Q:I think I'm great at my job, but I'm not in the top 1% of artists in my company. How do I hone my skills to become one of the best?
A:You sound like the type of person who hopes to perform at peak levels, who wants to get the most out of life, and who constantly wants to raise the bar on your performance. If these statements are all accurate, it's fair to say that you're probably very interested in becoming what I like to call a master.
Related: 5 Deliberate Steps to Mastering a Skill
Several years ago I coined a term called Return on Effort (ROE). ROE is about getting the best possible results with the least amount of time and energy invested. Achieving consistently high ROE involves striving not only for great results, but also for extraordinary results. I'm talking about the kind of results that jump out at you; the kind of results you might have thought impossible to achieve.
I teach the people I work with that there is a three-step progression of satisfying results. Many people and organizations are satisfied with good results. Then there's a smaller percentage of people who want to accelerate their results, and they operate at a level of greatness. The third step is what I call mastery. Most of my new clients are those who perform at the highest level and have a desire to do more. They want to play at the Masters level. Getting to mastery involves a specific shift in thinking.
What do you think of when you hear the word mastery? Most people think they are elite or the best they can be. While these ideas are accurate, mastery involves much more than that. Let's break this down a bit.
If you want to change what you do to get a better result, you ultimately have to change how you think about something.
There are three possibilities to obtain acceptable results. As I said before, good is where many successful businesses operate. Good companies are profitable and experience some growth. They have developed business practices that work for them and stick to them. They are generally conservative when it comes to change and their level of innovation is average. Such organizations are content with who and what they are. They have settled into a comfort zone and rarely take steps to disturb it.
The second possibility is great. Great companies start out as great companies and then dare to do things differently. They developed the ability to think more strategically and combined strategic thinking with the focus needed to create the strategies that propelled them to greater success. When companies or individuals achieve greatness, they find it difficult to grasp that there is still a third possibility awaiting them:mastery. Their problem is that they believe they have already accomplished as much as possible. At this point, their greatness becomes a silent enemy and an obstacle to discovering the third possibility of fulfillment.
Related: Why You Should Always Keep Improving
To achieve mastery, there has to be a very specific shift in thinking. This applies to individuals and organizations. Ask yourself, How do you trigger dramatic change and what does it look like? I have worked with high performing individuals and organizations for 25 years and have identified a specific mastery profile. There are five essential characteristics of mastery, and they are all the result of a specific way of thinking. As individuals and organizations begin to think and believe in new principles, there is a constant upward shift to higher outcomes. The five fundamental characteristics that produce the mastery profile are simple and easy to understand, but difficult to achieve.
A compelling strategic vision and a deep motivation to achieve it. The reason why the vision is to be realized and its value and meaning are clear.
An obsession to learn, grow and improve.
The ability to think long term and focus on results, vision and execution.
A desire to achieve perfection. Perfection is always doing the right things at the right time and making no mistakes.
The constant ability to convert challenges into opportunities.
Most people today don't care about doing the hard work necessary to function at the level of mastery. Most people prefer to create and then maintain a comfort zone around themselves. For those with this mindset, apathy rules and any meaningful change are a possible threat.
What ultimately drives action is belief. It is very difficult to think and accept ideas that conflict with what you believe to be true. The truth you embrace shapes your opinions, your personality, and most visibly the things you actually do. The things you do communicate who and what you are to others, and what you do is driven by what you believe in.
If you want to change what you do for a better outcome, you ultimately must change what you what you think of something. Begin to believe that you can adopt the five characteristics of a master. Only when you change what you believe can you change the way you think. When you change the way you think, you can make better choices. When you make better choices, you can achieve better results. When you continually improve your results, you eventually go from good to great to mastery.
Related: 43 ways to improve in just 10 minutes
Have questions for The RESULTS Guy? Send them to [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
