Big Potential

by Shawn Achor

"The bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage reveals why our potential is not limited by what we on our own can achieve; rather, our success is amplified by the successes of those around us. He offers five strategies for exponentially raising our achievement and performance by helping others--colleagues, teams, and employees--be better. For decades, we have thought about potential as being a constellation of individual traits: your creativity, your abilities, your intelligence. But new research shows that this version of potential--what Achor calls Small Potential--is deeply flawed, and places a ceiling on the level of success we can achieve. Because we now know that all these traits are in fact interconnected, and that by pursuing success individually, we have been leaving much of our potential untapped. Big Potential works not in isolation, but rather as part of an ecosystem. So when we help those around us succeed, we not only raise the performance of the group, but we also create a virtuous cycle by which we in turn become more successful ourselves. Drawing on cutting-edge original research as well as his work with executives, educators, and leaders around the globe, Achor shows how we can all lift the ceiling on our potential by helping others realize theirs"--