I played golf this morning – third time this year (I am ahead of last year’s pace). On the third hole, I had a 20 yard shot to the green and mishit the shot. Walt, a 76 year old gentleman I was playing with, commented on my shot, saying, “You did what I do, your head came up with your hands.” That’s golf talk for “You looked up before you should have.”
Now, I have been playing golf a long time (almost 50 years) and have gotten pretty good at it. I even played college golf. I know I am supposed to keep my head down until after I hit the ball. But in this case, knowing what to do and doing it were two different things. Why? One reason is because I don’t practice, I prefer to play.
Knowing how to do something intellectually or conceptually is not the same as being able to do it behaviorally. Reading a book and understanding what it takes to hit a good chip shot, conduct a successful performance review, or lead a project successfully is not the same as actually doing each of those things or doing them well. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t do something as well as I think I should, I get upset and frustrated. I say things to myself like, “I should be able to do this by now”, “I can’t believe I did that”, and numerous other invalidating things. And then, after I say those things, I often conclude, “I really need to practice that”.
But then I don’t practice, I play again (and the cycle continues). I think the same thing happens to leaders and managers – they don’t get a chance to practice because they are always playing. It is said that to be a master at something takes 10,000 hours of intentional practice. The operative word in intentional, where you work on something over and over again until it becomes part of who you are. How much is 10,000 hours? It’s 5 years of doing nothing but practice for 40 hours a week – intentional and repeated practice to put your knowledge to work and testing to gain new knowledge of how it’s done.
When do managers and leaders get to practice the new ideas they learned in the latest book or training seminar? Remember, playing is not the same as practicing, so using or trying out an idea isn’t practice, it’s playing. And just because you play a lot does not mean you play well.
Could it be that one of the reasons managers and leaders aren’t as effective as we or they would like to be is because they have been playing instead of practicing? I wonder what would happen if there was more practice or if managers and leaders approached more aspects of their jobs as practice?
Hello Professor Ford,
This is Stephen, one of the many students who attended your classes at Fisher College when I was getting my MBA.
I just wanted to mention that I have read your first two entries of your blog and I think they are very well written. I’ve bookmarked it (and I don’t bookmark anything that quickly) for future reference and look forward to your next entry.
Your last entry particularly hit home on a couple of fronts. One is that I recently accepted a leadership position at Lockheed Martin in the past few months. Two, I find myself in a Lockheed Martin leadership training seminar this week. The class itself has been very good but only because we get opportunities to take a few practice shots with various manager scenarios and are critiqued on them. The practice sessions are good but I find myself in a quandary that really I have to implement what I have learned this week “live” starting next Monday when I get back to the home office. I keep getting worried and thinking I need more practice. I’ll have to see how it goes.
Looking forward to your next blog entry.
Sincerely,
Stephen Vukovich
Steve, great hearing from you. I am glad you like the blog. My intent is to make it something really valuable to leaders and managers and I appreciate your comments. Any thoughts you have for improving it as we move forward will also be appreciated.
I think the issue you confront regarding the training is one we all encounter. Even in MBA classes we don’t get much opportunity to practice. Its as if we assume there is an automatic link between conceptual understanding of something and behaviorally doing it.
I think one way you may be able to bring practice into work is to pick one thing from the leadership training, let people know what it is you are practicing and that you might screw up, and then do it and keep doing it until you either determine it doesn’t work for you or you have enough confidence that you can do it – at which point it is now something you will probably use more and more.
When I was first learning about requests and promises, it was hard for me to put in deadlines for people. I would ask them for things and never say by when I wanted it. Once I realized that didn’t really work for them, or me, I decided to practice just that – adding deadlines. I told people I was practicing and then gave deadlines. In many cases, they would remind me when I forgot, so I got partners in the practice.
Now, I don’t know much about the training you are going through, but if you find something in it you think is of value, I recommend you practice it “one piece at a time” by letting people know you are doing that. It gives them permission to help you and to practice some things on their own.
What do you think?