Meaning of success relates different things to different people.
Success will be measured by "the extent to which a person is happy about himself and with others", "happy about his life and achievements", "the position he achieved in his career", "the wealth he acquired over a period of time"
Clayton M. Christensen answered this very important question in a Harvard Business Review article which I have linked.
Stephen R. Covey's wonderful book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (2004, 98-99), suggests that the universal mission for us is to discover our voice and then help others to discover theirs.
Attached is a list of moral insights from Covey that may also be of interest.
Meaning of success relates different things to different people.
Success will be measured by "the extent to which a person is happy about himself and with others", "happy about his life and achievements", "the position he achieved in his career", "the wealth he acquired over a period of time"
The Measurement of Success is achieved with qualitative instruments that are developed and validated throughout the experiences of living. In other words, Success I understand it as the achievement of personal goals and objectives that culminate in Self-realization. All this without using others, but grow with them with mutual enrichment, emotional and intellectual.
La Medición del Éxito se logra con instrumentos cualitativos que se elaboran y validan a lo largo de las experiencias del vivir. En otras palabras, el Éxito yo lo entiendo como el logro de metas y objetivos personales que culminan en la Auto realización. Todo ello sin utilizar a los demás, sino crecer con ellos con enriquecimiento mutuo, emocional e intelectual.
Success, for me, is a measure of how well I am actualizing my potentialities at any given moment (in philosophical terms, how well I am overcoming the gap between essential being--who I am by nature--and existential being--my currently existing self).
In order to measure success from research perspective, we need to define what is success & what are the criteria of success. Agreed with other researchers / scholars that "success" can have different meanings to different people in different context situation e.g. success in life, business success, project success, project management success etc. Suggest the following to develop the measure of success:
Narrow down to specific people group & in what context e.g. corporate wide or personal success for academicians, practitioners, businessmen, project managers, students etc.
Develop the operational definition of success based on certain widely used criteria e.g. project management success include criteria like within budget, timeliness & quality of project deliverable etc. (this step needs rigorous literature review to be conducted).
Develop questionnaire items to measure each criteria of the above operational definition - you can do this through rigorous literature review, adopting, adapting or worst scenarios develop your own / new questionnaire items to measure the construct / variable of success.
Then you need to conduct a pilot study to test your success variable through collecting some convenient samples & conduct some reliability tests. Further improvements of the questionnaire can be performed before actual data collection.
My view is that we can measure the success of “life” and “work”, based on the level of “personal quality”.
Then we have to understand what is “personal quality”.
According to Opatha (2010) personal quality is considered as an essential factor that determines a person’s development, others’ development, institutional development and nation development. Opatha (2010) states that personal quality is perceived as a concept considering of three dimensions such as,
1. Personal Character: the totality of persistent moral qualities a person has
2. Personal Management: the totality of attributes in planning and controlling a person’s life for achieving his or her life goals without wasting time, energy and available resources
3. Personal Key Success Factors: the vital qualities one should possess in order to accomplish a certain target which is desired state to be achieved in future
Reference
Opatha, H.H.D.N.P.,2010. Personal Quality.University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
To find true happiness, you need to define success by what holds real meaning in your life — relationships, making a difference, and living authentically. I can almost promise you that if you chase after the next best thing, you’ll be disappointed. After the short-term thrill, you will be let down once the newness wears off.
So here are six ways you can define your own version of success:
1. Create your own standards. Quit judging yourself according to other people’s definitions of success. Decide what is most important in your life — perhaps it’s happy relationships, a successful career, or health and fitness. Then for each one, find a way to measure your progress that is meaningful to you.
2. Choose the path of fulfillment. You can have all the money in the world, the finest house in the neighborhood, and the most impressive job title, but it won’t mean a thing unless you are living the life you were meant to live. Find your calling in life. Listen to your heart. And aim for inner fulfillment, not external symbols of success.
3. Focus on doing one percent more. It’s important to set goals, but once you know where you’re heading, it’s time to turn your focus to each step of the journey. If you commit yourself to doing and giving just a little bit more than you were willing to yesterday, you will bring yourself closer every day to your ultimate goal of success.
4. Set intrinsic verses ego goals. Decide what character muscles you want to build while in pursuit of your goals. Who do you want to become? What character muscles do you want to grow? By creating success measures that are intrinsically rooted, rather than ego based, will help you to create real change and sustain your motivation during challenging times.
5. Gift it forward. Knowing that you have done your part to make the world a better place can bring the greatest sense of fulfillment of all. When you measure your success, ask yourself: have I made a difference to someone’s life? Do my efforts help to improve the world around me?
