The Measure of Success

What is the measure of success? For a project manager it may be bringing the project in on time and on budget, for a football team is may be considered a victory. I would challenge that both of these views are limited and somewhat short sided.

From a leadership standpoint the measures of success should be set at a much higher level. While these events are significant milestones, are they real success? I would say not always. So if these are not the true measure of success, what is?

Here is what started my thoughts on this subject. My son decided this year to play football. It has been a thrill for me, because he has put everything into this team. He is a first year player and so does not have the experience, but works his tail off. Well, the league rules state that every child must play a minimum of 10 plays per game. During the first game (which we lost) at least five players did not get the required number of plays. I made a huge issue of this with the head coach and he promised both my son and I that it would not happen again.

The second game, every player got their plays and even though we lost, the team was in much better spirits. Winning did not make the difference to these 10 year old boys, being part of the team and participating made the difference.

As a leader sometimes we are challenged with employees who have not defined their own measure of success, leaders can help these individuals make the choices to characterize success, if the employee is willing to take those steps. The most difficult challenge is when an employee’s goals are to get out of work at all costs, but that is a different blog altogether.

I have found the best definition of success comes from identifying one’s own values and principles. True success comes in the areas of our lives that mean the most to us; this may be family, faith, career, or whatever. By obtaining a core value success we establish our own personal happiness, and in the end happiness, true happiness, is what we are here for.