Smart stuff my friends say...

One of the advantages of being in a profession for a long time is that you accumulate friends and colleagues that are really really good at what they do and very smart.  One such colleague of mine -- Rick Cartor  -- has written what I think is an insightful and (even better) useful analysis of the issue of generations at work.  You can read his article at Truth #8. Generations Don’t Matter that Much (or, Woodstock was not a Job Fair)

Deliberate Practice is Unique

Deliberate practice is not just any old practice. Given equal amounts of time spent practicing, typical practice doesn't improve performance as much as deliberate practice. So exactly how do the best of the best practice their skills?

First, they analyze the task, breaking it down into very small segments of performance. The very best golfers don't practice golf or even practice their swing; they practice not pushing their hips forward on the downswing. As a leader, don't practice effective listening -- practice a smaller component of listening, like perfecting your use of nonverbal cues to show the speaker you are interested.

When you have chosen an aspect of leader skill to practice, set a precise goal for the practice session that focuses on process (perfectly executing the task or move), not on outcome. In golf an outcome goal is to consistently hit drives a set distance, which is how most of us (incorrectly) practice. Instead, set a process goal to perfectly execute the motion and form of the swing. Your listening goal might be to completely eliminate non-verbal cues that show you are distracted while listening, like nervous fidgeting, too much head nodding, or facial expressions that indicate you want to interrupt.

Practice is different from performing and, although for leadership you don't necessarily have to do extra work to practice, you do need to choose a specific practice strategy. To practice your golf swing, set your golf bag close behind you and in contact with your body, so that if your hips move forward on the downswing, you will be able to tell. To improve listening skills, you might practice staying focused on the content of the speaker's message (as opposed to thinking about what you are going to say next, which is what most of us do) by listening and then writing a brief summary of the content for yourself.

Practice is useless unless you monitor your progress on each iteration of the practice strategy. If possible, it helps to record how you are doing. To monitor how well you are hearing the content of a speaker's message, you might try listening to a TV news broadcast, summarizing the content and then checking yourself against the on-line written version. Or practice listening with a friend that will review your summary. Some skills have built-in feedback mechanisms, some you have to work harder to find out if you are correctly executing the move or task. Monitoring is where an expert coach and feedback are most important to performance improvement.

Along with monitoring, you must evaluate how well you are performing. Are you getting better? What do you need to change? It is this reflection that makes deliberate practice so powerful. Monitoring and evaluating is the reason why we learn so much from our mistakes. We are more inclined to reflect on what went wrong and what we need to do to correct the problem when we make a mistake than when we are doing well. It is this reflection that creates the learning -- not the mistake!

If the evaluation shows you are not getting better at the task, look for what you need to do differently. World class performers are not afraid to change the way they do things if their current methods aren't working. If trying to stay focused on the speakers message by paying closer attention is not working, you might try taking notes. The key is -- if it isn't working, try something different!