The Value of Practice

Professional athletes and artists practice more than they perform to achieve and maintain their peak performance. Licensed professionals like doctors, nurses, pilots, lawyers and teachers practice *alot* to even be granted their license, and their tested. But what about leaders?

Unfortunately leaders are not required to practice to either achieve their title nor to achieve peak performance. Why is that?

Pete explores the concept and the importance of practice for leaders and shares the stage with a few leaders and guides who share the value they've received from practice.

Transcript

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Pete Behrens:
What is the value of practice?

Welcome to another episode of (Re)Learning Leadership, where we explore a specific leadership challenge and break it down to help improve your leadership, your organization, and, just possibly, your personal life.

I’m Pete Behrens, and today I want to explore the concept of practice.

That’s right. You remember, as a kid, when your parents made you practice spelling or your instrument, or when your coach made you run those boring drills over and over, when all you really wanted to do was play in the game!

Well, practice isn’t just for kids.

Most sports professionals practice more than they actually play in games, and performance artists practice more than they perform onstage. And military teams practice more than they experience actual combat. 

But what about other professionals that maybe aren’t so practice-oriented? There are a lot of professions where practice is really a prerequisite to the position. I mean, you think of licensed professionals like pilots or doctors and nurses, teachers, technicians, lawyers. These are professions where practice was something you did to get to your profession. And then there’s a—maybe some occasional learning or re-certification that goes into the keeping those certificates.

But recognize the amount of practice, right? They had to practice a lot to get to that profession, and they were tested significantly to achieve that license.

So, where does this put leaders? Are they more like our sports professionals and performance artists who need to practice to be at peak performance? Or are they more like our licensed professionals who need to practice just to even achieve their title?

Unfortunately, neither. Leaders are not licensed, nor do they have standards of excellence to achieve, to realize, that role or that title of manager, director, or head of this or that. And most leaders are not driven or even expected to practice to be at peak performance. A study by The Blanchard Group showed that only 30% of leaders actually receive formal education, coaching, or mentoring. A very sad statistic.

I mean, imagine interviewing someone for a position, when that person did not have the education or the experience for the role they’re interviewing for. It would literally never happen; they wouldn’t even be invited to the interview! Yet every day, those same individuals are being promoted into the leadership positions with zero education or experience as a leader.

No wonder disengagement and disillusionment by employees runs so rampant.

You do not, however, have to be on the wrong side of statistics. In fact, just by listening to and watching this podcast episode, likely you’re already ahead of the curve. Thank you. But are you operating at peak performance? And what about your peers and others you work with?

Well, every six months, the Agile Leadership Journey hosts practice cohorts. That is a time for leaders to not only learn new skills, but more importantly, in real time, apply them at work, in meetings, on the job, at home, with your families, in a pragmatic and safe way.

Now, recently we hosted an information session, where we invited some past participants and some Guides to share some of their experience in these practice cohorts. And I want to share some of what they said with you. Now, I apologize slightly for the audio and video quality of this, as it was recorded on a Zoom call, and we’re snapping these recordings from that.

Our first leader is Kristin Niemeir, an e-business manager with Hilti, a global manufacturing company…

Kristin Niemeir:
Hi, everybody. My name is Kristin Niemeir. I did both of those programs last year. Really, what I got out of these sessions was—like Pete says, it’s applicable all day long to what you’re working in. I handle agility for a company, and so everything that I’m doing is with leadership. And I’m in the middle of cultivating a team in it.

And—so, what I really got out of it, was the accountability, number one. The accountability to practice the things that we were talking and learning about. So, I really loved the fact that I could share, also, in this peer group without feeling judged. It was a safe space where I could talk about my insecurities about dealing with a particular team. And then having not only our facilitator, our coach, Brad, asking the right questions and asking the hard questions, but having everybody else’s opinion in the group to talk to and to say, “Hey, we get it. Have you tried this? Have you done this?” All of this based on the learnings that we were taking from each of the classes, you know? And just learning those concepts together, because we all see things very differently. And then just, really, the accountability of, “Okay I said I was going to do this this week, and it’s really hard.” And having the team ask me, “Did you actually turn that in, and did it work? Did it not work? Did you freak out? Did you not do it?” And just having that accountability of the other people to talk it over with. And if you did fail—and, of course, failure is okay—then let’s talk about why we failed, and maybe we can try something different.

