Fortune Magazine's "What It Takes To Be Great" shows what's important for super-high performance.
The answer involves deliberate practice.
If you missed the article by all means read the entire thing. Lisa Haneberg who is always on top of things over at Management Craft and Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership have both weighed in on the topic.
Natural Talents Don't Exist?!
The research cited says that some conclude that "natural gifts don't exist." I don't agree. I've never met anyone in 30+ years of managing and consulting that isn't inherently gifted or talented at something. The researchers do conclude that "deliberate practice" is what leads to outstanding performance in one's field. So even if you are talented it won't make much difference unless you focus on "deliberate practice." That makes sense.
What is Deliberate Practice?
Here is a quote from the Fortune article:
The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."
What that means for leaders and consultant/coaches
I think the article hits on the range of performance factors that we all think about in business: talent, skill, practice, internal motivation and desire. Most business leaders talk about those constantly.
It also leads to the question that a lot of us as consultants/coaches should be asking our clients: "If you want to achieve______, are you willing to pay the price?"
If the answer is "yes" then our job is to help pinpoint the "deliberate practice" required. When the answer is "no" then, at minimum, our responsibility is to be straight about adjusting expectations and the related results.
What do you think?
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