Communicating Way Up The Success Ladder

Who doesn’t want to be rich, famous and powerful?

Who doesn’t want to be successful?

Success, to almost all of us, is being rich, famous and powerful. But are these the only manifestations of success? What happens when one hits the apogee? How does the CEO of a mega business empire seek to continue his rise in positional hierarchy? Does his success hit the wall? How does an individual, having become the premier of a super power continue his success story? Has he too hit the wall? Does the flux in the Forbes list indicate climb to and fall from success?

Irrespective of the organisation one works for or the society one lives in, everyone wants to succeed.  It is this yearning to succeed that drives humans to excel. Success, simplistically defined by dictionary as ‘accomplishment of a purpose or aim’, encompasses things much beyond mere achievements. It is perceived, understood and experienced differently by everyone. Thus, an attempt to contain ‘success’ in universal definition is an exercise in futility. Yet, to fathom its expanse there is a need to broadly define success.

“Success that Lasts”[i]

There is an unending list of publications and papers on various aspects of success. Market is flooded with books that prescribe easy ways to become successful. If all those who read it became half as successful, with so many dying to be rich, famous and powerful, there could be a stampede in every shop that sold such books and those who authored such books would either have already been hiding somewhere or spending time in captivity tutoring those who abducted them.

Amidst this maze of publications, a research paper titled “Success that Lasts” was published by Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson in Harvard Business Review issue of February 2004. It introduces, “Happiness, (Feelings of pleasure or contentment about life)”, “Achievement (accomplishments that compare favourably against similar goals others have strived for)”,  “Significance (the sense that you made a positive impact on people you care about)” and “Legacy (a way to establish your values or accomplishments so as to help others find future success”, as four irreducible components of “enduring success”.

According to the paper, each factor, characteristically different, satisfies different needs of an individual and draws on distinctive emotional drives. Low probability of simultaneous and significant achievements in each of the four categories notwithstanding, the authors claim that deficiency in any one component makes success feel less real.

Abraham Maslow and Success

If one delves a little deeper into the article, on can correlate and superimpose the research findings over Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy model. While ‘Achievements’ form the building blocks of success and caters initially to physiological needs, the accomplishments that achieve “significance’ relate to social and esteem needs. In further pursuits when one reaches higher in the hierarchy to sublime levels, legacies are created. If “happiness”, is not an integral element in the efforts of the individual, then, pursuit of success is likely to be short lived.

Secret of Success

There is something sinister in the way success grants audience. There are millions trying ‘tested’ and ‘proven’ ways and means but don’t ever get anywhere near success whereas there are few, seemingly with nothing, who break the ceiling. Business schools are flooded with such case studies. Their meteoric rise, in almost all cases, were fuelled by some USP. Like market dynamics that ensure high profit margins for USP driven goods and services, success adopts exponential path for ‘the unique’ while those copying proven success formulae must content with incremental growth. Though, copying “Habits of the Ten most successful People ” would definitely help us understand successful individuals better, the outcome is normally a rich and happy author besides a reader looking out for more ‘easy ways’ to be successful.  Seldom discussed and often missed out is one trait common to all successful people, their power to communicate.

The secret of an individual’s success, embedded deep in his very being, is the manner in which he communicates. Communication referred to here, is not about glib smart talk, but about serious intra / inter personal communication and resultant actions.  Much like a powerful source of light that brightens large areas, meaningful effective actions and interpersonal communication can emanate only from strong foundations of intra personal communication.

Intrapersonal Communication

Intrapersonal communication is a form of self-talk between the subconscious and the self-conscious. For it to be effective, it must originate from competencies that have been identified or created and then nurtured and refined by meaningful catharsis that are guided by strong belief and convictions. If an individual finds happiness in this process, it eventually becomes a self-sustaining reinforcing cycle that promotes continually and consistently improving competence. The fundamental building blocks of success germinate from unique ideas backed by strong competencies and unwavering conviction in the probability of its success. Creating a rationale (why) is inevitable to sustain a pursuit that would turn arduous at some stage. It is this “why” that would fuel the fire that eventually creates legacies.