Pete Behrens:
Did you hear what Kristin said? Accountability. We call that intentional or deliberate practice. Now, the experts in the field of practice say that the most beneficial type of practice is deliberate practice. What that means is—when I practice, I have a specific goal that I’m working on during that practice, rather than just mindless or rote repetition, right? Kind of like, “Okay, in meetings, I’m trying to be more open-minded versus jumping to conclusions.” Or, “I’m trying to be more assertive in my expressiveness in my tone, in my posture, even, when I share my thoughts and opinions.”

The practice cohorts of the Agile Leadership Journey provide a weekly intention to put focus in each leader’s practice for them to take during the week as they work. And then, the following week, they have accountability to follow up. “How did we do?” “We did great! Yay!” “I struggled. Ugh!” Right? The cohort is there to share in the wins and the struggles to help us all get a little bit better.

Now, let’s hear from another past participant, Steve Medanic, an enterprise agile leader with Wells Fargo, a financial institution…

Stephen Medanic:
You know, I just want to echo on something that Kristin said there of—the community of both the cohorts I went through was really powerful. And that ability to tap into other peoples’ learnings—both the Guides who did—both Brad and Christina did a fantastic job, but also the other people in there. A world of different perspectives, a world of different experiences. And those people to both hold you accountable and to, you know, to give you great ideas.

So one of the things that I did in the second cohort was talking about—I was engaging in a new thing at work. And I work at Legacy Financial, a part of Enterprise and Product Transformation. We were engaging with a new group. And I talked about how I really wanted to walk in the room like Don Draper and just, like, say a bunch of great stuff, be smooth, and look really good in Brooks Brothers or something. And one of the members of the cohorts went, “Oh! You want some swagger. You want to walk in with confidence. You want to be ready.” And that gave me a framing for it that I hadn’t before. And it helped me with dealing with a little bit of imposter syndrome I think we all deal with in this business. And gave me, through that and through some further conversations with Christina, my cohort lead, and with others—gave me a great set of approaches from the catalyst toolset to really achieve some great results in the past quarter. And the cohort—I wouldn’t have achieved those results without going through the cohort.

Pete Behrens:
Stephen commented on the power of the cohort and community. You know, so often leaders are “on the clock” or “in the game” or “on the hook”, right? And the cohort provides a very safe space to decompress, to share, to coach and get coaching, to lean on and learn from others on a very similar journey. In fact, Kristin and Stephen still continue to connect in their cohort and within our community, long after the program. Sometimes the value of the learning is the cohort and the relationships you build in that cohort and community that make a difference. Kind of like—a hike with friends is more enjoyable and rewarding than a solo adventure.

Okay, it sounds interesting, but does it make a difference? Well, that came up in our discussion as well. Both as a leader and, possibly, for the organization itself.

In this case, we’ve got Jesse Fewell and Rashmi Fernandes, both Agile Leadership Journey Guides and cohort facilitators who shared a bit of the leader’s experience in their cohort programs…

Jesse Fewell:
And I can tell you that in my cohort, over the course of the two semesters we had a continuation, there were three promotions. And those promotions were correlated with impact in the organization. Now, can I take credit for them becoming so amazing and doing such amazing work that they had more impact, and they got a promotion? Mm, I think it was more that the people who are most talented are the ones who seek the most help. And that’s what I’ve felt—is that these were people that were already going to have a positive impact. They were already shining brightly in their workplace.

And by seeking a community and a curriculum to support them in their growth, they sustained over the long haul. The one woman had to fight for two years to get her vice president promotion that she was due. Another woman had to navigate interpersonal conflict of politics to earn the manager title that she deserved. And another woman was facing all kinds of executive pressure about what Agile is supposed to mean. And she just held her space, she held her ground, and they gave her the biggest bonus that she’s had while she’s been working there. So, it’s not so much that there’s a direct line of sight from this curriculum to organizational impact, because what stands in the middle there is the leader. And so, I think that’s a really powerful question, Rajarshi, because what it amplifies is that our mission field is not the curriculum. It’s the leader.

