Manager's Tools: Content: Newsletter
How to Achieve Management Mastery
April, 2010
Every year, about 150 people climb Mount Everest. And each year, about five people never come back. Those seem like drastic odds; however, consider how many times the average climbing guide (known as a Sherpa) leads climbing teams up and down the mountain. Why are their chances of survival so much better?
The answer to that question is simple: Sherpas have practiced so much that they are masters at their craft.
The concept of mastery has been studied for centuries. Psychologist Bruce Burns of Michigan State University decided to find out if he could find the answer to the long debated question: How long does it take to achieve mastery? To find an answer, his research focused on a personal passion of his own: chess.
After all, a chess champion’s brain is firing off decisions in split second intervals. And Burn’s research suggests that it’s not because the champion is naturally gifted at the game. Instead, Grand Chess Masters achieve that skill level and ability because they do something that most of us stopped doing after childhood. They practice—a lot. They practice daily.
How does this help you become a master of managing people? Leadership requires practice. It’s just as important for you as it is for a child and their piano lessons, or the Grand Chess Masters, or the elite athlete.
In Burn’s research, top players recognized patterns on the chessboard almost instantly, because they had seen those patterns so often in past games. And in most cases, their first maneuver was the right decision. Just like a Sherpa on the side of Mount Everest recognizes crevices and dangerous weather patterns, or a seasoned musician senses the next stanza when sight-reading a piece of music, or a mother of three knows when a temper tantrum is brewing, the research proved that pattern recognition was advanced through consistent and daily practice.
After his research, Burns concluded, “These results are consistent with the claim that high levels of skill are based on extensive practice.”
In management, you might think you don’t have the time for a lot of study. The truth is, in just about 30 seconds a day you can begin developing the skills used by the very best managers, including how to set clear goals, communicate effectively, build trusting relationships, hold yourself and others accountable for results, and recognize the great work of others. And once you invest your 30 seconds into knowledge building, you’ll be able to “practice” these skills throughout the rest of the day.
Our newest book, The Daily Carrot Principle, is being released this week to help you, as a manager, do just that—simplify the art of mastering management. To accelerate the learning curve of the concepts we presented in our New York Times bestseller, The Carrot Principle, we developed an easily digestible format that builds your knowledge step-by-step, day-by-day. It contains 365 ways to enhance both your career and your life. And it offers a daily Carrot Action on each page that you can immediately put into practice. Read each daily entry while you sip your morning coffee or take your first break. In time, you’ll experience the highest form of mastery: lifting yourself by lifting others.