Empowering Intrapersonal Communication

The first and foremost requisite for fruitful intrapersonal communication is ‘belief in oneself’.  Despite all misgivings about oneself and negatives one would invariably receive in the arduous journey to the zenith, it is important to start believing in oneself, and steadfastly enough sooner than later.  After all, if one cannot truly believe in oneself, one cannot expect others to.  In order to reinforce self-belief, it is very important to repeatedly affirm faith in one’s sense of purpose and abilities. This would swiftly lead to objective evaluation of one’s own core competency and thereafter its improvement.

In order to remain committed and to persist with the success-journey, it is important that one restate one’s commitment as often as possible.  As time goes by one starts to hear the inner voice louder, clearer and more supportive. Soon, self-doubts ebb away and vanish, barbs and ridicules become inconsequential and the light within shines bright enough for others, first to see and then follow. Then, it is time to sow goals to reap success.

Setting Goals

It becomes easy to set goals in a clutter free realm of intrapersonal communication.  While setting goals, it is often the individual who limits his reach.  There is no end to dreaming big, thinking big and then reaping big.  It is difficult to aim high and miss it, but easier to aim low and hit it.  However, it will be easy and motivating, if goals are calibrated for the time ahead and written down, in as much specifics as specific can be. It would definitely help if these goals can be fed with the existing core competencies of the individual. Else time has to be set aside for achieving requisite competencies.

The Dubious Safety Net

Conditioned by value systems, self-doubts and fanned by fears of the unknown individuals become their worst critics and their own nemesis. Human brain is hardwired to ensure safe, smooth and obstacle free existential journey.  While it may risk inconsistencies occasionally, it normally forbids individuals from taking risks. Thus, human brains are conditioned to follow the ‘status quo’ providing us a path of least resistance. Sight of silent suffering majority subjugated by violent minuscule minority in communities across the world is the result of status quo brains that perpetuate “boiling frog” syndrome across cultures.

Status quo option apparently ensures one a safe journey in life, but it will certainly be as one faceless entity in a teeming million. In such a journey one can forget creating a legacy or of being any relevance. This, at its best, is existence and not living. Success in such a journey would be limited to meaningless longevity of life with nothing worth the time spent. In order to create something worthy of being called “success”, one needs to get rid of the safety net, overcome fear of failure and pursue life with hope of success. It is often said that there are no hopeless situations but people who have grown hopeless about the situation.

Interpersonal Communication

Armed with requisite competencies, standing atop strong foundations of value driven self-talk, safety nets can be cast off while dealing with the world outside. This manifests as meaningful purpose oriented interpersonal communication. Self-belief and strong competencies naturally and effortlessly transform one’s body posters and signals it sends out.  Contemporaries and competitors would without fail, take note of the strong sense of purpose and invincibility effortlessly emanating from such an individual.  Negotiations and bargains naturally turn in their favour and their ability to motivate colleagues and compel adversaries to fall in line becomes legendary. When one really stands on firm terra firma, there is no need to put on facades to hide inadequacies. While many who fake it, end up being arrogant, in the false belief that it could be seen as confidence.  But such masks seldom last beyond one meeting.

Climbing the Success Ladder

In order to climb a success ladder, it is important for one to first decide the legacy one wants to leave behind, to whom and to what extent one should become relevant.  One must then earnestly set out to acquire requisite competencies. The defining moment in the journey comes when one befriends one’s own subconscious and learn to harness its might through seamless communication. Casting out the fear of failure and setting out in the hope of success would help one achieve success that can truly be called legacy in one’s own lifetime. The journey to success starts with the communication between the self-conscious and subconscious.

[i] Success that Lasts, Laura Nash and Stevenson Howard, Harvard Business Review February 2004

This article first appeared in https://jacobshorizon.blogspot.com/2019/09/communicating-way-up-success-ladder.html on 22 Sep 2019.