If NOT You Then Who?

Give these questions some though for a moment:

• Would you like people to notice the work you've been doing?


• Would you like people to think of you when they need a person with your skills and knowledge?


• Would you like to gain that promotion or advance your career?

If so then read on...

We have a cultural leaning away form any form of self promotion. That it is wrong to "...put the wind in your own sails". Here in New Zealand we are advised to "...let you efforts speak for themselves". By doing so, apparently you will be recognised by your works and gain promotion and recognition over time!

Here's a question for you... "Is your career important to you?"

My guess is you answered "Yes!" to that question. My reply to you then, is this:

"If it is so important to you. Why do you leave it to chance or other people to determine whether your efforts are recognised or not?"

Have you noticed how it is often easier for you to speak well of others and not yourself? Have you also noticed how famous people have image consultants, event managers and promotional experts working for them? And more importantly have you noticed that these famous people will also promote themselves and their accomplishments to the right people? That's right - they are capable of promoting themselves directly to others. In fact, often that is how they 1st started out. By knocking on doors and telling those who needed to hear how good they are. They did this on their way to becoming a world wide sensation. If you don't believe me then listen to some of the foundational speaches of Barak Obama's pursuit of the US Presidency, as an example of successful self promotion.

It's Not My Style

It's likely that you will initially struggle with this concept. That self promotion is not only important for your career's success, it is critical. I'm not talking about bragging to any and every one. I'm not talking about false declarations and nor am I talking about you pumping up your worth by being conceited while putting others down.

No! - What I am talking about is strategically positioned and well timed self promotional statements that promote your abilities and accomplishments in such away, that people become aware of what it is your doing and achieving.

If you're not going to do this and do this well - then who? Will you diligently work away at your job and leave it to others to "hopefully" recognise your efforts - or NOT?

Begin NOW

The need for you to be able to say positive statements about yourself and your abilities is integral in contributing to your success. (Think back to your last job interview). Self promotion is not about you braging, being a blow arse or a show-off! It's about you knowing who needs to know about you. It's about finding the appropriate way that you will let them know that you exist and are making a difference.

This will require you to learn how to do this and do this well.

Begin by making a list of who you are. Include in your list the personality qualities that you have i.e. motivation, diligence, collaboration, stick-ability etc... and format a short 15 second presentation that you can say confidently to others. In addition to this write one down about your success either at work or at home and in your personal life. Make this presentation as breif as a few seconds and as long as 20 seconds. Practice it and get good at being able to speak well of yourself. This will not only be good for opportunities that lend themselves to self-promotion but also for you to gain increased confidence in being able to speak well of yourself.

Once you've done that you'll need to be aware of opportunites that arise where you can speak well of yourself. It could be as brief as standing with a senior managersof yours in an elevator and letting them know that you are making excellent gains on a project they initiated (even if you haven't met them before) or it could be at a business dinner where you have an opportunity to explain the progress you are making with your team, budget, planning, intervention etc... Less is always better than too much. And to not do this is worst of all.

For now - this will be enough for you to make a start on your self promotion campaign. Practice it often and then look for opportunities to speak positively of yourself to those people that need to know.

Passion Plus Talent

Talent will get you noticed, passion will ensure you maximise your talents.

Have you got lots of talent and no passion?

Well there's a massive human talent pile, stacked higher than high with men and woman, boys and girls since the beginning of time who have no shortage of talent. Each and every talent they had was allowed to fade & fizzle away, because they had no passion to apply themselves and realise the talent they had been endowed with from birth. Give me a person with minimal talent, yet full of fired up passion - any day!

Talent will get you noticed and provide you with pride of place at the start line. It'll be passion though, that ensures you cross the finish line in 1st place. Not talent.

I don't think any of you will argue that passion supersedes talent. Over my many years as a Gym instructor and then a multiple gym owner I have seen many with what is called, natural born talent. Genetically, they have the total package, yet they lack the enduring drive to succeed that only passion can provide.

How's your level of passion for what you do? Take away passion and you'll have a job and not a life long conviction. Take away passion and you will be going through the motions longing for what you don't have. Time slows down, the body aches and you wish you were paid far more than you are to compensate for the day to day drudgery you endure.

When speaking with long term unemployed I would often use the statement - "Find a job you love and you will never spend another day going to work". It's likely you have heard the quote before, yet it describes the basis of a successful and fulfilling career.

Passion changes your perspective for what you do. It fuels the fire within you to endure hardships, unfair setbacks, and is found at the very core of all human resilience. Now, take that initial quote I said before and extend it even further:

"Find a job you are absolutely passionate about. One that you would do even if you were not paid to do it. Get really good at it and people will ultimately pay you handsomely for it"

Is it this that over arches all human success? Is it this that separates the "could-haves" from the "haves"? Is it this that determines the height of our success and the depths of our failings?

Show me a successful businessman, a world champion, a school graduate who passes with honors and you will find a level of personal passion in each one of them. The varying degrees of passion within them will determine their long term level of success, or not.

What are you passionate about? What turns your lights on? What fires you up or gets your wheels spinning? What? Does anything come to mind? If you had financial security and all your usual considerations and commitments have been taken care of. What would you want to do for a career? Think about it. What would you do?

Once you have answered that question. Apply yourself whole heartily to the pursuit and fulfillment of it. Let nothing hold you back. You will set all obstacles aside and nothing will stop you from succeeding. You will toil day in and day out. Others go to work and you are living your dream.

