Gritty Leadership: Becoming the 1%

Gritty Leadership: Becoming the 1%

Being normal is overrated.

Data shows the most successful leaders in the world are far from normal. According to a recent study* of 198 organizations, 10% of output comes from the top 1% of workers, and 26% comes from the top 5%.?

Statistically, that’s not considered normal…. But do we really want to be “normal” ??

So how do you become one of the 1%?

1. Clarify Your Purpose

Hyper performers are considered top talent—an elite group of people who drive results that shape the business world. These leaders usually work from their sweet spot—the intersection of what you love to do, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for. Some may call it your purpose, calling, or Ikigai (Japanese for “reason for being”).

Clarifying your purpose is often a journey; It’s OK if you haven’t yet nailed it. Enjoy what you're doing now, and allow yourself to grow through new challenges. As a result, you’ll develop leadership skills, increase your confidence, and learn more about yourself.

2. Take Ownership

You can kickstart your journey by taking ownership of your career. Become an entrepreneur, or become an intrapreneur if you work within an organization. When you approach your work with an ownership mindset, you challenge conventions and innovate new ideas, systems, and products. You’re not afraid to take big risks and reap big rewards.?

3. Strengthen Your Grit

All hyper performers (entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs) have one valuable characteristic that drives and sustains them. It’s their passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. My favorite word to describe it is grit.

As an Argentinian American, I first heard the term grit during a tennis tournament in my home state of Connecticut. I was playing in a doubles game and lost the first set. Then, in the second set, my teammate fell on the court. She needed to recover, so we took that time to regroup, strategize, and change the momentum. We won the second set and, later on, the match. Afterward, a tennis pro said to me, “I knew you had grit!”?

Since that moment, I’ve continued to think about that word. As you know, this has been a season of change for me. Not only have I spent a lot of time playing tennis, but I’ve also started a new career chapter as a consultant, advising businesses in the U.S. and Latin America as they transform their go-to-market strategies.?

In each chapter of my career, I continue to draw on my purpose, take ownership of my career, and strengthen my grit.

Learn and give back

The strongest leaders are life-long learners who use their knowledge, skills, and experience to help develop others. That’s why I made it a goal in 2022 to share my experiences and lessons with you here on LinkedIn. So in the spirit of the recent Thanksgiving holiday, THANK YOU for reading my articles, interacting with my posts, and helping facilitate new connections and opportunities.

Please check out my posts if you haven’t already. As you read, I hope they inspire you to:

• Advocate for emotional intelligence in the workplace?
• Find your flow to work smarter, not harder
• Create the momentum to sustain that flow?
• Embrace failure as a necessary part of growth (perfection is the enemy of progress)
• Master your focus to unlock your team’s potential
• Lead with vulnerability and curiosity when dealing with conflict, and
• Use root cause analysis to question the status quo and improve outcomes.

As we head toward the end of the year, I want to wish you all a very merry holiday season. Please take time to rest, enjoy the season, and prepare for the year ahead.?

Here’s to starting 2023 with renewed purpose, ownership, and grit!

*The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance

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