Can Your Transferrable Skills Transform You Into a High Performer?

In an exploratory interview with psychologist, Sue Firth, she and I uncover the source of high performance for many in business and sports. She and I discussed how personal misfortune can sometimes be the catalyst for becoming extraordinary. For some people, extraordinary happens because they used transferrable skills from careers in unrelated fields. During the interview, we explore the mindset for why most breakthrough initiatives fail in organizations. Many believe they fail because people do not want to leave their comfort zone. Yes, that happens. At the same time, when it comes to breakthrough initiatives, people have limiting beliefs associated with the new project. Those limiting beliefs can serve as blind spots. In addition, the breakthrough may require new skills and competencies to complete it. If you believe you do not possess them, you may sabotage the initiative in order to ensure you remain relevant in your current job. As a first step, it may be wise to bridge the gap by first exploring transferrable skills to execute the new initiative. Most people have untapped transferrable skills from their personal or professional life. That may make it easier to move the needle and get the project started with minimal delays. When the entire team discovers their transferrable skills, new ideas explode. Then it becomes easier to execute the breakthrough.

Here’s Why Having “the Right Answer” Rarely Solves Problems

In an article by Bernie Franzgrote, he highlighted important points from a podcast interview. Through the interview, Bernie and his co-host Wayne Pratt, discover why many CEOs struggle to drive innovation in their organizations. In short, many executives are functioning as managers, instead of leaders. It is their mindset that builds the trap. While the distinction between a manager and leader is counterintuitive, it is critical for CEOs to make the transformation. If not, there is a chance their enterprise will become obsolete. At best, they will constantly play the game of catch up to the competition. Related to transforming mindset the interview focused on a case study where an under performer transformed mindset. Their under performance was the result of a blind spot. The blind spot would be activated when business situations reminded the person of a past event. Once the past event was distinguished, the next step was to unlearn it. This illustrated how blind spots can serve as huge impediments to success. While the interview is filled with historical examples of successes and failures, it eventually uncovered tactics to dismantle blind spots. Some of the bind spots are the result of personal experience. In other cases, it is the result of societal norms that are never questioned. Because most people never question the societal norms, they exhaust time making improvements to things that were never valid in the first place. Henry Ford said if he would have asked people what they want, they would have said a faster horse. Using horses for transportation was the norm. Ford disrupted that.