Life will ask of you to commit every fibre of your being to your passion, yet you will do so gladly. For that is what passion does, for those who find their true north in life and live out their passion. Whether it is in a career, sport, hobbie or study. Find your passion and live it. And your life will change before you.

"It's not what catches your eye as you journey through life, it is what touches your heart".

Picture: The logo at the top is of David Tua. He fights this saturday against Shane Cameron
- "Go the Tua-man!"

Do You Know What You Are Doing?

This article was 1 I wrote quite some time ago (It's been updated here). It is specifically for trainers or educators who present to others in a training or classroom style setting. I'll post a number of blogs specifically for trainers. If you're a coach reading this then all you need to do is change the wording from "trainer" to "coach" and you'll find it's very relevant to you also. This is another blog that will nicely link to those I have written on mastery. (Personally I believe that coaches can definitely use some training/presentation skills to grow their coaching business)

Those of you who wish to be masterful as a trainer, then read this and also the other blogs I have written on Mastery which you will find in the archive section.

It Starts With Awareness
You’re about to read my first description of what I consider is the place to start for you to move towards training mastery. I'm calling it (mastery) as your ability to understand and practice this statement “knowing what you do and doing what you know and know what you do does to the learner”. That's my description of training mastery.

If you are doing that then you are indeed moving towards mastery as a trainer. There are some exceptional trainers out in the world – only a few will be able to consciously tell you what they do and know how they do what they do. Therefore the place to start is for you to know that training is about being aware, being purposeful and deliberate, in all that you do.

Consider seriously the following questions:

• Do you know what you do when presenting?


• Are you able to monitor multiple things in succession while training? i.e. audience acceptance; resistance; room temperature; the time remaining; the next topic and supporting music…?
  
  Are you purposeful in all you do or do you do whatever comes to mind? (adlib)
  
• Can you present the topic when you’re slideshow fails or your manuals don’t arrive?
  





• Do you wonder where you are going next in your training?
  
• Are you able to asses what you are saying as you are saying it?
  
• 
  
  Do you get lost at times and ask the group – “now where were we?”
  
  
• Do you find your own trainings boring and blame the content?
  
  Do you know how to start the training?


• Do you know how you will finish the training?


• Do you go "blank" when asked a question fromthe audience?


• Do you get flustered when things aren't going the way you expected them to go?


• Do you believe that mastery is all about “winging it!” and being able to ad-lib?
  
  Do you know the reaction that the listener is having, to what you are saying?
• Do you wonder at times how things turned out so well?


• Do you wonder what went wrong and how did it get that way?


• Do you know how you will break them into groups and call them back?
  
  Do you know how to deal with resistance in the group?
• Do you know what your hands are doing as you talk?
  
• Are you aware of whether you sway from side to side or scratch your crotch as you click through your power point slides?
  
  So your first task, to enable you to be masterful as a trainer, is for you to become increasingly aware of what you do. No, not as you’re doing it, but prior to you doing it! Thinking and doing at the same time is not the best approach when training. And certainly is not a hall-mark of a master trainer. First think and then do. (that's a good start for now)

Plan out what you will do in your presentation. Mentally rehearse how you will present your material and how you will address some or all of the bulleted points I’ve listed above. Add your own points of need for you to have greater awareness and therefore continous improvement in how you deliver your content.

Become aware, before your delivery, of what you will be doing and how you will be doing it and (Wake up and pay attention now!) … what affect you have and how that is effecting the learner's ability to learn.

Many trainers (read this description carefully) know what they do and do what they know - yet do not know what they do, does to the learner!!! Read my description of mastery again and again. Make plans for you to become more aware of what you do and the impact that your behaviour has on those you are presenting to. This is a must have component to be masterful as a trainer or in any other context. Practice being mindful of what you are doing.

Summary:
My final description (in case you didn't get it this late in the article) of training mastery is:

”Knowing what you do and doing what you know, while knowing what you do, is doing to the learner”.

Did you get that? That means training is about applying to self 1st. It’s about consciously being aware. It’s about being purposeful and it’s about knowing knowing cause & effect in the training room. A masterful trainer would never be happy with just the delivery of the content alone (many are though!). No, they want to know that what they did, got through to the learner (for some this is bloody revolutionary, to think they should actually take an interest whether the learner got it!!!).

Apply this principle to what you’re currently doing in your training rooms or presentations and make the appropriate adjustments if necessary. By doing so,the positive results you gain in your trainings will increase.

All of the exceptional trainers I have met, have a burning desire to make a difference with those they present to. They fulfil this by being aware of what they are doing and use exceptional techniques when the present, which I will share with you in this series on Mastery. (check out the blog archive section for more on Mastery)

Initial 1st Steps
So... this is where I want you to begin – to become increasingly more aware and therefore mindful of what you do as a trainer. (Or coach, teacher, adult educator, presenter)

Pictures: Are of actual trainings I and Lena have delivered in order of appearance are:

Auckland - 14 day Neuro Semantic Trainers Training

Sweden - 3 day Self-leadership

Civil Aviation Trainers in the South Island of NZ - http://www.ignition.org.nz/

Give Your All & Nothing Less!

This blog is a follow on from the one I wrote earlier titled "The Need for Obsession". I hope you continue to be challenged by what is in my opinion, the effort that is required of you if you want to be exceptional and master what you have chosen to do with your life.




Still Doubting?

Is there any doubt that it is possible to achieve maximum results without giving maximum effort?

