Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

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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

Growing Your Seeds

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We have just had the third part of our series Your People but then, it does not end there. And why not? Human resources is, after all, an organization’s greatest asset. Fathom that while management is about technicalities, leadership is about people. Oh yes, I heard you… Vision. But then, vision involves steering your organization, your people to a higher level.

“We desperately need… a national and global economy in which people act not only as consumers but as citizens, in which workers reassert their responsibility for themselves and the success of their companies.” – Hillary Clinton

See? The foundation of a great company lies on how well it handles its people. You know that… unfortunately, not all knows how to bring out the best in their people.

Again:

People in your company should not be taken for granted, but nurtured and cared for. They are your internal customers. They bring in the business for you. They make customers happy enough to make them come back for more, thus, helping spread the good word about your company’s products and services. Your people are your company’s ambassadors of goodwill, the direct extension of your office, of your company.

Catch them doing right even for minor tasks rather than finding faults.

Be broadminded. Allow for some mistakes from your employees. Help them realize that failure is not so bad but can be part of growing. Understand that committing a mistake is normal so long as one learns from it and does not repeat it.

One way to “exploit, reverse and maximize” on this is by investing in the hiring, training and development of your employees, bottoms up and across other functional areas of the company.

“Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing goods and services, and they forget that their organization’s true nature is that of a community of humans.”
~ Arie De Geus

With that, look for hidden talents of employees that might have been overlooked. Encourage them to perform tasks they’re smart enough of doing.

Apply positive strokes, words of encouragement, and a healthy working environment. Cheer for your employees so they are encouraged to go beyond what is required of them. Help ordinary employees deliver extraordinary results.

Lastly, if possible, make public announcements like press releases about outstanding performances of employees. Like artists and musicians, employees need an applause after a good performance.

Sounds simple? So, have you?

Remember:
“Growing your seeds starts with recognizing the seed then doing what it takes to nurture it to its full potential.”

Jesse Domingo