himself being a great player."

Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots stated "If you don't know where you are going any road will take you there. But once you know, then it just takes hard work and perseverance."  

Sometimes we stay with a career just because the degree we received dictated a specific path. Other times timing and opportunity take over and we find ourselves moving from one thing to another because it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Neither of these approaches is wrong. But both of the quotes from Pat Riley and Robert Kraft, as well as our experiences with our coaching clients reveal that knowing what you truly want, then plotting a course to get there, provides the edge for maximizing potential.

5. How much time do you take to work on mastering your game, working on YOU and thinking out of the box?

Michael Gerber author of The E-Myth Revisited states that growth and potential will only be maximized if you "work 20% on your business, not in your business." While this practice is critical for business growth, it holds true for personal growth as well.

How can you possibly maximize your potential if you stay in the "doing" and "execution" day in and day out?

Tiger Woods discloses one of his secrets. "The true essence of golf is capitalizing on opportunities and minimizing mistakes. It is a thinking man's (or woman's) game. Your creative mind should be your greatest weapon. While managing your game you should be constantly assessing situations, factoring in variables like changing course conditions and deciding on whether or not to play the percentages. It entails mental toughness, self-confidence, intimidation, gamesmanship, conquering inner demons, instant recall of past successes and being able to quickly purge failures. It's the game within the game."

What better advice for maximizing personal and professional potential! 

Review: Are You Maximizing Your Potential? Part One