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Robert Walters offers some thought-provoking advice for professionals aiming to elevate their careers: aspiring to be among the top performers can be more beneficial than striving to be the very best.
As a senior vice president at AT&T, Walters emphasizes that altering this perspective can enable leaders to set realistic benchmarks for their teams, fostering collaboration instead of competition among colleagues.
“Creating opportunities for success and recognizing milestone achievements helps individuals feel a sense of fulfillment,” Walters explains.
Walters reflects on his own career journey, noting that while he initially subscribed to a “best performer” mentality as an individual contributor, he ultimately found that this mindset hindered his ability to enhance his team’s performance.
A pivotal moment occurred in 2011 when he was a director of project management, network planning, and engineering, as detailed on his LinkedIn profile. He realized that his competitive attitude affected his relationships with team members.
“Frankly, I wasn’t patient or invested in nurturing relationships with those I didn’t view as top performers,” he admits. “I recognized that I wasn’t elevating the overall performance of my team.”
After shifting his mindset, he observed significant improvements in his team’s outcomes.
“Achieving results often requires a collective team effort,” he states. “Rather than thinking I could tackle monumental challenges alone, I understood we needed to work together towards common goals.”
Leadership experts, including bestselling author Simon Sinek, promote a similar philosophy. Sinek encourages employees to focus less on accolades and more on sustained momentum within their roles.
“There’s no such thing as winning,” Sinek remarked at the 2023 World Business Forum. “Setting goals is beneficial, but it’s more critical to assess your progress over time.”
He advocates for an “infinite mindset,” focusing on long-term improvement, suggesting that recognitions like employee of the month can naturally follow from sustained effort.
Walters has adopted a similar approach, emphasizing the importance of “stacking days,” which involves committing to daily improvement, regardless of how minor those steps may seem. He believes this compounding effort leads to significant growth over time.
“Whether the progress is small or substantial, looking back a decade later can reveal astonishing growth,” Walters concludes.
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