Leadership Advantage

     We've all experienced it: the seemingly effortless, but excellent, performance. It might have been at a concert, a baseball field, a conference, or in a health care delivery system. I recently witnessed a nurse/COO handle a very difficult situation in a truly expert manner. She was kind, professional, clear, and strong (not tough) and achieved a positive outcome from a negative situation. Weeks earlier, I had observed her in an equally challenging environment, and again, her style was effective and supportive. Eventually, I shared my observations with her and asked her how she had developed her leadership expertise. She shared that she had been working with an executive coach. As I listened to her, I realized that her skillfulness and professionalism was the result of years of deliberate work and concentrated practice, not innate charm or charisma.

CONSISTENCY

     What does it mean to be an expert? How is expertise different from a lucky amateur performance? As a golf fan, I have spent hours watching Tiger Woods. He doesn't always win the tournaments. There are times when a relative unknown wins, but Tiger is always among the top players. Experts consistently outperform their peers. Real experts produce concrete results. Real expertise can be measured and reproduced in a laboratory environment. Although outperforming one's peers, achieving concrete rersults that can be measured and replicated apply to golfing, do they really apply to leadership?
     The literature is clear that all experts are made not born. Some individuals may be born with a certain talent, but that talent must be developed through practice. Tiger Woods certainly practices more than most of the leading players; he is often the first one at the driving range in the morning and the last one to leave in the evening. Even Mozart spent hundreds of hours in deliberate practice. How do we practice leadership to become true experts?
     The case method creates an approach to practice decision making. Thrtough the description of a business situation, students are required to make decisions about the situation described in "the case." Through sharing their decisions, they receive immediate feedback from their peers and professors. This type of practice improves analysis of the situation, identification of possible choices, and determination of a course of action. In some ways the "nursing care plan" provides that type of practice to students. There is evidence that creating simulations of patient scenarios is a very effective method of teaching as well as evaluating the performance of nurses and physicians. It seems clear that there are ways of creating experiences to practice management and leadership skills.

EXPERT HALLMARKS

     As a golfer, I actually enjoy practicing my best shots. It's the short chips and sand shots where my golf game lags, and those are the shots that I dread practicing. It is much more fun to practice those things that we do well. Yet, true experts engage in the deliberate practice of the skills they already have as well as adding new skills and competencies. They work at extending their reach. Part of their practice involves the guidance of coaches to give them accurate, often painful feedback as well as approaches to developing new skills.
     It is with true appreciation (and some level of awe) that I reflect on my nurse/COO colleague. She could have smiled and thanked me for the compliment on her leadership style. Instead, she shared her story of working with a coach, deliberate practice, and skill building. Her message was one of giving hope and sharing that these skills can be developed. I have asked her to share her leadership journey with Nursing Economic$ readers in a future article. But until then, the hallmarks of a true expert -- outperforming one's peers by achieving replicable and measurable results as the result of hard work and deliberate practice -- are a joy to behold whether on the golf course or in the executive suite.$

Reprinted with permission from Nursing Economic$, 2005, Vol. 23, No. X. The original may be read at www.nursingeconomics.net.