Is it possible to achieve all time greatness and do it by applying yourself in a mere average casual manner?

Surely it is true that a champion performance will require a champion build up and a long list of champion sacrifices. Show me where it says that success comes easily. Show me someone who has attained their all time best performances on a global scale, and committed only partially to their own success. Where does hard work, dedication, sacrifice and long hours of applying oneself to the fulfillment of a life long dream NOT ask of you - your all? Asks of you your every fibre of being, every drop of blood stained sweat and demand fully of you, your precious time and your money.

For those who seek out the dizzying heights of Olympian success in business, sport or adventure. They know that they can not withhold a mere minute from being cast onto the fires that rage within them, to succeed at the elite level. It was Vince Lombardi that said, "...those who think winning isn't important, have never won anything." And what I say is "...those who think that you can lead a well balanced life and achieve maximum results. Results that define you as a person who is in the elite category of your chosen pursuit. And at the same time, be able to lead a well balanced life. Are clearly unaware, of what it takes to achieve maximum results at the highest level".

They Don't Wanna Know

The average Joe on the street doesn't want to know that the gold medalist has lost his home, health, wife and children to represent his country. They don't want to know that the property investor has spent tireless hours studying, negotiating and searching for the best investment deals and has had to bounce back from many losses before she made tose millions as a real estate broker.

The average Joe wont accept the true cost of success. The deep need to be obsessive and excessive to achieve the exceptional results we hear about in the media. It's far too easy for them to attribute this level of success to God-given talent, excellent parenting and genetics or a stroke of good luck. Rather than consider these people have worked tirelessly and have understanding and supportive loved ones who were there, every step of the way, long before success ever came knocking at their door.

The majority of the public only want to know the success stories and believe it was an over night success sensation. Without any mention of the long tireless hours of practice, the sore muscles and early mornings followed by late nights with many setbacks they've experienced. They want to believe that it is possible to lead a balanced life and achieve at the highest level. This is as far from the truth, as the lie that the moon is made of cheese and geese lay golden eggs!





A Universal Law
The universe has a law known as cause and effect. A broader description goes something like this and can not be avoided - your success in life will always "equal" the exact level of effort and time you commit to practicing and developing your talent. Read and re-read it till you get it, and get it good. There are no short cuts, there are no overnight successes and there is no free lunch!

I'm not talking about those who rise to the level of being above average, nor am I talking about those who have success on a local or regional scale. I am talking about those few who have left their mark on the profession they specialise in as an outlier for all to see, a benchmark of achievement that few, if any, will ever attain again.

The annuls of history hosts many of these excessive and obsessive elite men and woman spread across a broad spectrum of professions:

Ronald Trump, Barack Obama, Mother Theresa, Micheal Jordan, Michael Jackson, Howard Hughes, Tiger Woods Cassius Clay, Venus & Sarena Williams, Bob Charles, Michael Campbell, The Beatles, Bill Gates, Mozart, Beethoven, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, Lance Armstrong, Valerie Villi, Dame Susan Devoy, Michael Phelps, Buck Shelford, Colin Meads, Whitney Houston, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Howard Morrision, Roz Savage, John Key, Helen Clark...

Does your name deserve to be their?

Many, many names are missing. One thing they all have in common is they each have applied themselves totally to their chosen path and achieved an equal measure of success relative to the effort and time they contributed. This will never change.

Show Me The Easy Way
There is no short cut. Give a little receive a little. Give a lot receive a lot. It's as simple as that. Whether it is to achieve in education, health & fitness, martial arts, business and sales, coaching, training, presnting, politics, investments, marriage etc... the universal law of maximum effort births maximum results can not be ignored or avoided.

Try to cut corners and lead a balanced life where your time and effort is equally spread over the week and you will find that you'll achieve a well balanced level of success (which may be what you want) BUT never will you be a person who leads the field on a global basis.

If only it was as easy as leading a balanced life. If only we could run an accounting formula that gave equal portions of: time, effort, focus, commitment, discipline to each of lifes necessities and be assured of elite level success. If it was that easy we would all be standing on our own mountains. Instead we are left in amazement at the champion who stands atop of the highest summit of the mountain known as success. We applaude those few who have conquered it and we comfort ourselves by thinking that, that level of success is absolutely possible by maintaining an effective work-life balance and by avoiding any excess or obsession!

The exact same type of thinking leads people to believe that rabbits pop out of hats and alien abductions are a regular occurence.

Important Footnote:

My definition of work-life balance:

Where an equal spread of both time and effort is evenly distibuted amongst the daily demands that the typical home has i.e. work, family, freinds, children, work, rest, play, sleep, houshold chores, bathing, paying the bills, education and birthday parties etc...

It's not about the quality of time you spend with activities or people outside of your passion (although this is important), it is about the equal distribution of time and effort over a 24 hour period, 7 days a wee,k 52 weeks a year. (Quality time away from your passion is important though, when you can squeeze it in that is!)

That's what work-life balance is meant to be - and it isn't found anywhere in the lives of elite success magnets!

A Good Dose of Hatred Will Fix It!

There's no shortage of it, is there? Hatred that is.

In our modern times there are so few, who really hate. There are a lot of pretenders out there who hate a little for a short period of time but it's rare for me to find someone, or a group of people, who can really hate, with any real intensity. When you do come across a person who is at least half descent at hating, it's amazing what they can do and how quickly and how long they can maintain their drive, direction and determination. Awesome to watch!

