Recognising unsatisfactory elements of performance is difficult and uncomfortable. When you try your hardest to perform better, you place enormous strain on your mental abilities.

Obviously, if the activities that require practice were easy and fun, everyone would do them.  But in reality, most people won’t practice or persist long enough to improve. This is good news if you’re willing to do what most people won’t.  It’s the reason you’re more likely to keep your job and/or grow and develop your business in this recession.

Many high-performing executives will tell you they don’t rely on their innate talents as much as their hard-earned skills. While many successful CEOs have said that being forced to manage through crises early in their careers enhanced their abilities in ways that were critical to becoming CEOs.
 

·               Coaching helps.

·               Receiving regular feedback allows us to fine-tune our skills.

·               Working in a safe learning environment is essential.
 

Workplaces encourage practice, development and mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities. You also need to clearly define and develop a plan for achieving the abilities you wish to hone which includes a measurable time frame.

10,000 Hours or 10 Years

Malcolm Gladwell makes the case for 10,000 hours of practice to attain expertise in his book Outliers (Little, Brown & Co., 2008).  Almost all child prodigies in music, sports, chess and the arts seem to put in 10,000 hours before they attain expertise and produce significant results. 
 

Those who care the most will rise to the top. Exceptional performance depends on what we decide to do with our lives and the passion that drives us.  One of the most purchased articles from the Harvard Business Review is a 1968 piece on motivation that explains our three main drives:

1.    Achievement

2.    Power

3.    A sense of community and desire to help others.

No matter what your driving force is, you have to care deeply enough to work hard to become exceptional. Nothing can make you endure the pain and sacrifice of deliberate practice for decades unless you’re carried by an intrinsic compulsion to do so.

Paying attention to your intentions requires frequent support and coaching to stay focused. Even if you hold onto the notion that you’ll always survive because of your innate talent, you must still prepare, practice and persist. 

The scientific research is in, and it’s conclusive.  Hard work—not talent—contributes to high performance.