Performance Blog

Ever run into the person who thinks that they pretty much ‘know-it-all’ regardless of the topic or circumstance? It would be unusual if this person was a particularly high performer in their profession.

When Bobby Bowden, the coach who has won more Division I college football games than anyone, was asked, “Of all there is to know about coaching, how much do you know?”? His answer was this: “I have been coaching 51 years, and I feel like I know about 60% of what is out there, no, maybe 50%. There is so much more out there. When I stop learning and adjusting, nobody will have to tell me to retire. There ain’t much wiggle room at our level. When we stop learning, we’ll be losing and I’ll want out.”?

This point is this: experts are seldom ‘know-it-alls’. There are several reasons. First, like Bobby Bowden, experts make it a point to always be learning. Know-it-alls seldom make the effort because they believe that, well, they pretty much know it all.

Second, experts’ knowledge is specific to their area of expertise. In other words, when one refers to an ‘expert’s knowledge’, that knowledge is largely confined to a single field of specialty. Because you may be an expert in sales does not mean you will be expert in manufacturing or management. Expertise favors the specialist and specialized skills, developed over many years of extensive training and deliberate practice.

Experts are not ‘all knowing’ individuals who can speak authoritatively on any subject, but rather they possess a great deal of knowledge pertaining to a single field or domain, and despite any success or accomplishment, they continue learning. It was, after all, learning all they could, whenever they could that made them an expert in the first place.

The famed sculptor, Auguste Rodin said “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”? Experience, in other words, offers the wise a wealth of information. And the greater the diversity of one’s experiences, the greater the benefit offered by those experiences. Different people, places and events all represent unique chances to learn.

A variety of experiences offers the opportunity to apply your skills and knowledge in unique and untested ways. In some organizations, it is common to place novices in a number of different positions and departments within the company so that as the newbie climbs the corporate ladder, he or she will have first hand experience with the multiple aspects of the company’s operations.

It is important to note that experience alone, however, will neither increase expertise nor improve performance. There are many people who have been performing the same duties for decades and are no better today than they were years ago. So what makes the difference?

Peak performers are masters at mining the greatest wealth from their experiences. They do so by reflecting back upon events with the goal of identifying things that went well and areas that could be improved. They then take action to make changes where they deem improvements necessary. Top performers also devote greater attention to learning from the experiences of their peers, colleagues, competitors and mentors. To do so, they build large networks and seek opportunities to talk and, even more importantly, listen to what others tell them of their experiences. Every experience thus becomes an opportunity to learn. And they attempt to turn every opportunity to learn into an occasion for improvement. Perhaps it was Albert Einstein who put it best: “The only source of knowledge is experience.”?

Grundy Center, Iowa is not a place easily found on a map or a popular tourist destination. But a place doesn’t need bright lights or famous attractions to make it special or to have special events happen there. Last Saturday, something special happened in Grundy Center. Stone Soup was made.

For the past 5 years I have had the privilege of working with a group of graduate students from the University of Northern Iowa who spend a year teaching in the public schools of Grundy Center. During my second year, the students invited me to dinner at a home they were renting. When the topic came up as to what to have for dinner, I suggested pizza. Afterall, what student doesn’t love pizza? The reaction was, “Great! We can order in!”? “No. Let’s make it,”? I suggested. “Make it? We’ve never made pizza before,”? came the response. “Well that doesn’t mean you can’t make it now. I’ll teach you.”? I had my student chauffer stop by the grocery store, and we picked up flour, oil, yeast, toppings and the other necessary ingredients. We set about the task of making pizza, and while it won no culinary awards, the students enjoyed both the process and the product. More importantly, they seemed to grow closer as a group for having undertaken the simple task of preparing and sharing a meal.

The next year, and every year since, the local physical education teacher and my dear friend, Rich Schupbach and his lovely (and very understanding) wife Lisa open their home and their kitchen to the students so we can make pizza. Rick and Lisa have become skilled pizza makers and often have much of the prep work completed by the time we arrive.

In introducing the ‘pizza program’ this year, I told the story of Stone Soup. The quick version of that story is a hungry man came to town, but no one would feed him. So he decided to make a soup and announced he would gladly share his meal with anyone who would partake. The only ingredients he had were water and some stones which he placed in a borrowed kettle and began making his Stone Soup. As the curious people wandered by, he invited them to have some soup when it was finished. People were surprised by his generosity. He also suggested that the soup might be improved if they made a small contribution of vegetables, meats, seasoning, or any other ingredient they had on hand and could spare. Everyone willingly made a contribution and before long the entire community enjoyed a very delicious soup.

I explained to my students that in Grundy Center, Iowa this works with pizza and suggested that if they brought a topping, enough to cover just one pie, it might improve the quality of the pizza. The variety of toppings that arrived with the students was impressive: mushrooms, artichokes, sausage, peppers, tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni, and more. Each student took a turn tossing the dough and topping the pies.

