Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

A few days ago, I ran into a great quote, so I sent it out to a bunch of people, as I usually do when I find interesting information.  The quote came from the world-class marathoner, Juma Ikangaa, right after winning the New York marathon.

“The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”

That is so right on!  We can set all the goals we want and be motivated to achieve them, but the test of will comes when it is time to do the homework necessary to accomplish what we set forth.

Recently, I have read several great books that describe how important, in fact essential, it is to do our homework, to prepare, to get ready — to PRACTICE!

In one of the books, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells us that great performers, achievers, or so-called geniuses, are actually great “practitioners”.  And that “masters” typically practice at least 10,000 hours before they reach mastery of their skills whether it is piano playing, computer programming, singing, running, etc. It takes a lot of practice to master something!

In another book, The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle talks about the importance of deep practice.  In this great book, Coyle’s research demonstrates that greatness isn’t born. It’s grown.  Coyle identifies three critical factors that enable you to develop your talents:

• Ignition
• Master Coaching
• Deep Practice

Ignition is an emotionally powerful moment, usually early on in life, that triggers one to pursue a goal and helps sustain us through the long process of accomplishing that goal or mastering a task or skill.

A Master Coach is someone, typically much older, with amazing skills that walks highly ignited/motivated individuals though all the arduous learning and practicing necessary to master a subject or skill.

Deep practice is much more that just practice.  According to The Talent Code, deep practice takes chunking, or breaking things into small pieces, repeating the step over and over until it is done right, and learning to feel when it is right.

(Now I know why my typing is so bad.  There was no “Ignition”, no “Master Coach”, and no “Deep Practice”.)

Here are a few questions to ponder:

• As an IT Manager, how can you leverage this insight?
• Are you and your team prepared?
• Have you and your team “practiced” enough?
• Are you ready to accomplish?
• Who needs more preparation?

Furthermore, this knowledge may help IT Managers ask more pointed questions during hiring or performance interviews:

• What was it that “ignited” their interest in and keeps them motivated to do whatever you are hiring them for?
• Who have they learned from or been coached/mentored by?
• How long the have they been practicing?

The bottom line is that practice and preparation are critical to success in anything we do.  We need to become aware of its importance and pay more attention to it in ourselves and others.

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO