from her new company. Susan´s PCM architecture showed that she had a Harmonizer base. She always expressed herself graciously and diplomatically in meetings, emphasized team play and always consulted her associates before making decisions.
After a while, Susan noticed that there had been negative talk about her in the car manufacturer's closer management circle. Behind closed doors, colleagues referred to Susan as too soft, hesitant about making hard decisions and needing to "put her foot down" in order to make progress in her field – especially with her digital favorite project. This, according to PCM, is, by the way, a typical demand of people with a strong persister energy! Susan knew that it was due to IT and organizational hurdles in the cumbersome company that were slowing down her project, and that it would do no good to put pressure on her employees. Nevertheless, she was unsettled. Did her standing in the management circle maybe require a tougher approach after all? Not until she realized her strategies with which she had achieved her previous successes in a coaching session did she breathe a sigh of relief. She realized that her leading way had always resulted in the desired outcomes: she had satisfied, highly motivated employees and contributed to the overall system. Rather than changing, she decided to lead in her own way now more than ever: Bringing people together, friendly and relaxed. However, she now spoke more often with colleagues about her leadership style. She confidently explained her approach and values – even without being asked. This eventually also convinced the Persister element and silenced their criticism.
Learning to use your own success strategies more effectively
Once you have recognized your success strategies, you can consciously use them for future success. Of course, we are constantly changing and learning in life. Nevertheless, it is good to know what has worked for us in the past and will most likely work for us again. Nowadays it is trendy to immediately seek "purpose" and inner fulfillment in a job and to want to save the world at least once a day. In the process, we can also be successful with something we don't immediately identify with 100 percent – and learn a lot for our future path.
It is precisely in difficult times that we develop strategies for success that will benefit us later. For example, I know a top executive who started her career in the 1990s as a telemarketer in a call center. She had little desire to do so at the time, but desperately needed the money. Once on the job, she completed all the training and continuing education courses that were paid for her. This made her realize how important advanced training is, and she continues to educate herself further to this day. The call center also entrusted her with management responsibilities at the age of 21. This is how she discovered her leadership talent and quickly climbed the ladder in this company. In the end, she had learned an enormous amount for her further career in the call center.
When you look at your own success strategies, maybe there has been something that has carried you through difficult times before? A production manager once sent an email with confidential information to the wrong recipient because his mail program auto-populated a similar name and didn't notice. This is how the information got sent to a customer. The production manager contacted the recipient. The walk to Canossa. He was at his mercy. The recipient was kind enough to delete the message without reading it. A lesson learned for the production manager: I may make mistakes. But if I stand by my mistakes, I can ask for help. Most people are honest and helpful and do not take advantage of my mistakes when I admit to them. This experience continues to shape the production manager's management behavior to this day. He now enjoys the reputation of having established a truly performance and learning-oriented error culture in his field.
Identifying and using resources more effectively
Personal strengths are at the core of your success strategies, always helping you to achieve goals and overcome challenges. These strengths can be described as "resources". Like the resources in a company, your personal resources are what you can fall back on to carry out any kind of project successfully. The same applies to our successes and success strategies: most people are not or only partially aware of them. As soon as we become aware of our resources, we can use them even more effectively. A quick glance at our success strategies provides us with an indication of our resources.
Susan, the head of department at a car manufacturer, now knows that her pronounced relationship orientation is by no means a weakness – as some of her colleagues in top management once believed – but rather one of her greatest resources.
With her relaxed and diplomatic manner, she understands how to connect people into networks that serve each other and the overall system. And now she is fully aware of this fact. In Patrick's case, for example, his boyish recklessness is one of his resources. He does what he feels like doing and walks through life with a great sense of humor. Since he lacks the fear of failure or humiliation, he also lacks the perfectionism that holds many other people back. And because he doesn't take life more seriously than necessary, he achieves his successes with ease.
The same applies to your resources: other people can often recognize them much better than you can! Once again, it's worth asking for feedback.
Exercise: Feedback on your personal resources
Ask three people from your personal environment to give you feedback on your character strengths. You will receive the greatest feedback if you have different relationships to these three people,
e.g. 1. a close friend (boyfriend/girlfriend), 2. a person who is critical of you (e.g. someone from your team) and 3. a parent, sibling or person in a similar role.
This exercise does not need to be done in person, but works just as well in writing. Ask each of the three people to write down adjectives that come to mind when they think about your personal strengths. For example, "assertive", "committed" or "optimistic". The number of adjectives is not decisive. Let each person write down as many as they can think of. Then ask to see the result.
Alternatively, or even in addition, you can provide them with the 18 character strengths of the 6 PCM "floors" (see chapter 1) and ask them to circle or underline those adjectives that apply most to you: responsible – rational – well-organized – committed – conscientious – value-oriented – charming – persistent – competitive – sensitive – warmhearted – relationship-oriented – calm – thoughtful – imaginative – spontaneous – creative – funloving.
To what extent do these results correspond to your previous observations regarding your success strategies? How can you use these character strengths as a resource in a more targeted way in the future?
Your character strengths are your resources at the same time. However, there are also other resources, for example the awareness of your past successes. Or the knowledge that you have mastered every minor or major crisis in your life so far. If you reflect on what you have achieved so far long enough, you will gain confidence in your own success story.
Confidence in our own success story
It was Monday night. Patrick activated the artificial fireplace via app on his iPhone. The Smart Home was his new toy. Then he grabbed a craft beer from the fridge. It was the same kind he'd been drinking with Eddy on the mountain pasture. Patrick had found a little shop in the 7th district that carried that brand. Laura was sitting on the sofa in front of half a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Patrick opened his beer and sat down next to Laura who was already looking at him with anticipation. He began to tell her about his hike up the Drachenkogel, his meeting with Eddy and his new insights.
"The sunrise up there was absolutely amazing," Patrick finally stated. "Eddy called it the moment of greatest clarity, and it was exactly that. When I got to the summit, I was disappointed at first because it was grey and foggy. But then, just before the sun actually came up, the fog lifted, and I could suddenly see for miles. In that
