Hidden Potential

Highlighted Quotes

• Location 636: Psychologists call that cycle learned industriousness.
• Location 648: There may not come a day when we wake up and suddenly feel prepared. We become prepared by taking the leap anyway.
• Location 810: We’re confusing politeness with kindness.
• Location 825: Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice.
• Location 861: not so much a weakness as a strength overused—or misused.
• Location 866: Many people fail to benefit from constructive criticism because they overreact and under-correct.
• Location 920: to be disciplined in some areas, we have to let others go.
• Location 935: We usually associate aesthetic and technical prowess with a drive for flawless results.
• Location 956: Perfectionists excel at solving problems that are straightforward and familiar.
• Location 969: perfectionists tend to get three things wrong.
• Location 988: Wabi sabi is the art of honoring the beauty in imperfection.
• Location 1011: Wabi sabi is a character skill. It gives you the discipline to shift your attention from impossible ideals to achievable standards—and then adjust those standards over time.
• Location 1043: people who are encouraged to do their best perform worse—and learn less—than
• Location 1054: if I wanted to get closer to right, it had to feel wrong.
• Location 1067: Beating yourself up doesn’t make you stronger—it leaves you bruised.
• Location 1071: overblown implications effect.
• Location 1077: People judge your potential from your best moments, not your worst. What if you gave yourself the same grace?
• Location 1132: I ask the judges to independently rate my work on a scale from 0 to 10. No one ever says 10. Then I ask how I can get closer to 10.
• Location 1154: “In life, it’s better to be green—and the greener the better,”
• Location 1643: instead of asking to pick their brain, you ask them to retrace their route.
• Location 1644: The goal is to get your guides to drop pins—the key landmarks and turning points from their climbs.
• Location 1710: A digression doesn’t have to be a diversion. It can be a source of energy.
• Location 1804: When the odds are against us, focusing beyond ourselves is what launches us off the ground.
• Location 1807: When we’re facing a daunting task, we need both competence and confidence.
• Location 1808: Extensive evidence shows that when we view hurdles as threats, we tend to back down and give up. When we treat barriers as challenges to conquer, we rise to the occasion.
• Location 1894: I’ve come to think of this as the coach effect. We’re more confident in our ability to surmount struggles after guiding others through them.
• Location 1902: coaching others raises our expectations of ourselves.
• Location 1906: We should listen to the advice we give to others—it’s usually the advice we need to take for ourselves.
• Location 1961: When others believe in our potential, they give us a ladder.
• Location 1965: It’s called the Golem effect: when others underestimate us, it limits our effort and growth.
• Location 2010: It’s easier to overcome obstacles when we’re carrying a torch for people who matter to us.
• Location 2017: “I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.”
• Location 2036: Making progress isn’t always about moving forward.
• Location 2037: Progress is not only reflected in the peaks you reach—it’s also visible in the valleys you cross. Resilience is a form of growth.
• Location 2064: Too many people spend their lives being custodians of the past instead of stewards of the future. We worry about making our parents proud when we should be focused on making our children proud.
• Location 2345: A culture of opportunity only succeeds when students are motivated to take advantage of those opportunities.
• Location 2349: the wellspring of intrinsic motivation is having the freedom of opportunity to explore our interests.
• Location 2419: the tradeoff between doing well and being well is a false choice.
• Location 2461: Unlocking the hidden potential in groups requires leadership practices, team processes, and systems that harness the capabilities and contributions of all their members. The best teams aren’t the ones with the best thinkers. They’re the teams that unearth and use the best thinking from everyone.
• Location 2487: collective intelligence had little to do with individual IQs.
• Location 2490: The best teams have the most team players—people
• Location 2504: Unleashing hidden potential is about more than having the best pieces—it’s about having the best glue.
• Location 2521: When we select leaders, we don’t usually pick the person with the strongest leadership skills. We frequently choose the person who talks the most.
• Location 2522: Research shows that groups promote the people who command the most airtime—regardless of their aptitude and expertise.
• Location 2523: We get stuck following people who dominate the discussion instead of those who elevate it.
• Location 2561: With a team of sponges, the best leader is not the person who talks the most, but the one who listens best.
• Location 2589: instead of brainstorming, we’re better off shifting to a process called brainwriting.
• Location 2597: The brainwriting process makes sure that all ideas are brought to the table and all voices are brought into the conversation.
• Location 2599: Collective intelligence begins with individual creativity.
• Location 2650: In most workplaces, opportunity exists on a ladder.
• Location 2652: If you can’t get your boss to hear you out, your proposal is toast. The system is simple. But it’s also stupid—it gives one individual far too much power to shut creativity down and shut people up. A single no is enough to kill an idea—or even stall a career.
• Location 2660: All it takes is one gatekeeper to close off a new frontier.
• Location 2664: A powerful alternative to a corporate ladder is a lattice.
• Location 2698: Weak leaders silence voice and shoot the messenger. Strong leaders welcome voice and thank the messenger. Great leaders build systems to amplify voice and elevate the messenger.
• Location 2720: let’s not forget the unsung heroes of this story: the leadership practices, team processes, and systems of opportunity that made it possible for people to speak up and be heard.
• Location 2772: we confuse past performance with future potential,
• Location 2803: The key question is not how long people have done a job. It’s how well they can learn to do a job.
• Location 2902: Selection systems need to put performance in context.
• Location 2931: Along with GPA, I think they should be assessing GPT: grade point trajectory.
• Location 2933: Early failure followed by later success is a mark of hidden potential.
• Location 2955: we should find out what they’ve learned and how well they can learn.
• Location 2975: To set job candidates up for success, he reversed the standard interview process. The system he created is filled with surprises.
• Location 2991: A powerful alternative is to create real-time work samples: give everyone the same problem to solve in the present.
• Location 3004: At the end of the interview, instead of being judged, you get to be the judge. You’re asked to rate your interview experience—how welcome the interviewer made you feel,
• Location 3030: Instead of trying to trip people up, we should give them the chance to put their best foot forward.
• Location 3067: He had to break the mold to make it through a broken system.
• Location 3180: I now believe that impostor syndrome is a sign of hidden potential. It feels like other people are overestimating you, but it’s more likely that you’re underestimating yourself.
• Location 3201: If you want to get it right, it has to first feel wrong.