Chris revisits the key points made by Ruth Gotian, adds his own insights and gives listeners some suggestions for practical actions they can take immediately to help them get where they want to go.
Welcome to every one of our Perspectives from the Top community of listeners around the world to “Reflections on the Top”. “Reflections” is to help you get the best from the series by me reviewing the key insights from our latest guest, Ruth Gotian.
Ruth is Chief Learning Officer and Assistant Professor of Education in Anesthesiology and former Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine.
She started her career in University Residency management at NY State and Cornell and, after a brief period in international banking, moved into academic medical administration leading the transformation of learning and development for thousands of students over 26 years at Weill Cornell. During this period Ruth gained her PhD in Education from Columbia and has also focused on finding out what made people high performing and successful to help others achieve the same.
Ruth researched the most successful people, including Nobel laureates, astronauts, CEOs and Olympic champions, in order to learn about their habits and practices so that we may optimize our own success. She reveals what she found out in our interview and
in her book The Success Factor – Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Performance. Ruth regularly publishes in such journals as Nature, Scientific American, Academic Medicine, Psychology Today, Forbes and Harvard Business Review. She is also recognised in theThinkers50 Radar List, the Oscars of management thinking.
What Ruth has achieved over her career shows the capability of mentors to change perspectives, performance and perhaps indeed change lives. The comment by her mentor that she should do something important and not just something interesting galvanized her into focusing in on an area that she had been frustrated about for some time. How you can create an environment where people can be their best through being to have the right mindset and take the right actions to succeed.
This came out of her work supporting and administering joint medical diploma and PhD programmes which some of the most difficult to get onto across the world. The problem she saw was despite the difficulty of getting onto the course and the dedication that people had on it a significant proportion were leaving. As a result a significant number of people were looking at why people were leaving, but Ruth flipped that round to ask why people were staying. What was the differentiating factor between those who stayed and those who left ?
Her logic was that if you can identify the factors the which lead to people successfully complete the course then if you could enable more people to do the same, to be really great, and then logically more would stay and succeed.
So at 43 she decided to focus on this as her big project – her belief that was about the “WHY” which drove and enabled people to succeed where others failed. But that won't surprise you because if you’ve listened to all the other interviews on Perspectives from the Top time and again we keep coming back to the personal “why” and the power that that has to drive super performance. When what the “why” is has been answered for individuals teams and organisations, performance tends to go up significantly.
And it was at this point that her mentors comment about doing “something important as well as interesting” transformed what was Ruths local study into something that was more wide-ranging and national if not international……
So the journey started with her dissertation on the Success Factors of medical scientists where she found four key factors of success. After that the inevitable question Ruth had was whether these factors were also consistent in other people who were successful. This then led to her quest to hunt down other high achievers to see if these SuccessFactors were indeed common for success in any field of activity.
Ruth tracked down the best and most successful in their field, irrespective of what the field might be. Nobel Prize winners, CEO's, top sports people, top people in media and many.
What was driving Ruth was not to find the answer to an academic question but to find the answer to how to make people more successful in the real world. She was seeking an answer to help her be even better herself as much as it was a study exercise to help other people become high achievers. You can hear that passion in her voice, on this she certainly has found her own “why”.
Ruth mentioned the great phrase about that we have two ears and one mouth so if possible we should spend twice as much time listening as we should do talking. Now listeners you and I have probably heard that many, many times before but how many times do we remember that and stick to it when we are interacting with other people.
Because, if you think about it honestly, it makes total sense. Proactively listening to other people to enable them to explain to you what they are trying to achieve, or to express how they feel, makes them psychologically feel positive. You are demonstrating your interest in them and showing respect to them. And the great thing is if you do they will then reciprocate, so starting the creation of a trust based relationship which just makes everything run more smoothly.
But it's also fundamental to leadership, we know from different studies that if leaders listen to people, ask for ideas, it's proven to motivate them to generate more effort. Just that simple act of listening and asking them to say what they think. So please try to stick to the twice as much listening as you speak rule, particularly if you are a leader.
Ruth has been in leadership roles almost since the start of her career when she was involved in student housing, then moving into academic administration. But you can see a common pattern in everything she did that is really about how you can create an environment where people are able to be their best. And as her career grew and developed that element became more powerful and proactive in her work helping students successfully complete their studies, both through what was happening within the teaching element but also the supporting elements around mentoring, access to study materials be that libraries or online, and even around the quality of accommodation.
We all know from experience that even latter, our accommodation environment, which is often not considered in this sort of context is critical. Our experience from either our studies, all remote working, or even just day-to-day living confirm how important it is to have the right environment for us to be happy, to be content, and to grow and develop. It's so important both at work and at home.
