Expertise Training
Toby Larson EdD, MS
Mental performance expert. I teach teams and individual contributors how to develop and maintain a high performance culture.
Leadership is a skill that has endless levels of expertise. Leadership experts do a great job of describing the various theories and types of leaders, but few provide methods to practice the skills they are teaching. Providing effective ways to practice these skills is what makes any training a success, something typically left out of most leadership talks.
As a mental performance consultant, increasing the pace of improvement for my athletes was the most significant service I provided. Having taught math for almost a decade before becoming a doctor of performance psychology, I was always interested in becoming better at teaching skills to people.
Professional sports careers are generally short. They can be lengthened if an athlete can stay consistently better than their opponents. Another limiting factor for most athletes is the length of time they can physically practice. I knew if I could increase the pace of learning for my fighters, I would have a chance at getting them longer careers with more success.
As I studied skill acquisition and the cognitive aspects of performance, I began to find a number of ways to help athletes make greater improvements with the same amount of work. What I found to be the most successful was using mental imagery to complete mental repetitions of a skill in between physical repetitions. I taught my fighters how to use this effectively as well as held them accountable to do the work.
领英推荐
To use mental imagery yourself, try these tips:
If you are in charge of the training or development of your group, I would like to talk to you. I would like to learn about the management and leadership training currently available to your team and to hear your leadership development story!