“A world at war, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a generation”
Three Repetitive Sentences
I love pasta, I love verona, I love tiramsu
Three balancing statements
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country
If it sounds balanced, it makes it more believable
CONTRAST
Metaphor
Use metaphor every 16 words
Use to draw people towards things, and to repel them
Ex. “the Arab Spring” “The financial storm”
Exaggeration
Emotional appeal. “I am going to give you my heart and soul”
Rhyme
People are more likely to believe something if it Rhymes: processing fluency (easier to digest)
Learn things from Rhymes as toddlers
6 Gifts Human Gardeners (Leaders) Offer Their People
Credit: Dr. Tim Elmore
They Paint Pictures
Most people think in pictures. Mentors capitalize on our visual minds and paint pictures of the way leadership works by telling stories, using metaphors, or employing images.
The Provide Handles
Every door or drawer has a handle. A handle is something we can grab onto. Good mentors summarize great principles into simple terms that their mentees can get a hold of and understand. They define the principles and give practical ways they can be applied to life.
They Supply Roadmaps
(1) Give us big picture
(2) Show us where we are
(3) Show us roads to take us to our destination
(4) Reveal what roads to avoid
They Furnish Laboratories
A laboratory is simply a safe place in which to experiment and actually practice the principles being learned.
They Give Roots
Plants can only grow as tall as their root systems grow deep. Roots represent the foundation for solid growth. They provide strength and stability; something to stand on. These roots might take the form of a “moral compass,” enabling a mentee to make wise decisions based on healthy values.
They Offer Wings
Wings enable mentees to think big, to attempt huge goals, to not fear taking risks.
Leadership as a Parent
(1) I do it; you watch
(2) I do it; you help me
(3) You do it; I help you
(4) You do it; I watch
Building Culture as a Leader
credit: Dan Coyle – The Culture Code
Fill the group’s windshield with clear, accessible models of excellence.
Provide high-repetition, high-feedback training.
Build vivid, memorable rules of thumb (if X, then Y).
Spotlight and honor the fundamentals of the skill.
Three Questions Leaders Should Ask Their Teams
What is one thing that I currently do that you’d like me to continue to do?
What is one thing that I don’t currently do frequently enough that you think I should do more often?
What can I do to make you more effective?
Leaders Build Systems with 3 things
credit: Donella Meadows – Thinking in Systems
Elements
Interconnections
Function or an purpose
A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way to achieve something
The Four Tools of Leadership Discipline
credit: Scott Peck – The Road Less Traveled
Delaying of gratification
Acceptance of responsibility,
Dedication to the truth
Balancing
The Four Disciplines of Execution
credit: FranklinCovey
1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Focus on the one or two goals that would make all the difference.
Focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that would make all the difference, instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals. Leaders must learn how to create energy around the most important projects, not just what’s on fire.
2. Act on the Lead Measures: Lead measures tell you if you’re likely to achieve the goal.
Lead measures tell you if you’re likely to achieve the goal. They can be influenced by the team and are predictive of the outcome. Lag measures tell you if you’ve achieved the goal.
3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard: This helps your team know the score at all times.
This helps everyone know the score at all times, so they can tell whether or not they’re winning.
4. Create a Cadence of Accountability: Meet weekly to report on commitments and review the scoreboard
This is where the execution happens. Your team should meet weekly for 20–30 minutes to report on commitments and review the scoreboard. Disciplines 1, 2, and 3 set up the game, but until you set up Discipline 4, your team isn’t in the game.
Change of pace + Change of place = Change of perspective
The Laws of Combat Leadership
credit: Jocko Willink
Cover and Move
Keep Things Simple
Prioritize and Execute
Decentralize Command
Leadership Psychology of Growth
Help the person get their story straight (where are you now? Where are you going?)
What is it that you’re afraid of that’s stopping you from moving forward?
The 80% rule of Decision Making
Based on 80% of the information available are you 80% sure this is the right decision?