We have acts of hatred beamed into our living room and onto our plasma TV's, at family prime time viewing. We have acts of hatred, bold typed on the front page our daily national newspaper, for all to read. We have acts of hatred posted on website after website, for all to log onto if they so desire.

There are infamous and unforgettable acts of hatred throughout our history. Acts that have left their own carbon imprint for all future generations to see and hear, of the atrocities and unmentionable acts, fuelled by people driven by hatred. There is no shortage of hate crimes and increadible in-humane acts of violence, torture thrust onto innocent people from continent to continent.

I'd like you now, to consider a different view and the use of hate. One that I have found to be a very powerful use of it in both coaching & training, of this all too often, mis-represented emotion.

A Young Lesson

I remember my grandmother saying to me as a young man, not to say I hated someone and reminded me that hate is a "strong" word. It's rare for a word to be classified as being "strong". In fact I've never heard of a word spoken of in such away, yet I've heard parents say the same thing that was said to me, to their children "... don't say hate. Hate is a strong word and you don't mean - hate. You mean you dislike it".

For those of us who understand the technique used in that sentence it's called reframing. Taking the raw meaning of hate and changing it, by reframing it to mean something else. In this case de-escalating the meaning to "disliking".

• What if hate was able to empower us to deliver consistent acts of kindness?


• What if deep hatred, rightly placed, was used to change the world positively?


• Is there another side to hatred, that we are overlooking?

I was approached by a national rugby team and asked if I could help them turn their losing streak around. After asking a number of questions of what was happening, I soon found out that there was no difference in the atmosphere in the changing rooms between when they lost a game or when they won! The short version of what I recommended was that the team would win more when they - hated losing and hated it so much ,that winning was the only option for them? The coaching and management staff made the necessary changes we discussed, to ensure the team learnt to hate losing and they broke the losing streak they were having.

One sure thing that I know personally and is often found in a sporting context, is that winners "hate" to lose. And it motivates them powerfully. Have you ever thought of how important hate is, to drive you positively? I know that personally my hatred of losing in my former professional sporting career and in my business life, powerfully drives me to succeed.

How about you?

Put Hate In Its Rightful Place

When you really hate consistently coming 2nd, you'll begin to take 1st place more often.

When you realise that losing sucks and it hurts you deeply when you lose - you will do what it takes to win and win more often? But only if you hate losing enough.

• When you hate the poverty in your town - what will that drive you to do about it?


• When you hate injustice what will you then do about it?
• When you hate failing will you then succeed more often?


• When you hate prejudice enough, what will that do for you?


• When you hate the extra weight you have been carrying around your belly, will you then make the necessary changes to your diet and activity levels?


• When you hate having no money and constantly broke before your next pay day, what could that do for you?


• When you hate the place you work enough, what will you do about handing your notice in and finishing that horrid job?

Do you understand the real strength in the word hate and the powerful emotional labels that accompany it. When you do realise its powerful uses you will begin to tap into a very useful resource for those of you who coach, mentor, train or lead others? (and yourself).

The use of hate and all the meanings and emotions that accompany it, when focused positively, can make a powerful difference in your life. Sadly, many have to dive into the very depths of hatred, about what it is that they believe to be unfair and injustice, before they will take action and do something about it. For some I meet, they wont change until they actually hate the situation they are in, and then, finally, they'll take action and make the change needed.

In my opinion and from personal experience, hate has an important part to play in motivation, direction, intention, purpose and success, for those we coach and train.

A strong word hate? YES - it is in deed, a very strong word. A word that has had too much of a bad rap and needs to be seen for the power it has in making a positive difference in generating change. For some, hate is the much needed catalyst they have been looking for to make and sustain the long term change the need.

Use it wisely, use it sparingly, but use it all the same and give yourself permission to use it when you must. And hate will deliver the results you've been wanting.

Important Footnote:

For those of you with an NLP or Neuro Semantic background, you will realise the importance and potential hate has in driving change byway of meta-programs. If your also familiar with the NS model of Meta-States you'll know that to use hate, it must be textured appropriately to create a gestalt that is positively loaded with the right meanings for the desired outcome.

There will also be coaches and trainers who are so "wired" (you'll know who you are) for generating change through "...love, hope and inspiration etc..." that they will literally be robbing their clients of the potential hate has in facilitating sustainable change for some of their clients.

Mistake Maker

Take some time to think about this situation.

You're a bank processor and are loading a clients overdraft request that has been cleared by your Manager. The overdraft request is for an extension of $100,000.00's, which you are now to load into the system and make available to the client.

It's been one of those days and in your haste you load the overdraft incorrectly. Without realising it, you innocently load the client with access to an overdraft of $10,000,000.00's that's right - 10 million dollar's. Well, the electronic flag's at your work are raised immediately (thank goodness), due to the large amount loaded and management are now aware that an error has occurred. For whatever reason, they did not address the problem immediately.

In the mean time, the client, realising his additional overdraft windfall, electronically withdraws 3.8 million dollars and he and his partner quickly leave the country (they do a runner! - bye NZ!).

How would you feel if that really was you that did the processing error?

How would you want to be treated by your employer?

The story continues...

This actually happened a few weeks ago here in Rotorua, New Zealand. This week the lady who made the error, is being brought before a committee and is likely to lose her job as a result of her oversight. The papers report that she is "no-spring chicken" and has 30 years experience in the banking industry. It looks as though she will be sacked from her job due to her mistake and be unable to pay the mortgage on her house. Oh, and her Manager only got a warning and remains employed with the bank. This is a true story!

