Why the Best & Most Accomplished People are Spikey

Success comes at the extremes. One of the lessons I’ve learned in my career is that the best individuals are spikey. They are so good at one or two things that these outweigh all their weaknesses. This was the lesson taught by the fine folks at Gallup and goes contrary to what is commonly taught in school or advice given to young adults and even in the workplace.

When I was growing up, we were taught to focus and remedy our weaknesses. So for example in school I was not particularly good (or interested) in French or chemistry but all my time was directed at trying to pass. Basically spending all our time on our shortcomings.

When I was at Yahoo!, one of my bosses Jon Schwartz made the entire team do the Gallup Clifton Strengthsfinder test which surfaced the top 5 traits you were strong in. (BTW: big recommendation to do this test if you have not.). The results were eye-opening and helped me understand why I was successful in some situations/roles, projects and companies. Also, maybe more importantly, why I was NOT so successful in others.

This completely changed my view and the trajectory of my career. Once you know what traits and skills you are strong in, you develop and double down on them. At the same time, manage your weaknesses. It’s a great filter to help you figure out which projects or roles to take on and which ones to pass on (or at least choose not to focus on if you can). Ones that play to your strengths so you can deliver amazing results every time.

This is exactly opposite to what we were taught. It could also be the reason why so many people just end up having mediocre results and average careers.

You can be a generalist of course but even the most successful generalists have one or two things that they are absolutely fantastic and top .0001% at. This is what differentiates the A players from the rest.

As the famous quote by Jerry Garcia goes:

“It’s not enough to be the best at what you do. You must be perceived as the only one who does what you do.”

So Be Spikey people!

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