Storytelling as a Leader
credit: Donald Miller
Stories are the best invention to deliver mental models that drive behavior, how we make meaning of life
Simple structure to stories: a character has a problem, then meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action. That action either results in a comedy or tragedy
A character: a person who will take the journey
The Problem: three levels, external, internal, and philosophical
Meets a Guide who Understands their Fear
And gives them a plan: you used to think this way, I want you think another way
Story calibrates a moral compass in our brains: its from story we learn what to value in life, what’s beautiful and what’s banal, what to lie for and what to die for. (Donald Miller)
Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? What greater purpose does this serve? What does it teach? (Pixar)
One overarching observation was a game changer: No conflict. No story. We accept that fact when it comes to movies. Epic movies demand epic conflict. That’s what makes them epic! (Mark Batterson)
A good story well told helps you to: (Bernadette Jiwa)
Communicate with clarity and confidence.
Achieve emotional resonance with your audience.
Be more persuasive and influential.
Consistently act in alignment with your mission.
Attract the right people, whether they be customers, employees, volunteers or donors.
Inspire people to buy into your mission or get behind your cause.
Execute plans as you work towards your vision for the future.
Add value to your products, services and company
Spread your ideas.
Change the culture and create the future you want to see.
As leaders who live with intention, we want to become clear with the type of story our lives communicate to the world. (PDL)
Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here. (Sue Monk Kidd)
Here’s the thing, you don’t need a captive audience to be heard. You need better true stories, well told. You don’t have to rely on luck to tell better stories, you can do it with intention and practice—by design. You don’t need permission to take the stage. You need to find and practice telling stories that matter. (Bernadette Jiwa)
Words put pictures in our minds, pictures in our mind impact our feelings, how we feel impacts our habits and performance, which affects our destiny. (Joshua Medcalf)
STORY is a SENSE-MAKING device: human brain is drawn towards clarity and away from clutter.
We must become the architects of our own story, the writers of our own narrative. We must do the hard work to carve out a life of meaning and intentionality. (PDL)
The point of any story is character transformation.
Simple structure of a story is: a character has a problem, then meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action. That action either results in a comedy or tragedy. (Donald Miller)
As spring-loaded stories, effective analogies work in much the same way by offering an incomplete but coherent narrative that bolsters an emotionally satisfying conclusion. (John Pollack)
There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. (Flannery O’Conner)
This capacity to evoke comparison, assert equivalency, reveal potential, and make implicit arguments makes analogy (stories) an exceptionally powerful tool. (John Pollack)
When given a choice, I choose adventure! It’s more than a narrative; it’s a metanarrative. It’s more than a story; it’s a storyline. Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about? (Mark Batterson)
Sadly, instead of being intentional about crafting a story that aligns with their core values, many leaders let external forces shape the narrative that defines how they lead others. The story of purpose must be intentionally crafted, it must to be built. (PDL)
Purpose isn’t about tapping into some mystical internal drive but rather about creating simple beacons that focus attention and engagement on the shared goal. Successfully cultures do this by relentlessly seeking ways to tell and retell their story. They build high-purpose environments. (Dan Coyle)
Storytelling is an act, something you practice—a skill you can learn and get better at. (Bernadette Jiwa)
The greatest thing by far, is to have command of metaphor. (Aristotle)
The world without metaphor is a world without purpose. (Unknown)
Stories magnify the need to have something remarkable (and honest) to say. (Seth Godin)
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. (Hannah Arendt)
High-purpose environments are filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal. They provide two simple locators that every navigation process requires: here is where we are and here is where we want to go. What matters is establishing this link and consistently creating engagement around it. What matters is telling the story. (Dan Coyle)
The purposeful leader understands the important role that their story contributes to the clarity and direction of their leadership. (PDL)
Much as computers use algorithms to compress digital data, people’s minds seek efficient ways to compress mental data. One tactic we use is to record information outside our brains in numbers, written words, images, and recorded sound. Another tactic, this one internal, is remembering stories. And many analogies are just that—compressed stories. (John Pollack)
There are genesis moments in every dream journey that radically change the plot line of our lives. It’s impossible to predict when or where or how they will occur. But once the door to the future opens, the door to the past slams shut. There is no turning back. It’s a new day, a new normal. (Mark Batterson)
The deeper neurological truth is that stories do not cloak reality but create it, triggering cascades of perception and motivation. When we hear a fact, a few isolated areas of our brain light up, translating words and meanings. When we hear a story however, our brain lights up tracing the chains of cause, effect, and meaning. (Dan Coyle)
People do not buy goods and services. They buy relationships, stories and magic. (Seth Godin)
Every decision you’ve ever made was influenced by a story—every single one. From the decision about whether to wear a mask during a pandemic, to the charities you choose to support. A story you heard, the story you believed or that story you told yourself, had an impact on those choices. (Bernadette Jiwa)
Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form. (Jean Luc Godard)
I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. (John Steinbeck)
This metaphorical nature of mind is essential to understand what drives human action. It is precisely through metaphor that our perspectives, or analogical extensions, are made. (Kenneth Burke)
Storytelling helps leaders connect their people’s personal meaning to their vision of the future. (James Kerr)
I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice. (Ann Lamott)
The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. (Michael Margolis)
To come to terms with our beginning requires a truthful story to acquire the skills to live in gratitude rather than resentment for the gift of life. (Stanley Hauerwas)
Story draws us toward clarity and away from clutter.