Your Reaction

Consider these questions:

• How do you react when someone you're managing makes a mistake, causes an error or does something wrong or out of character?


• How do you speak to them?


• How do you treat them?


• How do you approach them?


• Do you seek to understand them and show compassion towards them?


• Do you forgive and pardon them?


• Do you evaluate all the circumstances and the different perspectives unemotionally?


• Do you seek for a positive outcome for all those involved?


• Do you negatively escalate the situation emotionally, beyond what it should be?


• Do you at every opportunity throw their mistake back at them to remain dominate over them?
• Do you take advantage of the situation to exert your dominance over them and belittle them?


• Do you make the most of the opportunity to gently bring them to an awareness of the cost of the situation and seek to support them through the learning they can gain, from having made this error in judgement?

Quite a few YES or NO questions aren't there!

How do you typically react when your son's or daughters make a mistake. How do you treat your friends, workmates or an unknown driver in the car in front of you on the motorway, when they screw up?

Personally, I've made some humongous mistakes in my life. I'm very likely going to make many more.

Have you? have you made a mistake or 2? And if so, how did you like to be treated when that happened to you? How would you prefer to have been approached? How would you like the ensuing conversation to be carried out?

The Situation

There are 2 sides that need to be considered for a truly successful outcome to occur when mistakes are made. There's the response from the person who made the mistake and there is the response from the person who is directly affected by the mistake. I'm focusing here, on your response to someone making a mistake that affects you. In a later article I will focus on how to respond when you are the person making the mistake.

In this instance (best case scenario) the person who has made the mistake is taking full responsibility for the mistake they have made (no excuses). They accept liability and are accountable for it. They also are hurt that they did it and saddened by their lack of accuracy, skill or attention which has caused the error to occur. They may even have bought the error to your attention and could have successfully blamed others for it or hidden it and you wouldn't have known about it at all. This is the type of person who has made the mistake (for the sake of this article).

NOW... how would you treat them, how would you deal with the situation?

Depending on how you do deal with this will determine a number of things:

• Whether they will come to you in future when they make other mistakes.


• Whether they fear you and the consequences that they'll receive again if they make a mistake.


• Whether they will try to lie their way out of a similar situation in the future.


• Whether they will learn that taking responsibility for your mistakes is the right thing to do.


• Whether they grow from the experience and learn to never make it again.


• Whether they learn to be compassionate and forgiving to others who make mistakes that impact their lives.


• Whether they begin to lose their confidence and make more mistakes.

Pretty powerful stuff, aye! (all dependent on how you respond).

And all this is highly dependant on how you will respond to them when the make an error, an oversight, poor lack of judgement or in the bank processors example, a misplaced decimal point!!!

Make a list of how you would like to be treated when you make a mistake.


See if your list aligns with some of the key points that I've listed below, that will ensure a positive outcome is reached when you're faced with having to deal with a person who has made a mistake which they are taking responsibility for.

• Step away from the emotion of the situation. (cool off if you have too)


• Suspend your judgement and opinions (start with a blank slate)


• Seek to understand how this came to happen. (ask questions for clarity)


• Listen to them without interrupting them.


• Support them emotionally.


• Show them compassion & empathy for how they feel for what they have done (doesn't mean you agree with what they have done).


• Seek to find a positive solution for all parties involved (solution based focus)


• Ask what they have learnt and what they will do to ensure this does not happen again.


• Be forgiving and seek to understand the situation from their perspective


• Speak to them in a gentle tone of voice and manner. (no yelling and throwing your arms around)


• Create a safe environment for them to speak honestly and openly to you about what happened.


• Make the time and place appropriate to discuss what happened.


• Thank them for being responsible and accountable for their part in the mistake.

Well there you go! You now have a few more ideas on how to address this situation when it happens to you (it will if it hasn't already), whether you are a mum, son, or senior manager.

(oh, and a plug at schools - you also need to get better at doing this too! Read an upcoming article titled "What are you teaching them?")


I hope that you'll be more aware of the role that you play, when faced with having to deal with someone who has made a mistake in your life and the mistake, accident or error impacts you. It's a defining moment for you both. If dealt with correctly, it can become an opportunity to grow you both.




Oh, as for the bank processor story told at the beginning:



"What a pathetic way to deal with an honest and innocent mistake made by one of your employee's.

Shame on you WESTPAC BANK!"

For more background on this banking blunder, click on:

http://www.3news.co.nz/National/Story/tabid/423/articleID/105533/cat/640/Default.aspx

Consistantly Constant

This is another article to add to the series on I've been writing on mastery. The last posting I wrote was on how practice alone, is not enough. This article follows on from that one.

A brief reminder for you. Although I use the term "mastery" , it can easily be replaced with the words success, goal getting, achievement, champion, leadership or management etc....

Read the article from your perspective and use the word that best suits your interpretation of the word "mastery"



Add to Your Practice

So you're working your way towards being exceptional at what you do. Whether it's a new sporting activity, fitness regime or business venture, it doesn't really matter. You, wanting to achieve and practicing alone, isn't enough. A key factor in your long term success, is you're ability to be consistent over time.

Consistency is a critical component if you're wanting to master a specific endeavor. To put it plainly - you must apply yourself regularly to your pursuit and do it without deviation over a long period of time. In doing so you will have a key element in mastering it.

