60. On The Success Factor: A Blueprint for High Performance with Ruth Gotian

Overview

Ruth Gotian has for decades studied and researched the most successful people of our generation, including Nobel laureates, astronauts, and Olympic champions, to understand what they do when the world isn't watching that ultimately put them in an elite class of people who achieved exceptional success.

In this conversation, we dig into Ruth’s research and her new book, The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance. We discuss why it’s important to find what you love to do, how to optimize what you work on and when to improve your productivity and avoid burnout, the importance of breaks and staying true to the fundamentals, and why mentorship is critical to success. Ruth offers many great insights from the best of the best, and the book offers useful guides to support your own personal journey.

Thank you, Ruth, for sharing your insightful work on unlocking the keys to success and showing all of us the way to reach beyond the average.

More About Our Guest

Ruth Gotian has for decades researched the most successful people of our generation, including Nobel laureates, astronauts, and Olympic champions, in order to understand what they do when the world isn't watching that ultimately put them in an elite class of people who achieved exceptional success. Based on this research, Ruth has uncovered the habits and practices of high achievers and teaches them to others through her keynotes, coaching, and workshops. Known as a "mentor's mentor", she takes pride in her ability to coach others to identify and then meet their overt and covert goals.

In addition to working with individuals, she helps organizations achieve success by conceiving, designing, and launching innovative programs and redesigning and fixing underperforming ones.

Ruth has been recognized by the journal Nature and Columbia University as a leadership expert with a focus on professional ascension. In 2021, she was recognized by Thinkers50 (the Oscars of Management Thinking), as the world's #1 emerging management thinker. Her invited global lectures published articles in such journals as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Nature, Academic Medicine, Psychology Today, and Scientific American, national awards, and educational activities all underscore her ability to aid professionals to strengthen their career development acumen. She draws great strength from helping others succeed, find, and develop their passion.

Ruth holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in business management and a doctorate in organizational/adult learning and leadership.

Topics Covered

  • We start with what drew Ruth to this topic of success and high achievers - what made it interesting and important to her?

  • Ruth made her own career transition, of sorts, at the age of 43 to dig into this topic that caught her attention, getting her PhD studying success while raising her family. I ask her about this at the end of the episode. There is a clue here for those of you wondering about a career pivot at any point in your career. Perhaps look for something really interesting and important to go explore that catches your attention, as Ruth did.

  • We discuss success and how to define it since there are so many definitions of success out there. For her research, Ruth had to define it. What was not included in her definition? Money or popularity.

  • An important data point for those of us working in the world and for those of us employing others: high achievers are 400% more productive. So, modeling their mindset and approaches can unlock some of that goodness.

  • We talk about the differences between intrinsic motivators over extrinsic motivators and Ruth shares what really motivates many of these high achievers. One thing that might surprise you, as it did me, is that most of these highly successful people didn’t set out to reach these high heights and to become acclaimed people in their field. It wasn’t about the glory or the prize. Ruth talks about how when we lean into intrinsic motivation new goals become present over time.

  • Ruth shares research from the Mayo Clinic that says you only need to spend 20% of your time doing what you love to reduce burnout. So, find out what you love doing and do some job crafting to get those activities into your days.

  • We talk about finding your “passion” (see Ruth’s tool below) and how it can take time to find your passion and how it can change over time and shift at different life stages. That’s how we think about it here at Sustainable Ambition—that our satisfaction and ambitions can ebb and flow over time.

  • We dig into how to think about “hard work” vs. what I’d call smart work. Ruth shares how it’s not about working longer hours but making sure you are optimizing your peak performance hours.

  • I also ask about if these high achievers were thoughtful about rest. Ruth shares that these individuals actively plan breaks in. Many of us can learn a lesson here.

  • We discuss another important area Ruth covers in the book: leaning into fundamentals that contribute to your success. What is your success routine, I might say? What are the fundamentals that allow you to operate and perform at your best?

  • Ruth talks a lot in the book about the importance of people in your life and how they impact your success. She shares how what high achievers know is that they don’t know it all, and they seek out others to learn what they need to know.

  • She has an entire section in the book on mentorship given its importance, and she offers a number of tips to foster these relationships. I especially appreciate that she shares different types of mentorship models, such as peer mentors, masterminds, and communities, and encourages us to have a diverse set of mentors.

    • “Those who are mentored outearn and outperform those who are not mentored and report lower cases of burnout.”

Resources Mentioned

Thanks for Listening!

  • I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Sustainable Ambition Listener Survey here

  • Submit a question or comment for future episodes here

  • Get my curated bi-weekly Sustainable Ambition Forum newsletter. Sign up here

60. On The Success Factor: A Blueprint for High Performance with Ruth Gotian

Listen below or on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Overcast.

Check out other episodes here. Be sure to subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Overcast. If you enjoy the show, I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! 

Sign-up for my Sustainable Ambition Forum newsletter to receive a bi-monthly round-up of content and the best tips, inspiration, resources, tools, books, podcasts, and more that we uncover to achieve Sustainable Ambition. We’re here to help you experience more fulfillment with more ease.

2022Kathy OnetoRight Success, Right Effort, Right Aspiration