Bob, from New Jersey was the first to toss the dough and his technique was flawless. He then helped Brett, from Louisiana, make an equally impressive pie. Wendy, from North Carolina, loves to cook and couldn’t wait for her turn to toss the dough and spread the toppings. Becca, of Texas roots, was one of the first to arrive and being someone who pitches in long before being asked quickly set about cooking the sausage and preparing toppings. Meghan, schooled in Maryland, loves to talk as much as work, and being in a busy kitchen of conversation and cooking seemed to suit her well. The pride each took in preparing a meal for their peers, and the appreciation they showed each other for returning the favor brought the group together in ways one seldom sees in a classroom meeting or during a busy business duty.

When the students left that night, they left with the knowledge and skill to make a creatively tasty pizza. But they left with more than that. They had a new found knowledge of their peers, and a sense of community that comes from making a meaningful contribution to someone’s life. They learned the lesson of Stone Soup. When you think about it, the recipe for Stone Soup couldn’t be easier, and it produces an unforgettable meal. Why not try it soon?

Children with learning disabilities are often believed to have limited chances for success, and those with severe disabilities are often given up as hopeless or useless even before reaching the starting line of gainful employment. Imagine leaving high school having failed mathematics repeatedly and stigmatized since childhood with dyslexia. In short, by age 16 you could not read, write or work numbers with even a functional capacity. This was precisely the situation dealt to young Richard Branson.

We often hear people speak of high performers as ‘talented’? in some physical or intellectual way. Branson was neither. Given his disabilities, he would never be able to adequately read a simple contract or decipher the balance sheet of a corporation. What Branson could do was develop essential skills that could make him successful, and as unlikely as that seemed that is precisely what he did.

While he could never become skilled at reading papers, he could become skilled at reading people, situations and opportunities. He could never calculate the size of a profit margin, but he could learn to calculate the depth of an individual’s character. Sir Richard Branson used his acquired skill to found multiple corporations, including Virgin Atlantic airlines. In short, he developed the skills necessary to make him a consistently outstanding business performer.

There are several skills common to all top performers, regardless of their field. These skills serve the expert in making decisions, planning and executing actions, and evaluating performance. These skills include:

First, experts can distinguish the important from the unimportant elements in an event, action, or situation and identify which elements are most critical to cultivating the best response or solution. Richard Branson’s ability to ‘read people’ and associate with those who could make things happen is an example of the skill of ‘identify the important from the unimportant’ as it applies to people’s character.

Second, experts spend more time analyzing a problem by gathering relevant information, understanding problem constraints, developing solutions, and assessing the adequacy of the attempted solutions. They like all the facts in order to devise the best strategy for moving forward.

Third, experts are skilled at generating the best solutions to a given problem. And they do so faster and more accurately than nonexperts. They weigh the options, select the best among, and then put them into action. They then evaluate the quality of the action, and make adjustments or changes as needed. Richard Branson became a billionaire many times over because he developed and uses the essential skills that make him successful, the skills of any expert.

Top performers make significant investments in learning all they can about their field. Attend a conference or convention, and you will surely see experts. Because of their extensive knowledge, experts are least likely to benefit from the conference presentations, but they got were they are, in part, because they made it a habit to attend meetings and learn. The relationships formed and nurtured at such meetings are one reason they are now expert, and they have learned that no knowledge source is too insignificant to overlook.

When experts stop learning, they soon stop becoming leaders in their field. Florida State University football coach, Bobby Bowden, clearly recognized this fact when he said, “I have been coaching 51 years, and I feel like I know about 60% of what is out there, no, maybe 50%. There is so much more out there. When I stop learning and adjusting, nobody will have to tell me to retire. There ain’t much wiggle room at our level. When we stop adapting, we’ll be losing and I’ll want out.”?

This point is as pertinent to industry as it is to sport. In discussing the surge of Japanese to the top of the automobile juggernaut, Volkswagen’s Carl Hahn said, “We have to realize their achievement, grapple with it, and change our attitudes. We have to go and learn, we Germans, we Europeans. We have been so accustomed to teaching engineering to the world that we’ve lost some of our receptiveness to learning.”? In short: When you stop learning, you can’t lead because those who continue to learn will soon pass you by.

There is no substitute for experience when it comes to increasing expertise. It is only in practical experience that our skills and knowledge unite to determine our ability to perform. Experience, however, gives us something more than just a stage upon which to exercise skills and knowledge.

Experience offers an opportunity to learn. Unfortunately, all too often we ignore the lessons offered she offers and simply repeat, again and again, the same ineffective patterns of performance. Consider, for example, our handwriting. We have been writing for years. Has the quality of your handwriting improved? With your extensive writing experience, do you consider yourself a handwriting expert? If you are like most people, despite considerable experience, your handwriting has not improved much over time, and perhaps has even declined in quality. To become a peak performer, you must learn to let experience work for you, and you can learn to do this!

