I’ve been playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hit the ball well, but I’m far from the player I wish I were.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I’ve taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I’ve had a number of rapturous moments during which I’ve played like the player I long to be.

And almost certainly could be, even though I’m 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I’ve accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

During the past year, I’ve read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I’ve also written one, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We’ve found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it’s possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out that the philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: “We are what we repeatedly do.” By relying on highly specific practices, we’ve seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

Like everyone who studies performance, I’m indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world’s leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it’s not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we’re willing to work — something he calls “deliberate practice.” Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice is the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.

That notion is wonderfully empowering. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that’s also daunting. One of Ericsson’s central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.

If you want to be really good at something, it’s going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, as well as frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That’s true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you’ve earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we’ve found are most effective for our clients:

Read the whole article at Harvard Business Review

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“To use the past, learn its lessons and then let it go.” N.N.

Michael E. Porter, Harvard University professor, explains why business leaders must focus on shared value–creating products and services that benefit not only the company but also society.

Buddhism teaches that nothing happens by chance. Everything has meaning. Please be convinced that your inner life is already endowed with everything you need. No matter how difficult your situation may be, you are alive now, and there is no treasure more precious than life itself.

Daisaku Ikeda

It is not how you compare to others that is important, but rather how you compare to who you were yesterday. If you’ve advanced even one step, then you’ve achieved something great.

Daisaku Ikeda

How many of you still thinks that employees are expenses instead of assets? We have heard of this. So, one… thousands?

Why?

Well, perhaps these people would say “just look at the books, where do employees fall on?” Uhmm – trying to use logic huh, however blind? This is like, which came first, chicken or egg? There are those who would say egg, for they would argue that before becoming a chicken, it would still be an egg.

Alright then. We’d just run circles if we fall for that. It’s just like believing that employees are expenses instead of assets.

You want logic, here’s logic.

Did God create Cain or Abel before He did Adam and Eve? Did God fashion an egg before showing us the chicken? You might say “but that’s not business”. Right.

Leaders, readers… everything is simply common sense. Don’t complicate things to make it sound prestigious. It would only show how shallow you are if that’s the case. Everything can be learned. And if only you look deeper, you would realize how valuable your employees are. And it’s not because others say so, but because you really understand how business works.

“A personnel man with his arm around an employee is like a treasurer with his hand in the till.” – Robert Townsend

Without employees, you would not have the people to help you produce… from visualizing to creating to innovating to marketing to selling to collecting and all.

Oh, what if you are a “one-man army”? Guess what? We are talking about the value of the employee not about yours. For if you insist on that argument then sadly, you are narcissistic and do not deserve to have employees.

“It is difficult to love mankind unless one has a reasonable private income and when one has a reasonable income, one has better things to do than loving mankind.”
~ Hugh Kingsmill

Without empathy, you can never be that Leader. Yes, you could pay your people to do this and that; but have you ever wondered of what your performance appraisal would be if they be the ones to do it on you instead? Good?? Technically possible, however, satisfaction, respect and loyalty is yours if you not only know your job but understand and value your people.

Do you? Then walk the talk.

Remember:

“People are people… not personnel.” – Tom Peters

Jesse Domingo