What I have seen from watching many people, is they start out with a hiss and a roar! Throwing themselves and all they have at it, to be good at what they are passionate about (at least at the start) and over time, they fizzle out completely. They have lots of energy in the early stages. (I call this the honeymoon stage of learning). Blinded by their initial enthusiasm, not realising the need for them to apply themselves in such a way, that they can see it through over the long term. The early signs of fizzling out that I've seen over the years, are a loss of drive to regularly attend to class, training or the standards they set for themselves.

As a former Fitness Centre owner this was a regular observation of mine. People start out training with all the best intentions in the world to achieve their goals of weight loss or weight gain etc... The common theme for many of these fitness enthusiasts is they begin to fade from their original attendance of 3-4 visits a week, to an infrequent level of 1-2 times every 2 weeks or so. Slowly but surely, they regress to not attending at all.

Consistency Applied

Consistency is a quality necessary to master parenting, leadership, business or long term transformational change etc... Parents who are inconsistent with what they say and do in the raising of their children will teach their children that stick ability is not important and consistency is an unimportant quality for personal long term success in their education or maximising their chances of future employment.

Leaders who are not consistent with what they say and do will be teaching those they lead that they do not mean what they say and that they will change their standards whenever it suits them and deviate from what they say they stand for, when and if, their mood so chooses.

A business allowed to operate without consistency of practice, will lose customers and their place in a competitive global market, because they can not be relied on, to honor their company service statement, vision or mission.

Those of you who seek a positive change in your life will not experience it until you embrace the change you want - constantly. Think of those who wish to change a habit like smoking, drinking or eating less, to name but a few. Your success in achieving a transformational change will be the direct result of your consistent embrace of the change you wish to make, over a long period of time. After all, the best indicator that change has occurred, is not found in your words but in your actions.

Masters and champions have mastered the ability to apply themselves to their pursuit diligently. They are not easily swayed nor are they willing to excuse themselves from attending to their study, training, practice etc... because they know the importance of being consistent.

When the Going Gets Tough

Are there times when they may wish to take a day off, go back to being the way they once were, to not attend class at school or turn up at their weekly training? Yes, they do experience this.

How do they respond though?

By remembering what it is they are in pursuit of. They recall their highest intention. They renew their commitment. They regain their focus. And apply themselves to the long term journey of mastery.

One specific group of people who know the importance of consistancy are athletes. They know that to be a champion in their chosen sport they must constantly turn up for training and practice and consistantly out perform their competitors. Being inconsistant is not an option to an athloete who wishes to dominate thir sport.

Are you willing to recognise it yet, if not already? The need for you to be consistent and it's vital place in mastery? Are you willing to commit yourself to the persistent commitment of applying yourself to mastering what it is that you are wanting to achieve. Whether it is your need to save money for a home mortgage, lose weight to be a slimmer and trimmer you or grow a successful business. You must be consistent.

Consider this message seriously. Be consistent and enjoy the natural outflow that constancy brings to your success. The choice as always is yours. Decide the level you are willing to be consistent and that will set the ceiling, to the degree of mastery you achieve.

Practice is NOT Enough

Congratulations!

You'd started to learn the guitar early and you'd been casually playing for 2 years. At 10 years of age you showed some natural ability in playing the instrument. Mum and Dad enrolled you to receive professional, one on one lessons, twice a week totalling 3 hours of tuition per week. You were an enthusiastic and committed student and you religiously attended your lessons without missing a single session and you made very good progress. You also did your own private practice at home, in your room. And you practiced playing your guitar an additional 5 hours per week.

At 15 years of age you were enrolled in a prestigious guitar school where you received 4 hours of specialist lessons per day (as well as other academic studies) for the next 3 years till you were 18 years old, where a selection was made to determine the elite guitarist's at your school, who would receive a full scholarship for continued higher guitar instruction and a guaranteed professional guitar career is a near certainty.

Let's have a look at some of your figures:

• You've been playing seriously since the age of 10 and had committed 8 years in total to playing your guitar so far.


• Over that 8 year period, you had spent a total of 2,080 hours of additional private self- directed practice, aside from your formal classes and lessons. Congratulations!

Did you make the selection to secure that much admired scholarship? - No, you did not!

Why?

The difference between you and those guitarists who reached the elitest level and selection for the scholarship you sought, was not in the years you spent practicing, nor was it in your consistent attendance to your regular, frequent lessons. As all your other class mates did just the same as you in that respect. The difference that made the difference was in the total hours you spent in your own self-directed practice versus the hours they committed to practicing, outside of the usual required lessons.

The specific difference is they spent as much as 100% more time practicing the guitar than you did! That's right, they accumulated more than 4,000 hours than you. Even if you wanted to catch up to those elite students you couldn't. They are now too far ahead of you, based on the time they have accummulated. It's just too hard for you to close the gap on them now.

This is a consistent indicator that separates the elite student and the above average student. Both are gifted and show a natural affinity to playing the guitar (or any other pursuit i.e. sport or business etc). Both are passionate about what they are learning. Both commit to their scheduled lessons. They do not however, do the same amount of additional practice, over and above what is required of them.

Do More - Get More!

So there it is - if you want to be great at anything - you must do more than attend the required classes or lessons expected of you. Also, you must commit additional time and effort to practice, over and above your scheduled practice sessions with your teachers, instructors or coaches etc... The amount of additional self-directed practice you are able to commit to, is entirely up to you.

