How to be Successful – Develop 3 Key Executive Skills

The 3C’s have worked to skyrocket professionals in all fields to the top. 

Great executives that run a sustainable, scalable and profitable operation share a number of common skills that support their success. Three of the most prized toolkits are what I call the 3C’s of Executive Success – Clarity of Vision, Arrow-like Concentration, and Cognitive Flexibility.

Focus on mastering this trifecta, and you’ll catalyze your growth. 

Consider this – you might be a charming salesman at a Fortune 500, or the genius idea guy at your startup, or the woman with unparalleled technical expertise — but your existing attributes will only take you so far. 

Why? Because truly successful people — at the top of their fields — have to do a bunch of things at once. They need to inspire and they need to execute. They need to see the big picture and understand how the pieces fit together in everyday operation.

You must wear the roles of many, taking them on and off as the particulars require. And all this must be happening in your head, lightening fast, in order to perform with expertise and ease. 

That’s where the 3C’s come in to guide your growth and mastery. Cultivating the 3C’s will not only help you get to the top, but they will help you fulfill the role with grace once you get there. 

How to be successful — your 3c roadmap

While there are several traits that round out any leadership success story, these three C’s really do much of the heavy lifting. The reason is simple: other skills will help you get, but in the absence of these, you’ll end up in a survival state — burned out, lacking in internal resources, scrambling — instead of thriving.

Eventually that catches up and you can’t sustain an upward trajectory. In fact, this is how most people flat line in their careers.  

How to be Successful #1 – Get Your Clarity 

An executive leading a high-performing team must-have clarity of vision.

Clarity is about knowing your: (1) Purpose – the why?; (2) Plan – the how?; and (3) Projection – the what? 

(1) Your Purpose is two-fold. First, find and refine the big picture purpose you have. You can explore our 5-step clarity roadmap to help you do that. Then get specific about the purpose of the task or challenge at hand, and how that feeds into the big picture. Do this with all your undertakings to practice the method, and turn it into a habit.

(2) Your Plan is about taking the purpose and transforming it into a step-by-step guide. Of course, you’ll have to amend it as problems arise, but the more detail you put into what this plan looks like, the more likely you won’t get exhausted, lose yourself in a fruitless rabbit hole, or lose sight of what’s next.

(3) Your Projection is the endgame. Be confident you know what it looks like or you won’t know when you’ve reached it. This might be obvious for a client deliverable, but it’s harder when it comes to more complex goals. Even when it comes to your personal life, projections are key.

While clarity of purpose tells you why something matters, clarity of plan gives your team a working roadmap. The projection outlines the endgame.

It’s essential to have clarity of vision for your own goals and especially as a leader of others. Don’t just manage people, keep them motivated, inspired, accountable and excited.

How to be Successful #2 – Harness Concentration Like an Arrow

We can borrow here from sports psychologists, Kremer and Moran, who highlight the five principles of effective concentration:

• Concentration is a deliberate choice that requires mental effort. Don’t force it, but choose it. 
• You can only focus on one thing at a time (despite all the multitasking myths). 
• Form a mind-body connection. Even if you’re sitting at a desk and typing, close your eyes. Visualize what you want to achieve. Imagine your head and fingers coordinating to get you there. 
• Forget everything else but the task at hand. Jot down other thoughts or to-do’s but don’t let them compete for attention. 
• During moments of anxiety, redirect your focus to a physical act like breathing or walking for a few minutes. 

How to be Successful #3 – Practice Cognitive Flexibility

This is definitely the hardest of the three C’s. Cognitive flexibility is your ability to perceive, think, problem-solve, take action, and engage with others in new and nontraditional ways. It’s a nonlinearity inside your head.

Part of the reason why it’s difficult is because it’s so abstract. What does it mean to do something non-traditionally? How can you think creatively instead of using only direct logic?

Well you get good at it, the more you practice it. A few recommendations:

(1) Be flexible often. If you always do things a certain way, take steps to try new ways. Get a little uncomfortable. You won’t know what you won’t know until you know it. 

(2) Use other industries for inspiration: look at someone in a whole different field and imagine how they might solve your problem.

(3) Don’t isolate yourself in belief bubbles. This is the antithesis of making new neural connections, which require as a prerequisite that you learn new things. If you’re in an echo chamber, you’ll own cement what’s already there. This doesn’t bode well for success because eventually you will come across an obstacle that needs out-of-the-box thinking. Additionally, you’ll narrow the pool of people you can learn and engage with to those that already think like you.

CREATING MOMENTUM WITH PRACTICE

Hopefully, it’s clear why cultivating the 3C Executive Skills will accelerate your professional growth and help you lead with ease once you’re at the top. As this becomes part of your mental toolkit, you’ll find that the benefits expand into your personal life as well. Imagine how much faster you would achieve your life goals with the 3C’s skills embedded into the way your brain works. Just practice!

Remember, implementation is the key to making it all work. Your action creates momentum and once you get going, you’ll feel no desire to turn back. 

Action Steps to Cultivate

We help you learn all of this and more in our landmark Neuro-performance program, activate your secret genius.

This 10-week transformation benefits and impacts every aspect of your life: career, daily performance, health, wellness, cognitive function, habits, relationships, energy, personal and spiritual growth and beyond. That’s because unlike anything else in the market, we focus on the brain- The brain being the root of all change.

And because genius comes in all flavors and types, unlocking yours is about learning, knowing, and transforming into your highest self. To see how it works. Come check out our new content on our home-page for some amazing videos that will inspire and change your life.

If you enjoyed this article, we'd love for you to forward it to your community! It helps us to help more people. Use the social/mail icons to share it with anyone in 2 seconds.

Executive Functioning Skills: Cognitive Flexibility [Student Caffe Blog]

The importance of role clarity and role ambiguity for leaders [Fortune India]