I often see people who are fantastic at a task or series of actions and get a great result.  When I recently discussed this with a client about his team, he replied, “What looks like brilliance is many times simply lots of experience!”

This reminded me of a famous musician by the name of Horowitz.  Someone came up to Horowitz after a particularly good concert and said, “I would give my life to play the piano like you.”  Horowitz looked up and said, “I did!”  With my 30 years of experience, people sometimes say, “That is easy for you!  You are a natural at it.”  In my mind, I am thinking, “I have done a lot of it.”

When we are less experienced at something, we can get so focused on doing it 100% right or totally perfect that we get frustrated and give up.  We observe others doing this too.

Instead, the focus needs to be on getting experience and making progress in steps and stages.  We know people will become great at “it” if they continue engaging and striving.  The worst result is for them to give up.  We need to provide a context (e.g., a long term vision or goal) with milestones to celebrate improvement, instead of letting our team compare themselves to an ideal or those that have 20+ years’ experience.

• What are you doing right now to gain experience so that 10 years from now, others will look at you and say, “what a natural”?

• Are you leveraging the experience of your leaders and teams throughout your organization?

• How do you celebrate the successful improvements along the way?

If your leaders need help maximizing their experience, please contact our expert guides by calling 800-786-4332, or email JSabatini@AppliedVisionWorks.com.  Success is in plain sight and only takes 30 minutes to get started!