6. Develop resilience. No matter what your ultimate goal is or how you measure success, inevitably there will be roadblocks in your way. You will make mistakes, and things won’t always go your way. The difference between success and failure is whether you learn from those mistakes and persevere in the face of setbacks — or give up on your dream.
For me, authentic happiness has emerged from a combination of passion, confidence, optimism and the pursuit of a lifestyle that gives me what I’ve always wanted: to be fully present to my children as they grow up, to know that I am making a valuable difference in the lives of others, and to be grounded in who I am and what I stand for.
After all, isn’t it our innate human desire to know that our life matters? Don’t we all want to be assured that we are living lives of significance and will leave the world a little better than when we found it?
Decide on your own measures of success. Own them. And commit to living them today
To that end, here are three measures you can use in your work each day to stay ahead of the challenges that bog down many teams. As you read, consider how, if you looked at these three key performance indicators each day, your work life might transform.
1. Percent of Time You Spend on Your Three Critical Priorities
Nearly every client I see struggles with an oversized workload . However, when we take the time to really break down the work, it usually involves a lot of wasted time and energy. Work avoidance, procrastination, multi-tasking, and distractions all sidetrack essential work, add stress, and make any workload seem bigger than it is.
If you are workload-challenged, here’s an exercise to complete each day: Put two columns on a page. On the left, record your three to five biggest, most important, most performance-influencing priorities—you know, the ones that are going to show up on your year-end review, get you a raise, and make the department score a touchdown.
On the right side, each day, keep track of the work you actually do and the amount of time each task takes. Then, track the percentage of time you’re spending on your most important priorities versus everything else.
What do you notice?
If there’s a gap between your most important priorities and what you spend your time on, you’re likely suffering from workload inflation . You’re working on lots of tasks and staying late, but not getting the most important stuff done.
On the other hand, if you’re giving your priorities the right amount of attention and leaving the less critical work until later (or undone, if that’s what it takes), your workload will seem more realistic. Bonus: You’ll feel much more focused and accomplished in the process.
Here’s another tip: As a manager, if someone came to me saying his or her workload was too big , I’d want to see this analysis before any further conversation. Before you take your workload issues to your manager, be sure you have the facts about what’s really driving its size.
2. Percent of Your Communication That’s Tailored to Your Listener’s Style
Ah, communication. I love the quote from George Bernard Shaw, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” How right is that?
Poor communication between and among team members (and bosses) gums up the works and makes everything harder.
Though there are many reasons for this, there’s one major cause that came up in the workshop, and it’s one that I see frequently: When communicating, you often think more about what you have to say, rather than how the other person needs to hear it.
Let me give you an example. All of us have different strengths, work styles, and personalities. I tend to be a driver, which means I have a very direct, straight-to-the-point communication style. At times in my career, I’ve been told I was “intimidating” or “unapproachable.” Hard to believe, I know—I never considered myself to be either. But my audience did, and that’s all that mattered.
In response, I learned to tailor my communication style and content to my audience . So, if my target is someone who’s very relationship driven and concerned with the social aspects of rapport-building at work, my direct, to-the-point style may feel intimidating or overwhelming.
By adjusting my approach—delivering the same message, but slower, with more social grace and a focus on tending to the relationship with that person—that person can better hear me. Then, they actually listen, instead of feeling intimidated and growing defensive.
You will communicate more effectively when you keep your audience’s needs in mind. Look at the different communication styles in your workplace and see how you can reframe your messages so that others will better receive what you’re saying.
Remember, it’s not your audience’s job to interpret your message. It’s your job to communicate in a way your audience will understand.
3. Actions You’ve Taken to Nurture Relationships in Your Workplace
Let’s face it: The way work gets done today is through the relationships you have with those around you. When you don’t have strong relationships, your work will suffer.
Weak workplace relationships create a negative environment. Think about it: Are you likely to go to bat for someone you don’t really care that much for? What will morale be like if there are weak or indifferent relationships in the office? Will you enjoy going to work as much?
Our workshop attendees strained under the challenges of coming from different departments, different cultures, and different generations. In the workplace, you can easily choose to let those qualities divide you. Or, you can work toward overcoming those divides by intentionally creating andnurturing relationships with those who aren’t like you . There are many ways to build rapport with others—and it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming.
For example, make it a point to meet one person for coffee each week, or to sit with a different group at lunch. Compliment others (authentically) on the work they do; send notes of appreciation when warranted.
And if you sense conflict between yourself and another co-worker, don’t avoid it (and stress out about it as a result)—invite him or her into a conversation to discuss and resolve your differences . Taking action to nurture relationships strengthens your ties with the team and boosts your own self-confidence, as well.
Now, you’re equipped to assess your workday through a very new lens. If you can focus on priorities, the effectiveness of your communication, andthe quality of your relationships , you’re going to have amazing results.