Have you ever spent time watching the practice of a professional hockey team or a professional soccer team? To be fair, it doesn’t have to be a professional level team but one of high quality. If you have, you will notice that the drills that these players undertake are very similar to those the kids just starting out perform. From the ball-handling skills to the cross-overs, the drills are the same as what the youth teams and players follow. You will also notice that the movements’ skill and fluidity are entirely different between the youths and the professionals, as you would expect, but what you might not have anticipated was the similarity of the drills themselves. And this likeness is not merely a coincidence; it is planful and purposeful.  

The coaches of the various levels of teams do not share an email every week about what drills they will do with their teams during practice. What you are witnessing is a rigorous and disciplined application of the fundamentals of the game. To excel in sports, movements, actions, and responses need to become instinctual or second nature. In the heat of the game, players need to respond through instinct honed through practice, study, and preparation to capitalize on patterns they recognize without the delays thinking and analysis might create. Through the repetition accumulated in practice, the instincts are developed, honed and raised to the professional level. For how you practice is how you play.

This training paradigm is used extensively outside of the sports arena as well. From Wall Street traders to military special forces operators to business leaders, developing the instincts to be “professional” in your chosen endeavour follows the same principle. You need to get the repetitions in from practice to be great in the game. Special forces operators remind themselves that the more they sweat in training, the less they bleed in combat. This axiom means the more prepared you are and the more instinctual you can train your body and mind to become, the less likely harm is to befall you when you have put your skills to the test. From physiological arousal control to following basic fire and maneuver principles to calling in air support, these tasks are needed to be second nature and consistent. And everyone needs to respond and react the same way if the unit is to work effectively together and be safe.  

Leadership and leadership development in the business world or organizational setting is no different. There is a common saying that in times of crisis, we do not rise to the level of our expectations but instead sink to the level of our training. And because of this truism, we must take leadership development and leadership training much more seriously and become much more rigorous about it. This past year (i.e. 2020) has highlighted the gaps in leadership development maybe even more clearly than the last 20 years of leadership development. Still, it has also highlighted the capability of those trained well as they responded with clarity, calmness and consistency as crisis gripped their organizations.  

We can train and develop leaders to be stronger ethical bastions for the organization. We can develop leaders to have integrity as an immediate instinctual response as we train soldiers or athletes to perform in crisis or the game environment. If we are to develop leadership as a true profession and take it out of the realm of simple charisma, it is imperative to do so. And as Colin Powell has said, “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.” Developing character, like integrity, honesty and kindness, happens over time, and it starts with little things. Over time as the foundation is laid, character, skills and capability are reinforced with progressively larger things so that in a time of crisis or challenge, these things that you have trained your entire life become instinctual. If you have only trained yourself to look after your own interests, the likelihood of you being compassionate towards others as your first instinct in a challenging time will be low. If you have flirted with dishonesty and unethical behaviour in the small and seemingly irrelevant things over time, likely, you will as well in the big decisions or in the trial that tests you now. We are the accumulation of all the repetitions we have taken up to this point in time. Our response to a new situation, challenge, or crisis will first be instinctual, based upon the quality of those repetitions and the foundations created over the preceding time. For it is true, how you play the game is entirely based upon how you practice.

How you do one thing is how you do everything. Anonymous

How does one develop stronger ethical values, become a better leader, respond more appropriately to the workplace’s challenges, and be the role model of leadership for others? The simple answer is to train to be better on a daily basis. Too often, leadership development programs in organizations are insufficient to develop the types of leaders that are needed. These programs might have 2 - 4 leadership learning type programs or courses over an entire career; too indiscriminate to have a significant effect. And the regular feedback that people receive for their job performance is often lacking specificity, timeliness or quality to be really useful. While performance coaching helps close some of these gaps, coaches are typically only brought in on a remedial basis and not part of a proactive leadership development program or aid in the transition of a leader into a new role or a new company. While the leadership development programs within organizations are typically woefully insufficient to build stronger and better leaders, they can still be leveraged with other plans to create better and stronger leaders.

A key realization for leaders regarding their leadership development is that they need to take full responsibility and accountability for their own journey and development. No one should have more ownership over your career and career development than you do. Until organizations more fully recognize their responsibility for leadership development within their organization on a more holistic basis, the heavy lifting regarding development will continue to reside with the individual. Four actions that can form the basis of your development plan include:

Self-Awareness:

According to some research, self-awareness is the number one determinant of a person’s success. Unfortunately, only 30% of people have enough self-awareness to make the difference that it needs to. However, self-awareness is a learned skill and can be developed. Begin by learning everything you can about yourself. Take tests and assessments to understand your personality type, your learning preferences, how you react to certain situations and the root of why. Learn how you learn, your preferred communication styles, how you react to conflict, and what motivates and inspires you. Understand your limiting or blocking beliefs and those that inspire you. Understand your values, your morals and your preferences. And what you think your blind spots are and hot button topics (and why you react the way you do). Dig deep into your fears and what you think about risk. And understand how you view other people, including your beliefs about people and your biases towards them. And take notes all along the way so you can review and reflect on them and continue to learn.  

With better self-awareness comes the ability to make better decisions. And with better decisions comes better results.