Stories use the familiar to explain something less familiar. Highlight similarities and obscure differences. Identify useful abstractions. Tell a coherent story. Resonate emotionally. (John Pollack)
Make no mistake, we are all storytellers. We tell stories in many different ways (some obvious and some non-obvious). First and foremost, we are the storytellers of our own lives. We all have an internal dialogue running 24/7/365 inside our own heads that tells us who we are, why we exist, what we should do, and how we should do it. (PDL)
The bottom line is we build more resilient families, companies and communities when we know who we are. We get stronger together when we prioritise finding, owning and sharing our stories. (Bernadette Jiwa)
A good analogy serves as an intellectual springboard that helps us jump to conclusions. (John Pollack)
Metaphors are where we recognize ourselves in stories, the way we attach personal meaning to a more public narrative. They create a visceral response, and force us to rethink meaning. We, literally re-cognize. (Dan Coyle)
And what’s true of great movies is true of great lives. Great conflict cultivates great character. Of course, it’s easier to watch on the screen than it is to walk through it. If you want to live an epic life, you have to overcome some epic challenges. You have to take some epic risks, make some epic sacrifices. (Mark Batterson)
Purpose is the story you tell yourself over and over and over again. It is a story that is written down in our own thoughts, but is confirmed through our daily habits and decisions. (PDL)
Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses. (Aleks Krotowski)
We become the story we tell ourselves, because we always live according to the script in our heads. (PDL)
Stories are not just stories; they are the best invention ever created for delivering mental models that drive behavior. (Dan Coyle)
“Life isn’t about finding the answers,” Brian said. “It’s about asking the questions.”8 Like Brian, I love questioning people about their dream journeys. And my favorite question is what I call “the genesis question.” Even more than stories, I love backstories. So I ask this question: What was the genesis of your dream? (Mark Batterson)
Edison was correct in linking persistence, imagination, invention, and analogy (story). (John Pollack)
Whether it is to be the best team that ever played, putting a dent in the universe, the best lives, and stories, are expressed in language and imagined as a future memory. (Victor Frankl)
Stories (not ideas, not features, not benefits) are what spread from person to person. (Seth Godin)
Plot grows out of character. If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you know and are getting to know better day by day, something is bound to happen. (Ann Lamott)
If you want to build a hundred-story skyscraper, you need a ten-story foundation. In much the same way, big dreams require deep convictions. The heights of your accomplishments will never exceed the depth of your convictions. (Mark Batterson)
If someone isn’t changed, then what is the point of your story? For the climax, there must be a killing or a healing or a domination. (Ann Lamott)
Storytelling is more than clever copy. It’s the act of showing up, with intention.
