The Success Ethic is a way of working which encourages you to balance pace with vision, busyness with purpose, effort with intelligence, and activity with imagination. Unlike the traditional work ethic, the success ethic does not measure your performance by the amount of overtime you put in, or by how many weekends you sacrifice, or by how exhausted and busy you look. Researchers can find no obvious correlation between an increase in e-mails sent and an increase in market-share.

Coaching Exercise 1: Take a moment now to reflect on the last week at work. Answer the following questions: 1) Last Monday: what was your most important success?; 2) Last Tuesday: what value did you add?; 3) Last Wednesday: what was your best contribution?; 4) Last Thursday: what did you most enjoy?; and 5) Last Friday: what difference did you make? These questions challenge you to discern between working hard and being genuinely successful.

Coaching Exercise 2: Use the same questions above to set an intention for each day this week. For example: 1) This Monday: what do I want my most important success to be today?; 2) This Tuesday: what value do I intend to add today?; 3) This Wednesday: What will be my best contribution today?; 4) This Thursday: how will I really enjoy myself today?; 5) This Friday: what real difference do I want to make today?