From “Science Has Finally Figured Out How Elite Athletes Best Each Other. Pay Attention.”…
…this is the principle that really great elite athletic organizations need to be built on. You may have better athletes or worse athletes – better employees or worse employees – and that will change over time. But you can still find ways to improve by ensuring that you’re always learning as quickly as you can. “It’s all about the pace at which you can move. You’ve got to be willing to take risks and try things out in high performance,” says Drawer. “Because even if it doesn’t work, you can learn from it. It’s the willingness to engage in that process that’s most crucial.”
An individualized approach to improvement and learning is absolutely critical to success and advancement in the organizational context. This cannot be achieved through dogmatic attention to practice or domain knowledge. The approach to achievement in an executive role, requiring thoughtful differentiation in many aspects, is to learn quickly and from a diverse source. There is a lot to learn from elite athletics, in particular, the importance of margin slicing and incremental achievement over a long period. Cross-disciplinary study is a skill that yields outsized benefits.
From “The Junior Executive”…
We should consistently be asked why we are reading, studying, and interested in subjects not related to our particular field. This is a secret of differentiation that truly separates those who are able to make the transition to executive leadership.