- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Most leaders begin their career by becoming high-performing individual contributors. They build expertise. They deliver results. They excel at their job. And because of that success… they are asked to help a team of people excel. If they do well, they get another promotion and are responsible for leading multiple teams. Unfortunately, many leaders are not given the training and coaching required to get better at helping other people excel.
“The habits, skills, and behaviors that drive early success… often become the very things that hold leaders back.” Marshall Goldsmith, Author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How successful people become even more successful
As an individual contributor, success comes from:
Your expertise
Your ability to solve problems
Your personal performance
But successful leaders today are responsible for doing something quite different. They need to help each member of their team maximize their potential and contribute to the mission of their organization.
They need to be skilled at:
Bringing out the best in others
Developing talent
Coaching high, moderate, and low performers
Helping individuals and teams thrive, even when the game keeps changing
Unfortunately, most leaders aren’t taught how to develop people, so they fall back on what made them successful in the first place, doing the work themselves.
The very behaviors and skills that once created success… are now the constraint.
When performance drops, they step in and start fixing problems. This strategy works for a while. But over time, results suffer and engagement decreases. Teams can survive but not thrive with that process.
The Benefits of Deliberate Practice
Most leaders try to improve. They attend training. They read books. They listen to podcasts. And that helps, but leaders need more support. Training, books, and experience build awareness. Continuous improvement requires practice—the kind of practice Anders Ericsson defined in his bestselling book Peak: Secrets of the New Science of Expertise.
Anders Ericsson spent more than 30 years studying elite performers—athletes, musicians, surgeons—people who consistently improve at the highest levels. His research on deliberate practice explains why some people keep getting better while others plateau and why leaders must learn to practice differently if they want to improve.
His work, highlighted in Peak, shows: Excellence is not about experience. It’s about engaging in deliberate practice.
Elite Performers:
Set small, specific improvement goals
Push outside their comfort zone
Reflect on what worked and what didn’t in their last practice and performance
Seek feedback
Practice with the guidance of a coach
They don’t just work harder, they keep getting better at getting better.
Coaching the Individuals on Your Team
More leaders have executive coaches today than ever before, and that’s a good thing. Leadership has become more complex, and the best leaders recognize they don’t have all the answers. A coach helps them think more clearly, make better decisions, and continue to grow. But the next level of leadership requires something more...leaders need coaching on how to coach each member of their team. And when leaders continuously improve their ability to have one-on-one coaching conversations, they increase employee engagement, produce remarkable results, and bring out the best in everyone.
Getting Better at Getting Better
Next week, we’ll focus on how to keep getting better at one-on-one coaching conversations...using the same deliberate practice principles elite performers use to continuously improve. This skill will help you create positive change in your workplace and family.
Let's Get Better Together,
Bill Durkin, Founder
One Positive Place
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