Your story is more than a tagline or a positioning statement—it’s not only what you say—it’s what you do.The best stories are not just told, they are lived. (Bernadette Jiwa)
If an idea grows, it expands far beyond the confines of any one person’s control. By limiting it to a single story told by a single voice, we strip it of its true potential. The role of the founder should eventually be to listen to the echoes of his or her initial words, and then encourage and amplify the most genuine among those you hear. (Adam Braun)
For a story to create change it must: be credible and relevant (have ethos and logos,an authority and understanding and rationality) it must be visceral and visual (must have pathos) it must be flexible and scaleable (easily told in the boardroom and around a campfire), and it must be useful (turn vision into action and purpose into practice). (Dan Coyle)
Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. (Pamela Rutledge)
No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story. (Daniel Kahneman)
Mantras and anchors are the way in which we can tell our story to ourselves and bring us back to the present moment. A mental roadmap in times of pressure. (James Kerr)
Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories. (Roger Schank)
We need to align ourselves with the river of the story, the river of the unconscious, of memory and sensibility, of our characters’ lives, which can then pour through us, the straw. (Ann Lamott)
Analogy appeals to the everyday knowledge of the hearer and invites him to decide the problems that have baffled his powers of reason. (Churchill)
In every storyline there are defining moments. The technical term, in terms of plot structure, is “inciting incident.” It’s a turning point, a tipping point. It’s a point of no return. Inciting incidents come in two basic varieties: things that happen to you that you cannot control and things you make happen that you can control. (Mark Batterson)
Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we just fire decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define each social values. (Pamela Rutledge)
Good stories always beat good spreadsheets. (Chris Sacca)
We don’t so much tell our stories, as stories tell us. Our narratives frame and structure our lives, becoming the prism through which we perceive and live. Great stories happen to those who tell them. (James Kerr)
Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal. (Dr. Howard Gardner)
Leaders are storytellers. All great organizations are born from a compelling story. This central organizing Thought helps people understand what they stand for and why. (James Kerr)
Storyline, and I love its mission: to help people tell better stories with their lives. Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about? (Mark Batterson)
Your story is a symphony not a note. (Seth Godin)
Stories do more than help us to tell and sell. Shared narratives are powerful catalysts for change and the building blocks of our culture. (Bernadette Jiwa)
True or not, stories are the way we understand life and our place in it. We are meaning making machines, interpreting and reinterpreting a sequence of events into a narrative form and reassembling it well. (Unknown)
The greatest thing by far said Aristotle, is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imported by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance. So then, a story. (Dan Coyle))
Our brains are constantly looking for ways to increase efficiency and cut out clutter. Habits and stories are a great way to do that. (Unknown)
Leadership is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories—stories that resonate and spread. (Seth Godin)
The notion of “chunking” has become a predominant theory for many psychologists in understanding how our brains organize large amounts of information. Chunking is our brain’s attempt to organize large amounts of information into “chunks” of related material that we can make sense of. (Unknown)
We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling. (Jimmy Nell Smith)
Telling a better story with your life begins with identifying the inciting incidents in your past. That’s your backstory. Then you start creating incidents with intentionality. That’s the rest of the story. (Mark Batteson)
As we look for patterns to emerge from the vast amounts of seemingly unrelated pieces of information that our brain receives every day, our ability to group this data is what allows up to increase our memories capacity. (Unknown)
“I want you to experience this with me” this is how great stories are woven. (Bernadette Jiwa)
Our words shape our story and our story becomes the framework for our behaviors. (James Kerr)
Evolution has wired our brains for storytelling—how to make use of it. We know that we can activate our brains better if we listen to stories. (Leo Widrich)
In the plot line of our lives, dream markers are defining decisions. They aren’t just part of the narrative; they become metanarratives. (Mark Batterson)
A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home. (Leo Widrich)
Narrative is a key tool for leadership, because it helps us deal with organizations as living organisms that need to be tended, nurtured and encouraged to grow. It thrives on inspiration rather than administration, fostering change rather than stasis. (Steve Denning)
“I won’t buy anything else on the internet this year.”
Cortisol (produced in our brains when there is conflict) allows us to focus: this is the purpose of conflict in the story.
Good marketing tells the story, great marketing is the story. (Bernadette Jiwa)
What if we had done this instead of that? What if we had gone here instead of there? And what if we had done it sooner instead of later? But I see a common thread in our storyline: one move set up the next move, which set up the move after that. In chess it’s called a premove—it’s the move before the move before the move. (Mark Batterson)
Oxytocin is released when we emotionally relate to a story. This is the chemical that builds human connection and trust.
