By Ryan Heinl
The other day around lunch time I was getting ready to go for quick run on the treadmill and I started to really tune into how I was tying my shoes. It sounds odd, but when was the last time you really focused on tying your shoes (Now that I’ve mentioned it, you will)? As I watched my fingers dance around the snake-like laces I became keenly aware of how fast and automatically I was doing it. This made me think of a recent blog post from Mike Hoban on the buildup of research on of the idea of deliberate practice. Books like Outliers, Talent is Overrated, and Talent Code hold up some pretty compelling research pointing to the importance of lots of practice over innate abilities as the critical ingredient for truly talented people. Another key insight from this research seems to be that practice on its own is not enough—you need feedback on your performance which you should improve the next time you practice. I think all of this surfaces some interesting opportunities to consider for talent management strategy.
We need to start finding people very early in their careers that have the ambition, learning agility and discipline to commit to a long-term leadership development program. This program would span over potentially 10 years (or more), which seems to be the length of time that gets you to the magic 10,000 hours of practice, putting you significantly ahead of most other leaders in skill level. They would also have to submit to constant self-examination and feedback from others in the pursuit of improving interpersonal, leadership, and business skills. As these elite leaders become more and more expert, they would need to be continually confronted with new and more difficult leadership scenarios to overcome—requiring moving geographically and organizationally. As a participant you’d have to be committed…We are talking Chinese gymnastics team committed!
A company that wanted to seriously consider something like this would have to be willing to commit certain resources to each participant over a long period of time and the participants would have to essentially sign over their freedom to the company for a period of time. Sound a bit extreme? Maybe, but it’s really not that extreme or new for that matter. Consider the apprenticeship structure in Florence during the Renaissance where apprentices were committed to master craftsman for many years spawning one of the most creative and productive periods in history.
With a generation of people entering the workforce and constantly crying out for structured career development and the opportunity for constantly increasing challenges combined with varied experiences, you could quickly use a program like this to make your company THE employer of choice. I can see it now: Come work for ABC company can get a chance to be a part of our acclaimed Elite Leadership Development 10 Year Program!
Ryan Heinl is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI).
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