Five Traits for a Successful Career

Five Traits for a Successful Career


My career in executive search spans almost three decades, based on relationships built over thousands of conversations. Everyday I dialogue with individuals that are experts in their field, and spend their lives creating a better world for others. However success is defined, having control over your own destiny is a common denominator of achievement. As I peel back these discussions over decisions shared by noted successful executives, there are a few commonalities they share. Some are innate, others are learned, and all can be improved with focus.


  1. They work in the service of others. At some point in a successful executive's path, he/she begins to prioritize the growth of those around them. The incentive comes from the positive ripple effect experienced by inciting others. They make decisions thinking of the impact to their team harmonized with the mission at hand.
  2. Passion. Successful people think about their work most of the time, and the feeling it evokes is energizing. There is physical and emotional confirmation of being in the natural course of life in exactly the role you supposed to be playing.
  3. Time is the number one asset. Successful people spend time on their craft. Time is precious and spent with gratitude. Learning, reading, and mastery involve forgoing alternative options and time management is in constant state of self negotiation. It is understood that career is a choice and is chosen wisely.
  4. Trust in others. Successful executives have learned how to entrust others, and how to be trusted. Letting go of total control allows for more scalable success.
  5. Trust themselves. Those who achieve great career success have spent time on understanding themselves. Each of us have default behaviors, some serve us, others do not. There is time put in to identifying these behaviors and working towards positive change. They listen to those around them, yet ultimately make decisions that are their own.

Success is defined by individual measures, appearing wildly diverse at initial glance. However, successful executives share many attributes that align goals of their heart and head. They rise others up, while owning missteps along the way. They internalize each lesson as a badge of honor. They are successful because they never stop growing.


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Michelle S.

Building resilient strategies to accelerate business performance and increase patient access.

4 年

Great words of wisdom Holly Scott ! Love #’s 1 & 4!

回复
David Carey

Chief Commercial Officer at Pristine Surgical

4 年

Love this Holly Scott. How do you spend your time, and who do you surround yourself with? Awesome stuff

Icaro Godoi

Director Of Photography

4 年

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Ryan Blasko

Vice President - Global Med Device Leader Building Companies and Careers at TMG

4 年

Love number 1 Holly Scott ?? #servantleadership

Gordon S. Kerman

IT Manager / CyberSecurity / Software Dev / IT Engineering Manager: Science, Engineering and Manufacturing

4 年

I love a good long drive, peppered with stops that highlight nature inviting a wee wander. My first car was the creation of the freedom stage of life, delivering me to adventures in forests, along beaches and scenery that release cobwebs from my mind. Nature has the effect of grounding you, and it's unparalleled in its ability to seek out perspectives while observing the natural world. On one such adventure my instincts seemed to crave a stop at the Burlington Lakeshore, curious I parked and found a spot overlooking Lake Ontario. Chance encounters occur in a realm that we speak of to highlight; luck, wisdom, catalysts, ideas born, filtering, pieces off the puzzle and of course, notions of direction. In this case the latter was to ensue, meant to ensure a far more formidable personal path. The conversation that developed spoke of all the groundwork needed to align myself with your five common traits mentioned Holly Scott. The first order of operations was to face my worst fear, thereby granting me the vision of trust in myself and others. Putting my life on the line in scuba diving created a perfect storm on each occasion. I took a course which was fascinating in its own right; dive tables are cool. Descending 120' empowers you :}

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