Be very aware, that it is this component, that will ultimately determine your level of success. Even if you show you have natural talent. Natural talent will get you recognised but will not ensure your long term success. Your natural god-given talent, will amount to nothing, when compared with an equally talented student (in fact, a student with less natural talent than you, will achieve more) who is willing to put in the "extra" hours of practice. It appears the more time you spend in self-directed practice the better.

This may, depending on the activity, require you to spend time researching, physically training, watching recordings, reading, evaluating your technique and developing mental toughness training or receiving feedback etc...

Effort & Time Required

It's totally up to you. As I mentioned in a previous blog. Mediocre effort will never result in maximum results. Going to your scheduled weekly practices will never be enough for you to realise your potential. The difference that makes the difference is the "extra" self-directed practice you do.

How much you do - is up to you! It will ultimately determine the level of expertise you attain.

Feedback the Food of Champions

This is my 2nd article in the mastery series. Remember that I am speaking of mastery in anything: Leadership, managent, business, parenting, coaching, training, sports, sales, communication etc... The principles of mastery apply across all contexts and professions.

So... You've been practicing regularly. You've been applying what you've learnt from your last training session in leadership, management, staff training etc... You've committed yourself to researching the field. So how do you know if you are practicing, applying or demonstrating what you have learnt, correctly?

You could always just believe that what you're doing is what you were taught, or alternatively, you could get some feedback on your technique and progress. Master know that practice is not enough, nor is practicing perfectly. You need to create a feedback information loop, to gain a different perspective on what you are doing and whether it is in fact, the right thing - that you're doing.

If mastery is the objective. Then feedback is a must!


Be Careful

Choose your teacher, coach or mentor carefully. It would help that they have your best interests at heart. If it's a high level skill you are wanting to perfect, my preference would be a trainer or coach who is skilled in the technique you are wanting to perfect. They do not have to have been a world champion, nor do they have to have achieved a high level of success in the sport or domain you are wishing to master. They do need to be very good at assessing your performance and giving you clear and precise feedback.

In my opinion they must have a very good knowledge base of the field of expertise you are wishing to master. This is an example of where the Coach needs to be an expert. (I wont address that principle in this article)

Our national All Blacks coach Graham Henry (rugby), was never an international star in the sport himself, yet he has an exceptional grasp of the sport and the ability to teach the necessary skills to elite players, byway of giving effective feedback to them. This is a common theme amongst great sports coaches. They are great communicators, have an indepth knowledge of the sport and know how to "read" the players they coach. They can identify with ease the small intricasies that make the difference to a players long term performance gains.

To gain mastery you must, as I said before, seek out feedback. Make sure it is from a credible source. That they are knowledgable of the principles that govern the field. (many coaches and athletes I came across in my sporting career, and offered feedback, knew myth and legend techniques, rather than sports science & psychology)

Ask Yourself

• How willing are you to recieve feedback?
• How coachable are you?
• Are you a know-it-all?
• Have your achievements distanced you from receiveing feedback?
• Do you believe you have more to learn?
• Do you believe that mastery is to be pursued and not a destination?
• How quickly do you take on the feedback and make the necessary changes?
• Do you argue with the person giving you feedback?
• Do you say "...yea BUT..." ?
• Do you brush feedback off given to you, and mumble "...what would they know..." ?
• How quickly are you willing to learn and unlearn?

The answers you give will either enhance or detract from your ability to both recieve feedback and achieve mastery.

Difficult Times
One of the most difficult things I have found that determines the receptivity to feedback I've given to others in the past, is the level of success they have already had. Their success becomes a convincer for them that what they have been doing works for them! When in fact, they need to put away some of what they do, even though it has gained them a degree of success to date. And take on the feedback being given to them, which will initially result in a momentary loss in their progress, yet take them to a higher performance level over the long run.

Tiger Woods, changing his technqiue is a good example of how he was willing to make changes to his golf swing and embrace the learning cycle performance dip, to gain an increase in performance long term.

Willingness
Your willingness to embrace feedback will be the limiter or determiner of whether you ever achieve mastery. Masters know that they require, hunger, thirst and constantly pursue - feedback. They even have the advanced skill of being able to filter out, from intentionally bad feedback/comments thrown at them, and take from that, anything that will assist them to improve their performance (advanced skill).

Most people will struggle with feedback given from people that actually care for them. Let alone being able to learn from those that are jealous of their success, or even hate their guts!


Find Someone

• Who are you willing to provide you with feedback?
• Are you able to get feedback from someone who has your best interests at heart?
• Who do you know that could help you with mastering the skills and attitude you need to be great at what you do?

Do something about having someone provide you with feedback. Be open and receptive to receiving feedback, or they'll never give it to you again. When you ask make sure your cup is empty. A cup is only useful if it is empty!!!
(No, I'm not going to explain the metaphor for you - work it out!).

Over the years I have been asked by many to give them feedback. Few really, truely want it. What I've found is, they want praise that will bolster their egos, confirmation of what they are doing already as being right or an opportunity to say what they know.

As Easy As 1,2,3
It's in my mind, as simple as this:

1. Seek out feedback
2. Apply it to yourself as quickly as possible
3. Practice what you have learnt
4. Review your progress
5. Ask for more feedback, and begin again at step 1 (Mastery learning cycle)

Here's to your continued progress to mastery.

Oh, and I also, am happy to recieve your feedback so leave a comment. Thanks for reading.


