New Tricks…

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Will Durant said years ago.  He was right.  Of course, there are those few who are born with incredible natural talent, but for most talented folks, they have spent time mastering their craft.  Learning new tricks.  

I have probably learned more about the Human Resource function in the last 18 months than I did in the last 18 years.  I have to.  Our world is changing.  The workforce, the workforce cultures and the work are changing at an ever-increasing pace.  The issues, the technologies and the expectations are becoming more complex.  I have to continue to learn (and break old paradigms) to stay on top of my game.  We cannot stay in the same chapter, we need to write new chapters. What if I had to type this on a typewriter?  Yes, change is generally good for all of us.

How do we keep up?  How do we keep our skills “fresh”?  How do we learn to “know what we don’t know”?  How do we stay relevant?  How do we open our lenses?

Dr. Angela Duckworth, social scientist and acclaimed author of Grit, discovered after 15 years of research with athletes, business professionals and individuals from various other fields, that there is an actual formula for achieving success. Here's her version:

Practice with effort equals skills … AND … skills plus effort equals achievement.

We want to achieve more at work.  But how?  We can treat our work as a chore, or we can lose ourself in it. When we’re fully engaged, as when we’re practicing mastery, we can find enjoyment in our work. We improve our experience, and we can improve our ability and growth.  We can also renew our journey by teaching others. Teaching others will remind us of our original passion.  Teaching others is a wonderful way to learn, pay if forward and continue to build our own mastery.  Seeing success through other is also very rewarding.

When Daniel Pink studied what drives people to do what they do, he discovered purpose, autonomy, and mastery were the three driving forces. 

When a sense of purpose drives us, we’re more likely to persist in the face of challenge, our motivation will be much stronger, and we’ll derive far more satisfaction from our work. A sense of purpose amplifies grit, ambition, focus and virtually every other characteristic that is needed to achieve mastery. Given that the pursuit of mastery will mean a lack external rewards, possibly for a very long time, we have to be driven by something deeper.  What is our purpose?

Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of 10,000 hours of practice. And if you’re like most people, you might have thought to yourself “why the heck didn’t my parents force me to spend 10,000 hours practicing basketball or piano (or insert skill of your choice)?”.  There is far more to practice than putting in 10,000 hours. You could show up to the driving range every day until you’ve hit golf balls for 10,000 hours. Tiger Woods or Inbee Park will probably still take your money in a game of golf. That’s because the way you practice matters just as much as how much you practice. And that’s where deliberate practices comes into play.

Performance mastery improves when we’re willing to be our own critic, set aside our egos, and admit that there are aspects of our work that could be better. There’s no level of performance at which a master sees his work and says to herself, “my work is done here.”  Mastery requires intense focus. And aspiring masters today face a challenge that previous generations didn’t. They live in a world filled with endless sources of distraction.  Social media, the now generation, workplaces based on “what have you done for me today”, etc.

“Masters are those who by nature have suffered to get to where they are. They have experienced endless criticisms of their work, doubts about their progress, setbacks along the way.” — Robert Greene.

As we pursue mastery of any skill, we put ourselves on a journey towards growth and self-discovery. As it has been said before, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." Success isn’t mysterious. It’s mathematical. The more time you spend improving your craft the higher your chances of having success. 

Developing new skills doesn't have to mean going back to school in the evenings. Sometimes, the skills you're looking for are right in front of you.  Your peers, the internet, books – yes, books, your work offerings, etc.  It's a matter of knowing what you want to learn and finding ways to develop those skills while you are at work. After all, if you want to achieve career success, you have to work ON your career just as much as you work IN it.

A few tips along the way I have learned include finding good mentors, taking on new challenges at work, good old-fashioned reading, networking with others around you, and taking advantage of your work learning offerings.

Having a mentor at work is crucial to attaining new skills and knowledge. A good mentor will help you solve some of the challenges and roadblocks you face. The best mentors will help you figure out next steps that work for you and help guide you over hurdles that sit squarely in your blind spot.  They also help with stress, big picture thinking and self-actualization.

Run to those new challenges, not from them.  When you see new opportunities to learn new skills, go for it. If there is something at your company you want to learn to do and you see an opportunity to learn those skills in a special project or a new assignment, grab the opportunity.  Be proactive.  Ask for more (and don’t have a hard definition of what more should be).

Sometimes, there are not a lot of opportunities available. We understand that. But there is a world of information at your fingertips.   Start reading everything you can about your industry, your field, equity, racism, community, leadership, technology – the list is infinite.  Read about something every day.  Study everything there is to know about your company and their competitors. Understand your company goals and unique selling points of your company like the back of your hand. Become an expert in these things and be able to talk about it. Think about some solutions to your company's biggest challenges.  

Networking today is more important than ever.  Get to know people in other divisions, other offices, and on other teams. Be curious about their department. Learn everything you can about their job and their skills. What made them successful?  Understand how they got those skills and see how you might be able take on a project in their area in your spare time to develop those skills you want to use to grow your career

And finally, many companies have some sort of internal learning system. Specific skills on time management or leadership or managing others.  Go talk to your learning and development folks. Find out about training opportunities available to you.  Make it a priority to continue learning.  Learn new tricks.

I saw this while I was reading this morning, “you cannot start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one”.  Pretty good advice from a picture on a coffee cup.  Learning come in all forms.

Together.  We.  Win