Having the right environment linked to Ruth's comments about her short dive into the world of international banking where she said she certainly had no problem doing the job it's just that she just didn't like doing the job. She wasn't inspired by it, the job didn't meet her personal “why” needs. But that links to in particular comments by Marshall Goldsmith and indeed other guests where they have stressed the importance of being in a role which meet your personal why. Where you can not only do the job but you love the job.
But two points on that. Firstly many of you out there won't be in jobs where that applies, that you are inspired everyday, you may be in a job that you need to be in to keep money coming in or which is a necessary step in your career development. But you should always have in your mind finding that role which meets your personal “why” as soon as possible. But also secondly for leaders listening. If you can create an environment within which your team members can achieve their personal “why”, can use their skills to their best ability and grow them then you will unleash their full potential for performance which will benefit them, you, the team and wider organisation.
But I would just every leader listening the question do you know what the “why” is for each of your team ? Have you ever sat down and talk to them about what they're aspire to in both the short term and long term ? Going back to the point about listening, just having that conversation will make such a difference, and if you haven't done it please put some time in your diary to sit down with each team member and do it. It will make a real difference.
However Ruth did gain from her banking job even though she didn't necessarily like it that much. She gained contacts who are still friends, she gained an understanding of a very different type of culture to the one in academia. We've spoken about before about the bottom line focused commercial world where it's often more about me than we, whereas Ruth said in academia to make things work there has to be a significant element of collaboration between people to share ideas and develop them further. But that links back to what all of our other guests who have had careers across multiple sectors have said - that a range of different experiences give you broad insight and that improves your ability to understand how to work with a wider variety of people and to develop solutions for different challenges which you may face.
Back in the world of academia and medicine Ruth worked with as she said earlier with students doing a combined medical diploma and PhD. That’s a very long and intense programme and she got to know her students over a period of nearly seven years of them working through this qualification. Now that is a degree of interaction which enables you to get some really deep insights into the way individuals can change and develop over a significant period of time, and also of the wide range of different elements of study which the students cover over such a long period of time.
That gave Ruth a very powerful holistic overview of how the whole system worked which therefore gave her the opportunity to see not just the individual components but how those components interacted so that she could optimise the system. That's really important because everybody else was just seeing what was happening within their own component of the system, not necessarily having an accurate holistic overview. That's why Ruth was in such a great position to make significant development and transformational changes which enabled the system to be even better. But, as she said, what was really important about her overview was that she was able to see the system effects of a change in one part of that system on the rest.
We all know that if we throw a stone into a pond the ripples spread out across the pond. That same effect happens in organisations when we change something in one place it impacts elsewhere. But too often we fail to predict these changes, or we fail to look out for them. Many of us will have experienced one part of an organisation doing something differently the in some way which subsequently negatively impacts upon the performance of another part of the organisation.
But if you think about it that's what we have spoken about before. The simple principle that an organisation should operate as a seamless whole even though it's structured in silos. We know from experience this is where organisations have problems, as Archbishop Justin Welby said in his view it is organisational silos that are the greatest challenge for any organisation in terms of blocking enhanced performance. Therefore Ruths comments absolutely confirm what other guests have said about the importance of getting to understand the big picture. But also those ripple effects. If you if you are a leader you also need to explain the big picture to your people. As I've explained before telling your people about the big picture so they can understand how they contribute, that can increase their effort by over 30% because it gives them a “Why”.
The Covid pandemic has obviously had a massive and in some ways devastating effect on those in the medical world. The study and development which Ruths students are going through has to be done set against the demands of delivering their professional skills to patients on a day-to-day basis. So it's the same as for any of you listening who are doing a part time qualification over and above your job. Clearly the pandemic almost stopped the opportunity to study and develop. Not only that, we know from all the data those in healthcare who experienced the pandemic were utterly exhausted mentally and physically by the experience and what's worse it isn't even over yet. So as I said to Ruth and as I say to all of you out there who may have been in healthcare, or are in healthcare anywhere in the world, and have experienced the exhaustion and trauma of the pandemic on behalf of myself and all our other listeners I thank you for your sacrifice.
Having therefore spent years studying the best performing of her students, then expanding out to some of the highest achievers across different parts of society Ruth came to some really powerful conclusions about what enabled the most successful people to be the most successful people and she put it together in a book called The Success Factor. She found that these were the same factors in the Nobel Prize winning scientist, the Olympic figure skater and all the others she spoke to. So what were the factors?
But before we get there I think everybody listening needs to appreciate the bottom line of what Ruth discovered - that it really is possible to learn and develop those factors which are likely to enable you to be highly successful. In other words success can be learned. It's not just about what skills or intellect you were born with – you can grow and develop ! You can build a growth mindset and achieve your aspirations. Now onto the factors…..
The first factor, which Ruth herself picked up on early in her career, is that you must be absolutely passionate about whatever you do, it must be your “why”. Because without that driving passion you really won’t deliver super performance. Many people have said that having a high paid job is a motivator. Having seen people at the most senior level in action and also the evidence doesn't bear that out. For many people the high salary is an incidental to them being able to, on a daily basis, answer their “why” question – their inspirational and aspirational job.