Rashmi Fernandes:
Yeah, so one of the things I also wanted to add was—one powerful story a participant shared was—you know, before she—at the time she joined the program, she was considered a number-driven person. And people were operating out of fear, you know, for the deliverables that were involved. But after the program, she wrote in the retrospective, and she shared the whole story, saying that her social acceptance and likeability improved. Which actually bettered the relationships, and the deliverables came as a byproduct, rather than, you know, them working out of fear. So, for me, that was a big win. Though it’s not tangible, like how Jesse shared, it does, you know, add on to some larger results that are going to happen, and sometimes it’s a journey. So I just wanted to add that point.

Pete Behrens:
Now, a question we often receive is how these programs apply to people who coach versus lead. And, you know, it seems that the coach role continues to increase in popularity, especially in the high-tech business community. Well, Thomaz Ribas, a recent ALJ Guide who first participated in these programs as a coach, shared a few of his thoughts on this subject…

Thomaz Ribas:
Yeah, that’s a very interesting point. So, I work as an Agile coach, also, here in Brazil. I’m an OKR expert. So, when I went through the program, what was very clear to me was that, you know, I was missing some behaviors as a consultant, as a coach. I was missing some mindsets, to be able to have better conversations with stakeholders, to be able to really help the company to go through their transitions or transformations, you know? So the program was very helpful for me to somehow adapt the way I deliver my coaching work, my consulting work, in a more effective way. You know, the way I engage with teams, the way I do my one-on-one coaching with people, the way I help other leaders to build their transformation programs. So, yeah, from a coach perspective, it was something really, really important to me.

Pete Behrens:
So, whether you call yourself a leader, a coach, or maybe both, you are welcome to practice in this community.

So, the key to these practice programs is moving the learning past the classroom, into pragmatic application. Stephen came back to reiterate this point and the value it was to him… 

Stephen Medanic:
That’s what I really enjoyed about this course, or these two courses and the cohorts—is the degree of practicality and apply-ability that was baked into everything. When we went through a concept, it wasn’t a theoretical concept to move on past. It was, “How are we going to use this? Let’s talk about how we’re going to use this. Kristin, how are you going to use this? Steve, how are you going to use this? And then let’s come back next week and hold ourselves accountable to that.” That degree of practice between individuals that, much like the folks that are considering this, are dedicated to getting better. You know, we’re all on a self-leadership growth journey, if we’re doing this transformation thing right. And my ability to grow helps those around me to grow. And that’s part of how I look at the lens I got from Pete back about about a year ago. It has been a very powerful lens. And, Jesse, I’m also fortunate to be in that group that’s been promoted and shortly thereafter going through the program.

Pete Behrens:
So, whether you’re new to leadership, stuck in a leadership rut, or possibly been promoted to a new leadership promotion, practice cohorts are a great place for you.

Our public three-month practice cohorts run March to May and September to November. And we have two programs specifically focused on personal leadership development. We call them Developing a Growth Mindset, which talks about the internal orientation, our self-awareness, essentially, as a leader And Developing Catalyst Behaviors, which is the external landscape we operate, stakeholder engagement and presence.

Possibly you’re thinking, though, “Maybe the group hike isn’t for me.” Or “I want a bit more personal touch.” Well, we do have one-on-one coaching engagements available and Guides located all around the globe to help. A private tutor, so to speak.

So, what is your next step?

I encourage you to invest in your leadership. Find a community that can take you past the classroom, take you past the initial learning, into something that’s truly going to change and dramatically impact your leadership effectiveness.

Thank you for joining us today, and enjoy the journey!

(Re)Learning Leadership is the official podcast of the Agile Leadership Journey. Together we build better leaders. It’s hosted by me, Pete Behrens, with contributions from our global Guide community. It’s produced by Ryan Dugan. With music by Joy Zimmerman. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave us a review, or share a comment. And visit our website, agileleadershipjourney.com/podcast, for guest profiles, episode references, transcripts, and to explore more about your own leadership journey.