To learn her valuable lessons requires thoughtfully analyzing experiences to identify: a) what we did well and b) what could be improved. By understanding what we did well in a particular experience allows us to use the same skills or knowledge in similar situations in the future. We know what works! By recognizing what could be improved,and we can always find ways to improve, we identify the skills we need to hone or knowledge we need to gain to become even better at what we do. Experience is a great teacher, but only for good students. Learn to capture and exploit her lessons.

Last week I joined 3 accomplished coaches in San Lois Potosi, Mexico for a training camp for the Mexico Junior National Golf Team. One of those coaches was the highly respected and accomplished sport psychologist, Dr. Deborah Graham. Dr. Graham has perhaps helped more players win tournaments on the professional golf tours than any other sport psychologist. Her list of clients is truly impressive. It is always a delight to work with Dr. Graham. Not only is she a knowledgeable and competent professional, but her warmth and kindness make her a person you feel blessed to have in your company.

As she and I stood in the same facilities where Michael Phelps had a short time ago trained for the Olympics, Deb and I talked about athletes we know and the research we have each completed on the composition of expert performers and champions. I found the consistency in both our experiences and research encouraging. On the plane ride back to the USA, Deb came over to my seat with a copy of her book, The 8 Traits of Champion Golfers? (Simon & Schuster, 1990). The book is based on her study of over 350 professional golfers on the PGA, LPGA, and Champion Tours. Dr. Graham and her husband Jon Stabler have used the principles in this book to help 13 tour professionals win 16 major championships.

While there remains no single formula to achieve peak performance, Dr. Graham has discovered 8 traits common to all the champions. These are: Focus (the ability to concentrate), Abstract Thinking (the ability to reason, problem solve, learn and adapt), Emotional Stability (emotions remain under control despite increased pressure or challenges), Dominance (the tendency to be more aggressive and competitive over easy-going and submissive), Tough-Mindedness (the tendency to be self-centered, indifferent and unmoved by the needs of those around them), Confidence (a healthy, secure and self-satisfied view of oneself), Self-Sufficiency (the willingness to make decisions and commit to decisions made) and Optimal Arousal (a balance between tension and relaxation needed for peak performance). To learn more about these traits, and how you can make them work to increase your performance, read the book or check out Dr. Graham’s website: www.GolfPsych.com. It will be a wise investment of your time.

Welcome to Performance Matters’ first blog posting. With research and new information on promoting and improving performance coming at an increasingly rapid rate, the decision was made to make this information available to our clients quicker than is possible with our six times per year newsletter, Promoting Performance. We will continue with the newsletter, but in addition we will add this weekly blog post to our website.

As this posting represents the birth of our blog, it seems fitting to address the issue of the birth of expert performance. On this issue, let’s be clear: No one is born an expert. You may have been fortunate enough to be endowed with certain physical, mental, social or emotional qualities that can assist you in the pursuit of superior performance. But those characteristics alone have never made anyone an expert. To the contrary, what some people have overcome in the pursuit of elite achievement is often as inspirational as it was remarkable or unpredictable.

When we spot someone with an abundance of desirable inherent qualities such as intelligence, attractive personality, or physical prowess we often label these people as having great potential. When combined with qualities such as having successful parents, or a prestigious education, we often identify these people as ‘can’t miss prospects.’ But often they do miss, and more often than not, one’s potential is never reached.

Because expertise is neither a birthright nor an innate characteristic, the good news is that just about anyone can gain a high level of expertise in their chosen profession or business. The legendary business consultant, Peter Drucker, realized early in his career. “I soon learned that there is no ‘effective personality.’ The effective executives I have seen differ widely in their temperaments and their abilities, in what they do and how they do it, in their personalities, their knowledge, their interests

Welcome to Performance Matters’ first blog posting. With research and new information on promoting and improving performance coming at an increasingly rapid rate, the decision was made to make this information available to our clients quicker than is possible with our six times per year newsletter, Promoting Performance. We will continue with the newsletter, but in addition we will add this weekly blog post to our website.

As this posting represents the birth of our blog, it seems fitting to address the issue of the birth of expert performance. On this issue, let’s be clear: No one is born an expert. You may have been fortunate enough to be endowed with certain physical, mental, social or emotional qualities that can assist you in the pursuit of superior performance. But those characteristics alone have never made anyone an expert. To the contrary, what some people have overcome in the pursuit of elite achievement is often as inspirational as it was remarkable or unpredictable.

When we spot someone with an abundance of desirable inherent qualities such as intelligence, attractive personality, or physical prowess we often label these people as having great potential. When combined with qualities such as having successful parents, or a prestigious education, we often identify these people as ‘can’t miss prospects.’ But often they do miss, and more often than not, one’s potential is never reached.

Because expertise is neither a birthright nor an innate characteristic, the good news is that just about anyone can gain a high level of expertise in their chosen profession or business. The legendary business consultant, Peter Drucker, realized early in his career. “I soon learned that there is no ‘effective personality.’ The effective executives I have seen differ widely in their temperaments and their abilities, in what they do and how they do it, in their personalities, their knowledge, their interests