Where would you like to be?
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

As we approach the last quarter of 2024, it’s time to ask where we would like to be in 2025. You might think I am rushing things a bit but trust me on this, it takes time to think deeply into what your future could be. Now for a key truth you might not be prepared for: what got you here won’t get you there. The skills and experience that brought you to the fourth quarter of 2024 will not be enough to get you where you want or perhaps need to be in 2025.

Marshall Goldsmith explains this reality well in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Marshall gives us four success beliefs leaders have, which can also feed the success delusion.

1. I Have Succeeded – Successful people believe in their skills and talents. Successful people’s thought life is not self-deprecating; it is self-aggrandizing. This is a good thing. Without it, how would we want to get up in the morning and take on the challenges of the day. The data reveals that 80-85% of leaders surveyed view themselves in the top 20% of their peer group. Clearly, some are buying into this delusion.
2. I Can Succeed – Successful people believe that through sheer force of personality or brainpower, they steer things in their direction. They see success as a product of their ability to motivate people, not providence, luck, or external factors. The delusion is that we often forget who helped or set us up for success.
3. I Will Succeed – Successful people believe they have the momentum to succeed. They have unflappable optimism. Successful people tend to pursue opportunities with great enthusiasm. While normally this is a good thing, this can mutate into overcommitment. They have trouble saying no to things say should say no to.
4. I Choose to Succeed – One of the greatest mistakes of successful people is the assumption, “I behave this way, and I achieve results; therefore, I must be achieving results because I behave this way.” Sadly, this causes us to stay stuck and we never make the changes needed to take us to the next level.

If we want to get to the next level, we must realize that what got us here will not get us there. So, back to my first question: where would you like to be in 2025, and what changes will you need to make to achieve it? Perhaps these four questions can help you: What went well? What didn’t go well? What did you learn? What will you change? Carefully reflecting on these questions will reveal what you need to do less and what you should do more in 2025.

One of my favorite quotes states, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” Take some time to determine who you need to connect with. What rooms do you need to get into? Accessing higher-level thinking through books, podcasts, or YouTube has never been easier. What it does take is an awareness that what got you here will not get you there.

The more we are committed to believing that something is true, the less likely we are to believe that its opposite is true, even in the face of clear evidence that shows we are wrong.