One of the brain’s unique design features is its ability to recognize patterns so that we can quickly predict what is most likely to happen next. Over the centuries we have used narrative story structure as the most elegant way to communicate our messages, passions, vision and who we are. (Mark Minelli)
Happy is your narrative meeting your expectation.
Some of the recent discoveries in neuroscience are proving that even when we think we are making decisions based on ‘logic’, we are often unconsciously being driven by our emotions. And if emotion rather than logic is really the driving force of so many of our decisions, then stories are the most effective structure to share information, connect people emotionally to a cause and build commitment. (Unknown)
Storytelling evokes a strong neurological response. A happy ending to a story triggers the limbic system, our brain’s reward center, to release dopamine which makes us feel more hopeful and optimistic. (Unknown)
Persistent, consistent, and frequent stories, delivered to an aligned audience, will earn attention, trust, and action. (Seth Godin)
It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story. (Patrick Rothfuss)
There is no greater power on this earth than story. (Libba Bray)
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The formula for great leadership can be boiled down to three simple expectations. Admittedly, leadership as a concept can be challenging to grasp at times. It can be difficult to define what makes a good leader because definitions differ depending on who you ask. In other words, strong leadership can mean different things to different people.
When we transition away from talking about leadership as a concept and move towards defining expectations of leaders themselves, clarity follows.
Expectations give us a clear picture of the type of people we need to become while defining the effectiveness of our leadership in tangible ways. That brings us to the three non-negotiable expectations of leaders.
The three expectations of leaders are simple. Leaders that are perpetually pursuing excellence should always be expected to do these things:
Communicate with clarity
Work with energy
Produce results
Clarity, energy, and results are the expectations that ensure leaders have a lasting and dynamic impact on people around them.
Clarity
The first expectation is clarity. Clarity can manifest itself in a myriad of different ways when it comes to the task of leadership, but clarity most prominently comes through in how a leader communicates with their team. Clarity of communication is essential to cultivating a synergistic culture within your team. It provides critical direction, clarifies expectations, and helps team members work with efficiency and confidence. Leaders that communicate with precision and truthfulness set the precedent for a culture of accountability.
For example, a good coach will communicate clearly regarding how their team will handle disagreements. The question of how teammates respond to one-another will have already been answered before the team steps into competition.
How many times have you seen teams that resort to poor body language and frustration when things don’t go their way during a game? A strong leader will snuff that out due to the clarity of expectations they set with their team. Clarity raises the bar of accountability because the standards for “how we do things here” has already been set.
A leader that strives for clarity, will reap the long-term benefits through a strong culture of accountability that leads the group toward the pursuit of common goals.
Energy
The second expectation of leadership is to bring great energy to everything they do. Energy is the fuel that propels a team towards the realization of its goals. As one author put it:
Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Energy is contagious, and energy leads to enthusiasm. It is the leader’s job to infect each member of their team with enthusiasm towards the realization of the team’s goals. The amount of energy injected into team culture has a direct impact on the culture or “mojo” of the group. Similar to how an experienced DJ knows when to play the perfect song to make the party go to another level, an experienced leader knows how to raise the level of their team by bringing energy to inspire and motivate at just the right time.
The third and final expectation of leadership is that great leaders always produce results. The reason why I list this as the third expectation (and not the first) is because results are the natural byproduct of fulfilling the first two expectations.
A leader who brings clarity and energy to their work will inevitably produce positive results. Or put another way, results are the outflow of a leader’s fearless commitment to creating a culture of accountability and enthusiasm. This concept should be intuitive for most athletes.
In the game of basketball, making jump shots during competition comes as a result of the work you do before game-day. The effort you put into honing your technique in practice will translate into results during the game. The more reps you put in and the more detailed you are in your approach, the more shots you will make in a game. The process drives the results—the results don’t dictate the process.
Reflection
Do an honest self-assessment by writing down the following three questions:
What are the ways that I lead with clarity?
What are the ways that I lead with energy?
