PurposfulPractice.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe

You're listening to the Mental Notes podcast. In this episode, MentalNotesfeedback-driven founder Scott Dow explains how to practice with purpose.

There's an old saying that goes like this; practice makes perfect. But it doesn't. We want you to revise that saying into this; purposeful practice makes perfect. And here's why. You don't have a lot of time to practice and you have to practice while getting work done. We're not going to ask you to put in a lot of practice time because you don't have the time to give.

We're going to teach you how to practice in short bursts. But to do that, you're going to have to learn how to practice with purpose. Purposeful practice is focused, planned, goal-oriented, and feedback driven. This is how you weave practice into your daily routine.

First, you have to focus. To manage results, you have to be really good at giving directions, but don't practice just giving directions because that's too broad. You have to focus on things like giving a reason for your direction upfront, clarifying your expectations, offering people a good reason to act and holding people accountable. Focus allows you to hone in on a specific skill, and those are all very specific skills within the broader topic of giving direction.

Next, you have to have a practice plan and your plan has to be very specific. What are you going to practice? How are you going to practice? When are you going to practice? The plan allows you to work practice into your daily routine. Might sound like this: "I'm going to practice giving the reason upfront. I'm going to practice it my weekly, one on one and I'm going to focus on my underperformers." That's a plan.

Then you have to set practice goals. I'm going to practice in every one on one for the next month. I'm going to mentally rehearse for five minutes before each meeting. I'm going to self assess after every discussion, and I'm going to update my mental picture accordingly. Those are examples of practice goals. They give you something to work towards and a way to measure the progress you're making.

And finally you have to get feedback. That might sound like this. I'm going to read their body language, I'm going to gauge their response and I'm going to monitor their actions immediately following the meeting. Feedback helps you course correct while you're practicing. It's the only way to know if you're getting any better.

Remember, you don't want to groove skills you already have. Practice is really hard work. You have to grind. You're working on things that are outside of your comfort zone. For a new behavior to become second nature, you have to practice it. You have to repeat it over and over. You have to hardwire that new mental image into your brain. You have to be purposeful about your practice, and that takes focus, planning, goals, and feedback.

Remember, the better you practice, the better your results, the amount of practice doesn't matter, but the quality of practice really does.