Synopses & Reviews
How do you create your own definition of successand reach your unique potential?Building a fulfilling life and career can be a daunting challenge. It takes courage and hard work. Too often, we charge down a path leading to success” as defined by those around usand ultimately, are left feeling dissatisfied.
Each of us is unique and brings distinctive skills and qualities to any situation. So why is it that most of us fail to spend sufficient time learning to understand ourselves and creating our own definition of success? The truth is, it can seem so natural and so much easier to just do what everyone else is doingfor nowleaving it for later to develop our best selves and figure out our own unique path. Is there a road map that will enable you to defy conventional wisdom, resist peer pressure, and carve out a path that fits your unique skills and passions?
Harvard Business Schools Robert Steven Kaplan, leadership expert and author of the highly successful book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, regularly advises executives and students on how to tackle these questions. In this indispensable new book, Kaplan shares a specific and actionable approach to defining your own success and reaching your potential. Drawing on his years of experience, Kaplan proposes an integrated plan for identifying and achieving your goals. He outlines specific steps and exercises to help you understand yourself more deeply, take control of your career, and build your capabilities in a way that fits your passions and aspirations.
Are you doing what youre really meant to do? If youre ready to face this question, this book can help you change your life.
Review
As seen on Fox Business, CNBC, Lou Dobbs, and MSNBCs Morning Joe.This book opens the mind of the reader to a lot of self-exploratory questions rather than offering blind advice. It helps you understand yourself deeply and build a foundation based on this before starting a journey towards your dreams.” Business World magazine
compelling and personal and contains individual exercises that provide interesting insights readers likely havent considered beforewhether how to manage your career or a complete career change. If you have ever asked yourself, in any work situation, at any stage of your career, Why doesnt someone just tell me what to do?” this book is a worthwhile trip for you.” CIO Digest
ADVANCE PRAISE for What Youre Really Meant to Do:
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Confidence and SuperCorp
What Youre Really Meant to Do is a wise, deeply personal, and always practical book by a leader of leaders. It is essential reading for all those who want to define success their own way.”
Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, professor, Harvard Medical School; co-founder, Partners In Health
As I have seen him do in classrooms in Haiti and at Harvard, Rob Kaplan provides a powerful and pragmatic prescription in What Youre Really Meant to Do. Building on his widely praised work on leadership and efficacy, Kaplan offers compelling narratives of those he has coached and counseledfrom executives to entrepreneurs to recent graduatesas a guide for anyone pursuing a purposeful professional life.”
Henry M. Paulson, Jr., seventy-fourth secretary of the US Department of the Treasury; Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs (19992006)
Rob Kaplan has spent years mentoring and coaching executives and young professionals, and there is no one any better. This book is a superb guide for helping people understand themselves and reach their unique potential.”
Bill George, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Authentic Leadership and True North
Rob Kaplans brilliant new book inspires you to reach your full potential by taking responsibility for your development as a leader and as a human being. If you follow his thoughtful, pragmatic approach, you will live an even more satisfying life. Filled with real-world examples, Kaplan helps you build your road map to fulfillment.”
Vanessa Kirsch, founder and Managing Director, New Profit Inc.
Forging a fulfilling career can be one of the most difficult challenges we face. What Youre Really Meant to Do provides a compelling road map for discovering your passions and unlocking your full potential. A must-read for anyone looking for professional growth and fulfillment.”
Synopsis
Robert S. Kaplan is a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School and author of the popular book
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential (2011).
In his new book, Kaplan provides a much needed roadmap for redefining success and reaching your own unique potential. Analogous to his guidance on leadership, this quest also requires a process, a high level of motivation, and a lot of hard work.
Kaplan proposes a tough discipline of specific steps and exercises to help you take control of your career, understand yourself far more deeply, and build your capabilities in a way that fits your passions and aspirations. In Reaching Your Potential, he draws on hundreds of real life experiences in helping people achieve their aspirations and re-think their approach to career and life development.
Are you open to the challenge? If so, this is the book to finally help you reach your potential.
Synopsis
Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Associate Dean and a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He is the author of the popular book
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential (2011).
In his new book, Kaplan describes a specific and actionable roadmap for helping you define your own success and reach your unique potential. This effort requires several key steps in an integrated process, as well as a high level of motivation and hard work.
Kaplan proposes specific steps and exercises to help you understand yourself more deeply, take control of your career, and build your capabilities in a way that fits your passions and aspirations. In What Youre Really Meant to Do, he draws on numerous years of experience and real life experiences in helping people achieve their aspirations and re-think their approach to their personal and career development.
Rather than pursuing goals set by others, Kaplan covers in-depth a critical series of issues that you must address in order to set and achieve your ultimate goals. These include assessing your strengths and weaknesses; understanding your passions (and translating them into potential career opportunities); understanding yourself; performance and career management; exhibiting character and leadership traits that help you go from good to great; creating mutually beneficial relationships; and finally, bringing it all together.
Are you open to this challenge? To understanding what are you really meant to do? If so, this book can help you reach your potential.
About the Author
Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He is also cochairman of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm, and senior adviser and member of Indaba Capital Management LLC. Before joining Harvard in 2005, Kaplan spent twenty-two years in a number of senior leadership positions at Goldman Sachs, including as vice-chairman of the firm, with oversight responsibility for the global investment banking and investment management divisions. Throughout his career, Kaplan has worked extensively with nonprofit and community organizations. He is the founding cochairman of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center Advisory Board, cochairman of Project ALS, and founding cochairman of the TEAK Fellowship. He serves on the board of the Ford Foundation. He also is cochairman of the executive committee for Harvard Universitys Office of Sustainability as well as a member of the boards of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Management Company (serving as interim president and CEO from November 2007 to June 2008). Kaplan is the author of
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011), a number of Harvard Business School cases regarding leadership, and two highly regarded
Harvard Business Review articles: What to Ask the Person in the Mirror” and Reaching Your Potential.”