Exceptional: Build Your Personal Highlight Reel and Unlock Your Potential

by Daniel M. Cable

Overview

"A bold new approach to improving your performance and deepening your purpose." —DANIEL H. PINK, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drive, When, and To Sell Is Human

A Three-Step Process to Access and Activate Your Full Potential

Imagine switching on the television to see a highlight reel of the best moments from your life. Like a professional athlete, with every clip you'd learn how to repeat past successes, pinpoint positive blind spots, and build confidence in your skills.

In Exceptional, London Business School professor and expert social scientist Daniel M. Cable reveals how building your own personal highlight reel—a collection of positive memories about yourself from your network—is key to accessing your potential. Using the latest science and proven research behind best-self activation, his three-step process will help you improve your life by:

• Focusing on what you do best
• Crafting a life around your strengths
• Increasing your confidence and resilience

Cable has worked with tens of thousands of people to create their highlight reels and make the most of their gifts. The three-step process ultimately reveals how living up to your full potential can improve the relationships you value most and transform your mindset to one of possibility.

Each of us can bring forth a version of ourself that is uniquely outstanding. It's a version of ourself that already exists—all we have to do is access it.

• A practical book on how to create one's own human highlight reel, and then use that highlight reel to direct one to success, growth, happiness, and fulfillment in work and life based on scientific results
• Great for readers interested in achieving self-improvement and a sense of purpose.
• Add it to the shelf with books like Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy, and The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.

Digital audio edition read by the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452184258
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.35(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

DANIEL M. CABLE is a professor of organizational behavior and author of Alive at Work. Cable and his consultancy Essentic have worked with hundreds of organizations—including IKEA, McDonald's, Twitter, and Coca-Cola—to help tens of thousands of people create their personal highlight reels. His research has been featured on CNBC and in Harvard Business Review, the Economist, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Business Week, and more. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Step 1

Chapter 1 Start with What We Do Right 13

Chapter 2 The Hidden Forces That Limit Us 25

Chapter 3 Possible Selves 41

Chapter 4 Changing Your Story Once It's in Motion 57

Step 2

Chapter 5 Put Your Best Dress in the Window 75

Chapter 6 Create Your Personal Highlight Reel 87

Chapter 7 Discover Your Best impact 109

Chapter 8 Hear Your Own Eulogy 129

Step 3

Chapter 9 Stretching into Our Strengths 159

Chapter 10 Life Crafting 177

Chapter 11 Work Crafting 203

Conclusion 219

Acknowledgments 225

Notes 227

Editorial Reviews

"Athletes achieve excellence by compiling and studying their personal highlight reels. There's no reason why the rest of us can't do the same thing. In this buoyant, evidence-backed book, Dan Cable shows us how." -ADAM GRANT, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and host of the chart-topping TED podcast WorkLife

"Exceptional is useful, uplifting, and a joy to read. Dan Cable shows why all that pressure to improve your weaknesses and become a mediocre imitation of other successful people is so misguided. He draws on rigorous research and experience with thousands of students and executives to show you how to excel by your own standards, and why taking that path is so much better for you and those who depend on you." -BOB SUTTON, Stanford Professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and (with Huggy Rao) Scaling Up Excellence 

"Cable's book vividly and helpfully shows how 'playing to your strengths' is not about coasting to success, but importantly involves using a growth mindset to fulfill your potential." -CAROL S. DWECK, PHD, author of Mindset

"It's a classic question: How can we improve ourselves and take on fresh identities when new behaviors often do not feel natural? Exceptional shows how you can live a better life by 'stretching into your strengths,' practicing your way into new behaviors, and expanding your contributions."-HERMINIA IBARRA, bestselling author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader

"Each of us is born with unique gifts. In this powerful and practical book, Dan Cable shows us how to break through the negative stories society spins for us, and instead how to cherish, cultivate and contribute all that makes us exceptional. If you want to see the very best of yourself, please devour this book." -MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, international bestselling co-author of First, Break All the Rules and author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work

"With a pile of evidence and a plan of action, Dan Cable offers a new approach to improving your performance and deepening your purpose. Exceptional is a bold and practical book." -Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When, To Sell Is Human, and Drive

"Crafting our lives, and our work, around our strengths helps us get the most out of life, but unfortunately it's hard for many of us to know where to start. Dan Cable's book Exceptional makes it easy to tap into your raw potential." -GARY HAMEL, author of the worldwide bestseller The Future of Management

"How many of us hold ourselves back from the life we truly want to live? Through remarkably engaging stories and compelling studies, Dan Cable's Exceptional gives us the opportunity to experience our worth, and the practical tools to act on what we do best, so we can live a life that is truly exceptional." -FRANCESCA GINO, Harvard Business School professor and author of Rebel Talent

"Dan Cable effectively breaks down the science behind who we think we are, and the habits needed to unlock our greatest strengths. Astute, inspiring, and impressively researched, Exceptional offers insights so clear and compelling you'll wonder why you hadn't identified and applied them earlier."-WILLIAM P. LAUDER, Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies

From the Publisher