Most of these studies were compiled in The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, published last year by Cambridge University Press and edited by K. These conclusions are based on rigorous research that looked at exceptional performance using scientific methods that are verifiable and reproducible. Consistently and overwhelmingly, the evidence showed that experts are always made, not born. Later research building on Bloom’s pioneering study revealed that the amount and quality of practice were key factors in the level of expertise people achieved.
So what does correlate with success? One thing emerges very clearly from Bloom’s work: All the superb performers he investigated had practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years. The only innate differences that turn out to be significant-and they matter primarily in sports-are height and body size. Subsequent research indicating that there is no correlation between IQ and expert performance in fields such as chess, music, sports, and medicine has borne out his findings.
Surprisingly, Bloom’s work found no early indicators that could have predicted the virtuosos’ success. He took a deep retrospective look at the childhoods of 120 elite performers who had won international competitions or awards in fields ranging from music and the arts to mathematics and neurology. Back in 1985, Benjamin Bloom, a professor of education at the University of Chicago, published a landmark book, Developing Talent in Young People, which examined the critical factors that contribute to talent. It’s not only assumptions about gender differences in expertise that have started to crumble. Today Judit is one of the world’s top players and has defeated almost all the best male players. The youngest, Judit, had become a grand master at age 15, breaking the previous record for the youngest person to earn that title, held by Bobby Fischer, by a month. By 2000, all three daughters had been ranked in the top ten female players in the world. Their systematic training and daily practice paid off. The Polgárs homeschooled their three daughters, and as part of their education the girls started playing chess with their parents at a very young age. They wanted to make a point about the power of education. Thirty years ago, two Hungarian educators, László and Klara Polgár, decided to challenge the popular assumption that women don’t succeed in areas requiring spatial thinking, such as chess. It also demands would-be experts to develop their “inner coach” and eventually drive their own progress. It takes at least a decade and requires the guidance of an expert teacher to provide tough, often painful feedback. The journey to elite performance is not for the impatient or the faint of heart. Through deliberate practice, leaders can improve their ability to win over their employees, their peers, or their board of directors. Working with a drama school, the authors created a set of acting exercises for managers that remarkably enhanced executives’ powers of charm and persuasion.
Experts continually analyzed what they did wrong, adjusted their techniques, and worked arduously to correct their errors.Įven such traits as charisma can be developed using this technique. What consistently distinguished elite surgeons, chess players, writers, athletes, pianists, and other experts was the habit of engaging in “deliberate” practice-a sustained focus on tasks that they couldn’t do before. Those are the conclusions reached by Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University Prietula, a professor at the Goizueta Business School and Cokely, a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who together studied data on the behavior of experts, gathered by more than 100 scientists. Such discipline is the key to becoming an expert in all domains, including management and leadership. Ordinary practice is not enough: To reach elite levels of performance, you need to constantly push yourself beyond your abilities and comfort level. Scientific research, on the other hand, reveals that true expertise is mainly the product of years of intense practice and dedicated coaching. Popular lore tells us that genius is born, not made.
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