In his book The Little Book Of Talent: 52 Tips For Improving Your Skills, Daniel Coyle discusses ‘hard, high-precision skills’ versus ‘soft, high-flexibility skills.’
According to Coyle, hard, high-precision skills “have one path to an ideal result; skills that you could imagine being performed by a reliable robot.” Soft, high-flexibility skills “have many paths to a good result, not just one.”
Using Coyle’s definition, leadership is definitely a soft, high-flexibility skill. “These skills aren’t about doing the same thing perfectly every time, but rather about being agile and interactive; about instantly recognizing patterns as they unfold and making smart, timely choices.” Unquestionably, leadership is about being agile and interactive, and about recognizing patterns and making smart, timely choices.
Coyle makes two excellent observations, both of which are crucial to improving your leadership and performance:
- “Soft skills [such as leadership skills] are built by playing and exploring inside challenging, ever-changing environments. These are places where you encounter different obstacles and respond to them over and over, building the network of sensitive [brain] wiring you need to read, recognize, and react.”
- “When you practice a soft skill [such as leadership skills], focus on making a high number of varied reps, and on getting clear feedback. Don’t worry too much about making errors—the important thing is to explore. Soft skills are often more fun to practice, but they’re also tougher because they demand that you coach yourself. After each session ask yourself, ‘What worked? What didn’t? And why?’”
Think about improving your leadership skills. After each session, whether that be several times a day or once a day, ask yourself, ‘What worked? What didn’t work?’ and most importantly, ‘Why did it or did it not work?’
Constant, incremental questioning, learning, and improving your soft skills—your leadership skills—will result in handsome personal, professional, and organizational return on investment!