For some people by chance the industry in which they are able to answer that question is one that is well paid, but all of us know people who are giving their best, are really high performers but are in industries where perhaps people are not as well paid, eg public service, healthcare, and education. But that doesn't stop you being a high achiever if that's the area in which you get the answer your “why”. A great example of that is the interview I did with Andy Byford the Transport Commissioner for London, That’s worth listening to as he is a public servant who's “why” is absolutely about delivering public service and doing the best for his people. He could get paid a lot more in a business CEO role.
The second factor is what I describe as an “entrepreneurial” challenge beating approach - where you know that there must always be a solution to a problem somewhere, that if you keep adapting your thinking, tapping your knowledge and network reservoir, somewhere is that answer. It's that determination to find the solution and succeed which is the second factor.
The third links to the effective leveraging of your past experience. Now that's not the same as always doing things in the same way that you've always done them, that's because the world is changing around you and what worked in the past might not work now. It's more about using all of the experiences that you've had, especially if you have proactively broadened them out overtime, finding that one experience which is a way forward to guide you to where you need to go.
The final factor which Ruth identified was that super performers are constantly learning. They use informal learning on a regular basis to broaden and deepen their knowledge – be that be that through reading, networking, listening to podcasts, having a coach or mentor or just listening to other peoples perspectives and experiences. And it's about being open to that knowledge. In particular in seeking out other diverse insights which are different to your own.
That diversity of thought gives you real power. As Ruth said building knowledge and diversity of thought, as evidenced by those people who have a mentor, has a proven impact on boosting your performance and your career prospects. But that isn't only for individuals. I've said before that creating a team that has diversity of thought within it has a massive impact on the potential for the team success.
So Ruths advice was to build a mentoring team. Now some of you listening may be lucky enough to be in organisations where you have been given a mentor. This individual is likely to be able to give you significant value in terms of your performance within the organisation but as Ruth said I think there's an argument to be made for having a number of informal mentors either inside the organisation or even better if outside the organisation. They would be people who are able to advise you on areas that you want to grow or need to grow your perspectives in. Now you might not call them mentors, you just might call them friends, but no matter what the label is you should try and seek out 2-3 or four people who you can ask for their perspectives, and that’s even if you have a formalised mentor in an organisation.
If you are a mentor, or you are asked to be a mentor for somebody in an organisation, having been involved in mentoring and having trained mentors myself in major organisations over 30 years please make sure you receive some good quality training before you become a mentor. On the surface helping somebody grow and develop through your experience and insight seems to be very simple, but it's not as simple as it looks. It's not about you providing your answers to their problems based on your experience. It's about you helping them find their answers based on their experience that's different. It's requires twice as much listening as talking as Ruth said.
Mentoring can transform lives of both people involved if it is done well. That requires training, to some degree for both parties, so the mentor knows how to do the job and the person being mentored knows what to expect and how to enable their mentor to help them best. But too often I have seen mentoring set-up without the skills being in place and in the end it has had negligible, and even potentially a negative impact in some ways. So please if you are going to be a mentor make sure you are trained properly.
Ruth mentioned that if you go into her website ruthgotn.com/mentoringteam there is some advice on how to build your mentoring team. Its definitely worth looking at some of Ruth's insights into this and mentoring in general.
So definitely think about those four Success Factors which Ruth listed and maybe self assess yourself against them, or ask somebody to assess you against them by seeking feedback. But the power lies in thinking about them and how you can enhance your ability to develop those in the future, so just a reminder
And finally how can I find my mentors or equally how can I help people by being a good mentor, because the evidence is that mentors gain just as much out of these relationships as those being mentored.
Everything that Ruth said in her interview goes back to the fundamental points that have come out from all of our guests, that if we are passionate about what we do, if we work in collaboration with others, if we show interest in them and listen and try to understand what they want to achieve they will help us achieve what we want to achieve. We go back to what you have heard me say so often that if we can build a we not me culture, if we can build an environment at work where people are happy and giving their best we will benefit, others will benefit, our organisations will benefit, our families will also benefit and our wider societies will benefit. So maybe it's time now that you started to assess your Success Factors, and if you want to learn more get a copy of Ruth's book.
As with the previous guests and now Ruth hopefully you are seeing a pattern of simple actions you can take to be more successful. Share these interviews colleagues who would benefit so they can grow and develop with you. Certainly I will be using these powerful points in my speaking and Masterclasses in the future.
If you have any thoughts or questions connect with me on LinkedIn or via email as detailed on the Perspectives website. Don't forget to sign up to Perspectives from the Top. It's free, so you don't miss any of the great episodes in the future.
That’s it for now, so from me its onwards and upwards until our next episode.