What are the actual results that I am producing?
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The process of learning something new is not easy. Research shows that we learn and retain new skills at a deeper level when the learning journey includes the right amount of difficulty, or as psychologist Robert Bjork put it, “desirable difficulties”—the inevitable challenges that produce growth for anyone trying to learn something new.
Indeed, the uncomfortable struggles of skill acquisition are an inescapable part of the learning process for anyone trying to grow.
But why should the concept of “desirable difficulties” matter to leaders?
It matters because leadership is largely based on our ability to continuously improve. The only way we can improve is by going through the learning process over and over again. The best leaders are constantly seeking to acquire new ideas and skills that will allow them to become more effective—while guiding their teams to do the same—a process that necessarily demands a willingness to embrace discomfort.
To reach our potential as leaders, we must help guide our teams to engage in the learning process by embracing “desirable difficulties.”
Learning something new can be a frustrating and difficult process. It requires perseverance, a clear and compelling finish line, and the right amount of support along the way. The best leaders are constantly trying to move their teams along this path which leads to an increase in growth, competence, and confidence.
There are three specific strategies that every leader can leverage to help their teams in this process. When leaders can facilitate small wins, encourage deep practice, and make difficulties desirable their team will rapidly ascend the learning curve.
Frustration is an inevitable part of learning something new. Most of us have experienced the feeling of frustration that accompanies working hard but failing to see any immediate tangible results. This feeling could apply to anything—whether you are learning a new technique on the practice field, mastering a new subject in the classroom, or trying to create a new habit in your personal life. Whatever the scenario, it gets discouraging when you fail to see any substantial progress from your efforts.
The key to keeping morale high and momentum moving forward is to simply win small. Small wins are nothing more than accomplishing a smaller piece of the bigger puzzle. Breaking a large task into smaller chunks takes a big goal and makes it feel more manageable. The best coaches know this intuitively. They understand that winning a championship at the end of the season is only possible if you get a “win” each day at practice.
Author Teresa Amabile coined this the “progress principle”:
“So, the most important implication of the progress principle is this: By supporting people and their daily progress in meaningful work, managers improve not only the inner work lives of their employees but also the organization’s long-term performance.”
The most valuable kind of progress always starts as a chain reaction. Leaders that prioritize small wins create significant momentum by giving their followers the crucial confidence they need to persevere through the tough times.
Encourage Deep Practice
The science of concentration has exploded in recent years as people search for an escape from a increasingly distracted world. Much of the battle in learning a new skill is based on the inevitability of distractions. Progress is made more quickly when we are able to block out distractions and practice what author Cal Newport calls “deep work”:
“Deep work is an activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
Deep work is difficult, but deep work is a necessary ingredient to master a new skill. In contrast to deep work, many of us perform “shallow work” when we fail to exercise the discipline it takes to set aside a time and space to allow our minds to dive deep into our topic. Shallow work is, “non-cognitively demanding, logistical style tasks, often performed while distracted.”
Deep work is the opposite. Deep work puts you on the express lane towards achieving your goals. Leaders should always encourage their teams to practice working deeply.
Make Difficulties Desirable
Desirable difficulties was a term coined in the 1990’s by psychologists who wanted to promote the types of learning strategies they thought were most effective. They understood what biologists have known for hundreds of years: struggle is a necessary biological prerequisite to acquiring a new skill. It takes enormous amounts of time and energy to install the neural circuitry that is necessary to foster skill development and retention—scientifically speaking, this process is called “myelination.”
For leaders (and anyone trying to learn a new skill), the key is to make the learning process difficult but desirable at the same time. The way to do this is to push your limits to the edge of your capabilities, immediately outside your comfort zone. If things are too easy you won’t improve, but if things are too hard then you could get discouraged and lack the motivation to persevere. Making difficulties “desirable” means that the process of learning is arduous and difficult, but desirable because you are making enough progress to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Reflection
As a leader, how are you encouraging your team—or a specific team member—along its learning curve in the following ways:
Facilitating Small Wins
Encouraging Deep Practice
Making Difficulties Desirable
Write down one practical application that you can implement that falls under each of these strategies.
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