Reflect to Learn:

The quality of our learning is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions we ask ourselves and the rigour we put into answering those questions. If we only ask ourselves superficial questions, we only receive superficial level learning. If we only ask and answer reflection questions in our heads, the learning impact will be as fleeting as the thoughts we hold there as well. To reflect deeply and learn the most we can from our daily lives, our experiences, and ourselves, we must ask deep and meaningful questions of ourselves, and we must respond and answer these questions in writing. Nothing crystallizes our thinking as the act of writing, and once we have a written record, we can review our answers repeatedly and make greater use of that reflection over time. Also, writing engages more senses in the reflection process. Therefore, it helps to solidify the learning into something that we have a greater likelihood of taking forward than merely thinking about our answer mentally.

Additionally, getting into the habit of asking yourself the “why” question several more times after your first answer to the question allows you to dig deeper into the core of the item and usually provides even more insight learnings that you can then apply. Sometimes the reflection is hard to do alone, so having a performance coach, accountability partner, or psychologist may help you dig deeper and reflect even better.

Some quality reflection questions that might get you started are:

1. Did I achieve the goal(s) that I intended to this year? Why or why not? What trade-offs have I made to achieve the results that I did? Am I satisfied that those were the right trade-offs?
2. If I was the purchaser of my own services, would I have been satisfied with that service’s quality and quantity?
3. Am I ethical in my leadership? Would others consider me ethical when considering my leadership? What evidence do I have to support my answer?
4. What is my ethos? What are my values? Am I representing my values in my leadership and my decision making?
5. What are the crucibles/tests/events in my life that have shaped me and who I have become? Why is it that I hold the perspective of myself that I do? What biases do I maintain and why?
6. How would I define myself as a leader? How is it that I want to lead? What is my leadership philosophy? As a leader, what do I believe about others? 
7. What is the duty that I have to myself? To others?
8. Am I worthy of being a leader? Why should others want to be led by me?

Continuous Leadership Learning:

The knowledge, skills and capabilities that one needs to be an effective leader cannot only be those that are “picked up” on the job. Good leaders approach their leadership as an artist or a tradesperson would, as a craft. Even the professional athletes talked about earlier commit to their chosen path with an intensity and dedication that makes them stand apart from the amateurs. The commitment to continually learning, rigorous experimentation and trial, and ongoing reflection for self-improvement differentiates the master and professional from the apprentice and amateur. And leadership is no different. Good leaders commit to continuous learning and self-improvement to embed the lessons of others into their own repertoire. This study makes leaders better and more prepared for the challenging times, the crisis, or even the moment’s conversation. The more skills, knowledge, and capability leaders have accumulated and made their own, the more they have to bear on the decision or activity of the moment. The greater the knowledge, the better the decisions can be and the better the results. Good leaders read others’ works incessantly to add it to their own knowledge base; it is the professional leader’s game film. They attend conferences, seminars, webinars and take courses to become better, stronger and more knowledgeable leaders. And they experiment with what they have learned and trial it in real-life situations and circumstances, and they reflect upon those applications to learn even more. Good leaders exhibit a growth mindset because they believe that those they lead deserve the best possible leadership and not merely the best that they can provide today. 

Leverage Others:

Much has been said about how the quality of the people we surround ourselves with impacts our thinking, character, and development. The fear of picking the wrong people to be your “advisors” shouldn’t stop you from looking for quality advisors and, therefore, only progress on your journey alone. No. Instead, be discerning when looking for accountability partners, advisors, coaches, or people to serve on your personal board of directors. Search out people who hold different beliefs than yourself, have different experiences, and who challenge your thinking to be a better leader and even a better person. Authors, writers, philosophers and thinkers all have a place in helping you learn and grow. Role models and other leaders can help you too. Research the best and most successful people in your field to see what you can learn from them to make yourself better as well. And find people you can talk to that will hold you accountable or be a sounding board when you are faced with difficult decisions or challenging courses of action. As they look from the outside onto your thinking and actions, their feedback will help you to adhere to your values and maybe identify blind spots and biases that you didn’t know you had. Winston Churchill once said, “I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Our advisors, coaches, accountability partners and network sometimes act as teachers, so we need to listen carefully to what they have to say.

Louis Pasteur once said that “Chance favours the prepared mind,” and leadership is no different. Leadership is too important to be left to chance or the fates. The quality of the leadership we exhibit is directly proportional to the preparations we put in behind it. When we approach our leadership as a craft, we discover that, like the professional athlete, we cannot simply show up on game-day and perform. We must put in the time learning from others, adding to our body of knowledge and capability, practicing, and reflecting on increasing our self-awareness and therefore making better decisions when the time comes. Leadership is like an iceberg where what most people see is above the water in the daily interactions with others, in the meetings, and decision making. Most people don’t understand that being a great leader requires a tremendous amount of effort that most people don’t see because it exists beneath the water. What is hidden is the time that a leadership craftsperson spends developing their skills, reading, reflecting, and learning so that they can be the best when the time comes to perform. Instinct can be built, and intuition increased; it is simply the result of the effort and the commitment to learning to be better in your chosen craft.