Blam! Maximum Success

Knowledge workers have met the enemy, and it is us. More than ever before, people have opportunities earlier in their careers to start companies, lead business units, run projects, and make a difference. So why do so many of us seem to blow it? As business psychologists and directors of Harvard Business School's MBA Career Development Programs, James Waldroop and Timothy Butler have helped some of the best and the brightest wrestle with that question. Cofounders of the executive-coaching firm Peregrine Partners, the two men have also provided career counseling to leaders at such organizations as Citibank, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, McKinsey & Co., and Sony.

In their new book, Maximum Success: Changing the 12 Behavior Patterns That Keep You From Getting Ahead (Doubleday, 2000), Waldroop and Butler explore the habits and perspectives that they've seen jeopardize people's success. "We work with people who are being groomed for positions at the very highest levels and who need to go from grade A-minus to A-plus," Waldroop says. "We've seen a lot of high achievers who have career Achilles' heels, and we've put together our thoughts on how most people blow the chances that they get." In an interview, the two sketched out five character traits that get in the way of success -- and what to do about them.

The Impostor Syndrome -- Don't Be Afraid of Heights

Timothy Butler: Acrophobia -- fear of heights -- is a metaphor that we apply to professional life. If you're an acrophobe, you feel, in your unconscious mind, that you don't belong where you are -- that you're up too high. You believe that you're an impostor and that someone is going to figure out someday that you don't really know what you're talking about. It's sort of like having your feet stuck on one floor of an office building and having your head pulled up 10 floors. It's an awfully uncomfortable feeling to have to bear.

James Waldroop: Several years ago, I worked with a guy who was super smart, articulate, charismatic, well trained, and good looking. Yet in his job as president of a company, he had made unbelievably dumb decisions and had gotten himself fired. I looked at the decisions that he'd made, and then I looked at him. I thought, Man, there's something off here. So we did some digging, and it became clear that he had been incredibly uncomfortable with his role as president. There was nothing that he could do to make himself feel that he belonged there. He told me that when he was in meetings with the company's board members, he felt like a kid in his father's suit. He literally felt like his suit was too big on him. He would look around the table and think, "Oh, no. Look at all of these grown-ups. What am I going to do now?" This was really the unconscious cause of the management mistakes that were his undoing.

Butler: Professional acrophobia often surfaces if you received messages during childhood such as, Don't get too big for your britches or Don't stick out too much. At the root of such messages is this: It's dangerous to think too much of yourself.

The story that you usually see in the press is about an arrogant 26-year-old multimillionaire who thinks that he knows everything. You see this spin most often, but there's another spin too: There's this really bright 26 year old who's been quite successful and who's scared. "Oh, my goodness, I've got to run this meeting," he thinks. "I'm going to have to meet with this team, and then I'm going to have to go to dinner with them. I'm terrified. I'm just pretending to be the chief technology officer. I'm really just a computer hacker who got sucked into this world."

Waldroop: There is a solution to this problem, and the first step is to identify it. The problem, at its root, is that you're so wrapped up in feeling like an impostor, you can't see that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. If you went around the room and analyzed each person's credentials, you'd find that every individual would be more knowledgeable in some areas and less knowledgeable in others.

Don't blame yourself. Buy yourself some time. Fake it -- that's fine. It's what people do. Act as if you're going to win, do your homework, and the rest will take care of itself. If people look at you and don't see you sweating and wringing your hands -- even though you might want to sweat and wring your hands -- they'll gain confidence in you. They'll express that confidence, you'll begin to feel more confident, and it will be an upward spiral from there.