The Making of an Expert

The following excerpt was found in a monthly newsletter that my son Jonathan sent me from Grubb and Ellis, a California based realestate brokerage:

The Making of an Expert I read a great article in the Harvard Business Review (July-Aug issue, 2007) about what it takes to become an expert. The information for the article came from The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, a 900-page-plus handbook, with contributions from more than 100 leading scientists.   The conclusion of the study, based on decades of rigorous research using verifiable and reproducible scientific methods, prove with overwhelming results that experts are always made, not born. That doesn’t mean that the development of genuine expertise happens overnight. It typically takes 10 years of struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment.  And there are no shortcuts. Research shows that in order to become an expert, one must: practice intensively, study with devoted teachers, and have enthusiastic support throughout their development. What is an expert? Real expertise has three requirements:  First, it must lead to performance that is consistently superior to ones peers.  Second, real expertise produces concrete results.  And third, expertise can be replicated and measured in a lab…  Because, if a skill can’t be measured, it can’t be improved. Practice Deliberately Not all practice makes perfect.  When most people practice, they focus on things that they’re already good at. Sam Snead, the champion golfer, believed, “It’s human nature to practice what you can already do… it’s a hell of a lot less work and a hell of a lot more fun.” But if you want to be an expert in your field, you can’t just practice, you have to practice deliberately. Deliberate practice involves making a considerable, specific, and sustained effort to improve upon the things that you can’t do, instead of simply focusing on the things that you can.  Give a Concentrated Effort Many people believe that the more you practice, the faster you improve.  This statement is only partially true. Though consistent practice is necessary for growth, experts believe that you should only do as much as you can accomplish with continued concentration.     When looking at a wide range of experts, including athletes, novelists, and musicians, very few people can sustain high levels of concentration for more than four or five hours at a time.  Two hours a day, typically in the morning, seems to be the ideal amount of time for working on new ideas. An investment of two concentrated hours a day, would give you over 700 hours a year toward improving your skills. Just think about the advantage that you’d get over your competition with that amount of effort.  Keep Growing Business people who reach a high level of performance often find themselves responding to situations automatically, using their experience as a way to almost go on ‘auto-pilot’.  This type of habitual response can lead to difficulties when facing a rare or atypical situation.  By not seeking constant growth, one can lose their ability to quickly analyze problems. The opposite can be said for those who maintain the discipline of a daily practice regiment. Research states that a 60-year-old musician, with 10 hours a week of deliberate practice, can match the speed and technical skill of a 20 year old when asked to play an unfamiliar piece of music. Find Coaches and Mentors The quality of your growth is based on the quality of your practice, which helps to explain why nearly every expert in the study, showed evidence of having a coach or mentor.  Coaches can help to accelerate the learning process, organizing information in a way that is much more accessible. The best coaches will not only improve upon your current skills, but will also be preparing you for what’s to come. Different coaches are needed at different stages of an expert’s development. And much like a good parent, who encourages their child to leave the nest, a good coach should help their student learn how to rely upon themselves.  Each time that you can generate ideas on your own – recalling from previous lessons, interactions, and experiences – you’re that much closer to becoming an expert yourself.  Debunk the Myth Before practice, coaching, opportunity, and luck, can be merged together to create an expert, each one of us has to debunk the myth that experts are born, not made. This notion can be so deeply ingrained in us, that we risk letting fear keep us from beginning our journey toward improvement.  We all have what it takes to become experts. And each one of us – regardless of natural ability – needs deliberate practice, concentration, and guidance to get us there.   Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a child prodigy and musical genius, needed the tutelage of a skilled composer and famous music teacher (also his father), starting at the very young age of four.

 

 

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