Rather than having the interns do the remaining assessments at this time, Charley decided to give them some guidance on how to develop strengths in a trait where they had a weakness.
“I’m going to ask each of you to select one trait where you feel challenged and develop a plan to work on it. Today I want to give you some guidance on how to develop that trait.”
“First, it’s a myth that we are born with certain abilities. Your abilities come from something called deliberate practice. It’s also a myth that brains are fixed. Every experience helps grow your brain. Failures can be valuable because they develop the part of the brain where memory resides.”
“What I want you to do is to develop a plan for deliberate practice for the trait where you feel you have your greatest challenge. Deliberate practice in this case requires you to:
- Define the trait you want to develop in discrete chunks.
- Develop a plan to focus on those chunks every day. Generally you can think of these chunks in your normal daily activities.
- Have a coach work with you to give you feedback. Those of you who have brown belts will be coaches for those with lower level traits.
- Increase the level of difficulty as you feel comfortable based upon your coach’s feedback.”
“I want you to work on one trait at a time, but when you feel like you are at a level where you have plateaued, move to another level. Over the next week, I want you to develop your plan, select a coach and then review your plan with me.”
“What you are doing now will become what you need to do for the rest of your life. Even if you reach the black belt level, there’s always room for improvement. I’m excited to see how you progress. Now you are beginning to see why difference makers stand out.”
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“Success has to do with deliberate practice. Practice must be focused, determined, and in an environment where there’s feedback.”– Malcolm Gladwell (Author)