[April 1, 2017] Learning and improving upon our leadership skills is difficult; even under the best of conditions. The level of complexity and degrees of difficulty improving on those skill sets are intertwined with and depend upon many factors; often, so it seems, beyond our abilities. Yet, there is one proven method of ensuring we gain those skills and that is through a repetitive learning behavior; repeat, repeat, repeat is an approach that works!
Discipline is required to undertake the task of leadership learning. Yes, this is obvious, but what has been discovered is that leaders are reluctant (lack the discipline) to do those things repetitively that will help them make themselves better. For example, there are those who refuse to read about leadership on a regular basis; preferring instead to do other things unrelated to their leader roles. Setting aside a few minutes a day to read will help our understanding of various and essential aspects of leader development and reinforce it in our mind.
“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi, American football coach
There are undoubtedly many obstacles to learning through repetition; competing demands on our valuable time, the day-to-day bureaucracy where we work, the stresses of everyday life, and so on. Standards of performance and the process to both develop those standards and achieve them are also necessary because simply repeating something without doing it correctly does not – this is important – does not mean we get better.
Only through doing something the right way and doing it repetitively will we improve upon our leader skills. Long ago my Infantry Platoon had a gun crew that was known for poor performance firing the 7.62mm M60 Machine Gun (“The Pig”). They consistently took shortcuts and were prone to missing the target and occasionally getting one of their team members burned by the hot gun barrel.
The solution that changed them to a good gun crew was by requiring them do the load and reload procedures, target acquisition, and barrel change exercises by the book and do it over and over again. They repeated their procedures at first by taking baby steps, then walking through it at a faster speed, then running through it once they got the techniques down pat; all the while being supervised by a member of another gun crew who knew the machine gun well.
That is why each leader must carve out the time they need. First know the standards and then repeat those things that are necessary – slowly if needed – and then continue to practice until the skills are acceptable to that leader. This is one proven way that helps make a leader better.
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[Note] Several years ago I wrote about how Leadership Requires Practice; a similar idea: https://www.theleadermaker.com/leadership-requires-practice/