Pictures are of: Lance Armstrong, Graham Henry, Tiger Woods.

Commitment To Research

Let me make an assumption about you. That you want to be exceptional at what you do. That you want to master the field you currently work in, or are learning. That's the assumption I'm making about you, and from this basis I want to speak to you about an important piece that needs to be present for you to master anything. Be it training, coaching leadership, management or sports.

I will add additional blogs on the subject of mastery, at later dates. This is the 1st of what will be a series of blogs on mastery.

When you learn a new domain, lets say coaching (could be anything tho'). You'd likely attend a training course on the subject and received a training manual and made some notes. You would have likely been introduced to the information you need to know and perhaps (hopefully) you had opportunities to practice what you were learning and received feedback on your progress while on the training. Excellent!

Once the training is over you need to gain competency and confidence in the skills you've learnt and journey towards mastery of the domain (my assumption about you).

While practice is an integral part of your ability to gain mastery, I'm not going to speak about practice, but to a component that must be present on the road to mastery. That component is -domain knowledge.

The pursuit of extensive knowledge of the field you wish to master is a critical component for you to achieve mastery of it. This is a consistent factor in all who achieve a level of mastery in anything.

Mastery Is...

A brief description of what I mean by mastery is:

• They have the ability to gain conscious competence of their non-conscious processes, when performing. That is, they know what they are doing when they are doing, what they do! (Think about that one).


• They extend and give back to the domain in which they have mastered. They do this by having new insights, being creative and innovative with old processes and techniques. Continuously improving and updating both themselves and the domain.

Now that I've given a brief on what I mean by mastery. Let's follow this idea of domain knowledge.

Domain Knowledge

It requires you to find out all that you can about the area you wish to be masterful in. If it is leadership, this will require you to research the leaders of your specific leadership domain. Also it will require you to investigate associated fields that have contributed to it. This research is too often left up to "...doing it, as I grow in the role..."

This is not the approach of those who wish to be exceptional. They recognise the need for increased knowledge and pro-actively pursue this need. They will actively take charge of this, and commit to researching the field themselves, and not allow it to be on an, as needed basis.

These people are not happy with just attending the scheduled training days, receiving the training manual and the MP3 recordings of the training. They will seek out preferred and suggested readings, extensively search the Internet for the topic, ask of those who have gained success already, and do much more. All in an attempt to gain increased knowledge of the field.

This increased knowledge base will come to the forefront of their mind at a later date, and when needed. It will enable them to make critical decisions, evaluate the field effectively and determine future trends. It will guide them to make new understandings, and challenge long held assumptions by the domain. And ultimately, heavily contribute to their mastery of the field they have long laboured in.

I know of no-one who has achieved mastery and NOT been committed to gaining knowledge of their chosen domain byway of a commitment to research. In one of my modelling projects, I studied Bruce Lee, the martial arts phenomenon of the 1970's who integrated the eastern and western fighting arts to create his own fighting style, called Jeet Kune Do. In an interview of Dan Inasanto, a diligent student and friend of Bruce's. Inasanto speaks of Bruce's commitment to research all of the fighting arts, philosophy and psychology fields he believed would assist in developing an effective fighting system. He said that Bruce would say, "...a student who wishes to embrace JKD, must embrace research."

Do enough background research and you will find this "commitment to research" is a constant in reaching mastery. My collegue and friend Dr. Michael Hall, co-founder of Neuro Semantics and the Meta-Coach Foundation, is in my opinion, an avid researcher, modeller, committed to increasing his knowldege of related domains. All this as apart of his constant pursuit of extending NS and the MCF.

Change of Focus

Now lets talk about YOU.

Practice is a must as are other components to master any skill. That hasn't been our focus here. The question I have for you is:

"How much time have you given to research to grow your knowledge of the field you wish to be great at?"

When I was a professional strength athlete I would read all I could about the science of strength and power. As a result of doing this I soon realised that much of what was being said in the gym was nothing more than urban legend and myth! With very little or no fact to support accepted training methods, some, used by the current champions.

That's what domain knowledge can do for you. You will quickly grow in your skill level, assuming you apply what you know!

How committed are you to gaining knowledge? Have you brought a book recently, loaned one from the library? Have you searched the internet? Joined a study group or practice group? Linked up with a national body or organisation of your interest? Asked to interview a leader in the field? Have you brought DVD's, MP3's, MP4's of those who are acknowledged leaders? Do you regularly visit their blogs or websites for updates?

Enough... !

You've got the idea, haven't you?

If you want to master the field you are learning or your chosen career. Are you willing to commit to research and growing your doamin knowledge?

If so - then you have "1" spoke of a multi-spoked wheel called mastery. I wish you well in your development in growing your knowledge base. Do it with joy and curiosity and my own favourite mindset - ravouness pursuit!

I will speak to you again on this subject - Mastery (a favourite of mine).

Best wishes, and I hope you'll continue to return to this blog as an adjunct to your pursuit of domain knowledge.

P.S If you didn't know who the pictures of the Masters I've posted in this blog.

We have at the top Josh Waitzkin (International Grandmaster in Chess and 2 x Tai Chi Chuan Push hands World Champion) we then have John Dobson - Inventor of the Dobsonian telescope and acclaimed astronomer. Then Bruce Lee of movie and Martial arts fame and Dr. M Hall co-founder of Neuro Semantics and the Meta Coach Foundation and prolific writer.