Deliberate Practice

A great deal of research on high performance has been conducted over the last 50 years. The research, which has studied outstanding performers in just about every field – music, business, sports, games, medicine and more – discredits the idea that outstanding performance is gifted by good genes, special innate talent or superlative intelligence. Instead, it turns out that the biggest factor that fuels great performance is created by something called “deliberate practice”.

Training intelligently, efficiently and – you guessed it – extensively, is “what really separates world class performers from everyone else” (see Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin in the Leadership Resources section). Deliberate practice is what leads to outstanding performance – “specific skills that have been developed in a particular way over a long period of time”. At SB&A we selectively identify development goals for the purpose of cultivating skill through practice that works – deliberate practice for exemplary leadership.