6 Habits to Master any Skill

A sprinkle of this in your day to day will accelerate your development.

Morning Leaders,

Leadership is an ongoing journey of personal and people development. If we’re not upgrading ourselves and acquiring new skills, how do we expect to add value to our people and further our own careers?

There needs to be a constant focus on improvement, great leaders don’t standstill. They know what they invest in themselves and their people today pays back substantially more in the next few years.

Improving and getting better starts by being intentional and recognising that we all have room to improve. One secret to fulfilment in our people? Progression. People want to feel like they’re growing and moving forward.

Today I want to discuss Deliberate Practice and why this is key to mastering any skill and setting yourself up for a further opportunity.

What is regular Practice?

The act of rehearsing a behaviour over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it.

Practicing anything with repetition is useful to a point and will lead to improvement, but if you want to reach a higher level and get better quicker, you need a strategy and a plan, and importantly you need to be extremely intentional.

What is Deliberate Practice?

Is a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.

6 Habits to Deliberate Practice

1) Consistency - actively practising every day and working on your craft will accelerate your development. Even for 15mins a day, those small sessions add up and compound. You are what you do consistently.

2) Ask - actively asking your team or leader to identify opportunities for you to practice this skill in public. If you are working on your difficult conversations or public speaking for example, ask for opportunities to practice and demonstrate your skill. You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need practice in uncomfortable situations to help you grow. Practising on your own is not the same.

3) Hungry - knock on doors, set up calls with other Managers and get the word out that you are in the market for opportunities to work on your skill. Actively searching for platforms and reoccurring windows to practice your skill will help you tremendously. People are not always going to come to you, you need to get out there and ask.

4) Feedback - whether you have a trusted mentor or support team, you’ll want to instruct people to observe you demonstrating this skill and provide feedback. You know what you know. You know what you don’t know. But you don’t know what you don’t know. You are not always going to see blindspots, so you need trusted resources to provide the feedback so you can tweak and can get better.

5) Goals - goals are critical when working on skills. Whether it’s to deliver a public speech by end of May to an audience of 20 people or to deliver constructive feedback to at least 5 people by end of April. Have specific targets will give you focus and direction. Working alongside your support group also keeps you accountable for turning up and taking action.

6) Varying Levels - you’re not going to get better, just like video games, if you play at the same level or with people at the same level or lower. The bar needs to be raised. If you were doing a presentation, could you map out higher levels so you feel stretched and uncomfortable? It develops tremendous confidence doing a Level 4+ presentation.

  • Level 1 - Deliver a presentation to your colleague

  • Level 2 - Deliver a presentation in your team meeting

  • Level 3 - Deliver your presentation in another team’s meeting

  • Level 4 - Deliver your presentation in a Manager’s Meeting

  • Level 5 - Deliver your presentation in a Director’s Meeting

  • Level 6 - Deliver your presentation in a VP’s Meeting

Applying these 6 habits will help you develop in any area, but it must be consistent action. I would also recommend you keep a log or journal to track your progress so when you feel discouraged you can look back at how far you have come and celebrate your journey.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

  • Book - Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers - just finished reading this book and wanted to share. Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? Malcolm looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined.

  • YouTube - Kim Scott - Radical Candor - Kim talks through her experience at Google and why Radical Candor is critical in Leadership.

  • App - Asana. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. This app is a to-do list on steroids. Get organised and track your daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Best thing is it’s free.

Quote of the Week

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