Practice Makes Perfect?

Practice makes perfect.  I trust that most of us have heard of that phrase and in many cases have used the underlying intent to drive their personal and business lives.  Repetition is a fundamental key to learning and to developing excellent skill in any area of endeavor.  This perspective may have been given even more popular weight by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell.  Based on his research and expounded upon in his book Outliers, Gladwell suggested the notion that 10,000 hours of appropriately guided practice was the magic number of greatness.  More provocatively he also suggested that this level of greatness could be achieved regardless of a person's natural aptitude.  Based on that premise or theory, I have to assume with 10,000 hours of appropriately guided practice I could become a world-class violinist.

I'm not sure anyone, including myself, could tolerate 10,000 hours of me practicing the violin.

I find some corollary to Gladwell's theory in the work of Jim Collins in his book Good to Great.  More specifically he talks about the discipline it takes to become a great company and, I would suggest, a great leader.  The underpinning of his model is Disciplined People engaged in Disciplined Thought taking Disciplined Action.  Much like Gladwell, Collins believes that discipline is not enough.  Rather there has to be an "appropriate" type of discipline in play to ensure progress or success.  In Collins' words, "Everyone would like to be the best, but most organizations [or leaders] lack the discipline to figure out with egoless clarity what they can be the best at and the will to do whatever it takes to turn that potential into reality."  (bold is my emphasis)

So while Gladwell and Collins both might agree that practice and discipline are critical to success they qualify their statements with words like appropriate, egoless, clarity, and guided.  This brings me to my assertion, akin to something you may have also heard before, that practice in and of itself does not make perfect, rather only perfect practice makes perfect.  Unfortunately too many of us - leaders included - become creatures of pattern and of habit.  What we learn early on in our careers we tend to perpetuate as we move up the chain of command heedless of changes in our personal or business environment.  A simple analogy to this effect is our ingrained patterns of travel to and from work.  How many of us have found ourselves having arrived at work and possessing limited conscious memory of the drive there?  How many of us, upon changing workplaces, find ourselves still habitually driving to our old place of work?

I'm not saying practice or discipline are bad or wrong.  Rather, as leaders we need to ensure that practice and discipline are a function of conscious thought and intent.  As leaders we need to set aside and demand of ourselves time to reflect on what practice might get us perfect or better results.  As leaders we need to set aside and demand of ourselves the discipline to exam with courage our assumptions, beliefs, and even values in pursuit of leadership and organizational excellence.  If in fact a leader is required to achieve different or better results simply practicing more or being more disciplined at the same tasks and expecting different results equates to a popularized definition of insanity.

So what will it take to identify perfect practice and correct discipline for leadership success?  As trite as it might sound, leaders need to structure time in their busy schedules to step back and consciously reflect on their work and the work of their company every day.  This means shutting down your e-mail, turning off the smart phone and locking your door.  And if you have enough courage, strength and discipline do this twice a day - at the start and end of your day.  At the beginning of your day reflect on what your unique deliverables are as a leader.  What alone do you need to take responsibility for?  What do you alone need to achieve to feel accomplished and to have delivered value?  At the end of your day, reflect on whether you moved the needle towards the accomplishment of your unique deliverables.  Did you fulfill your personal responsibilities as a leader?  Did you accomplish what you expected of yourself?  Did you deliver on your unique leadership value proposition?  What's your plan for tomorrow?

Too many of us may balk at the notion of taking time out of our busy day to engage in individual reflective contemplation.  We may believe that taking 30 minutes out of our day for such navel gazing is nothing short of insanity itself and certainly a waste of time when so many urgent issues call for our attention.  My view is that unless you have the discipline to engage in the practice of reflective thought and evaluation your leadership may amount to nothing more than then a frenzied expenditure of your valuable energy and intellect.

If you can't manage your leadership energy, if you can't consciously evaluate your practices and demonstrate discipline in thought, how do you realistically believe you are really leading others effectively.  It's about conscious practice and conscious discipline and it's about leadership.  It's about your leadership.

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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.