Practice Makes Perfect

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We all know that great athletes practice intensely in preparation for competitions.  As a teenager, I remember reading about the incomparable Larry Bird showing up at the Boston Garden hours before a game and hoisting up hundreds of jump shots, as well as running on the track.  For much of my adult life, I read about Tom Brady's maniacal practice habits, beginning when he was a rookie on the training camp fields here at Bryant University, where I serve on the faculty now. Scott Pioli loves to tell the story of a late night in April in Foxboro during the offseason before Brady's second year: "It was a Friday night in the very beginning of April, and I was leaving the building. We still had the (practice) bubble and the lights were on in the bubble. I went around the construction (of the new stadium) to go hit the lights and on a Friday night in April, it's almost 10 o'clock at night and there's Brady working on his own with his boombox, with elastics around his ankles, throwing balls into the net."  

If athletes use practice so effectively to improve, how about business leaders?  Does practice play a role in our development?  If so, how?  Here are the three ways we can use practice to our immense benefit:

1.  Presentations (and later speeches) play an important role in our work.  We have to share our ideas and proposals with others in a concise, clear, and professional manner.  We have to persuade and influence those over whom we may not have any formal authority.  Practice indeed makes perfect when it comes to public speaking.  We should work on delivery, timing, and emphasis.  Moreover, we should anticipate questions and prepare our responses.  The International Churchill Society notes that the great British Prime Minister, who delivered so many memorable and impactful speeches, practiced relentlessly: "Churchill drafted his speeches several times and wrote them out in a way that would help him deliver them effectively. He rehearsed passages, again and again, pacing his rooms, repeating them out loud, learning whole speeches by heart. He developed a unique oratorical style that both covered up and employed his speech difficulties so that his ‘lisp’ – or ‘stammer’, which could occasionally seem like a groping for words – became a prop, not a hindrance."

2.  Giving feedback can be extremely difficult at times.  Many leaders dread these meetings with their team members.  Rehearsing the conversation can be very fruitful.  Consider not only the content of the feedback, but the method of delivery.  In what order will you make your comments? How will you set the stage at the start of the meeting?  What type of response do you anticipate from the other person, and how will you respond?  Finally, what will you do to bring the meeting to a conclusion?

3.  Data analysis and interpretation skills have become more important for leaders in all functions of an organization, not simply those working in finance, data science, or engineering roles.  We all need to know how to analyze data, interpret results, and draw meaningful and appropriate conclusions.  Practicing these skills can be very helpful.  As a young financial analyst, I used to hone my skills outside of work by focusing on something that I loved, namely professional sports.  I would analyze baseball and football statistics in my free time, and I loved to read articles in the nascent (at the time) field of sabermetrics.  I enjoyed it a great deal, and it helped me learn how to use Excel, perform various statistical analysis, and come up with conclusions that sometimes challenged pre-existing notions or conventional wisdom.   Ok, I was a nerd... but these analyses really helped me hone my analytical skills.  Sports doesn't have to be your thing.  You might take some time to analyze your own company's 10K filing, or to compare your firm's 10K with a competitor's results.  Or, you might read a few business school case studies about interesting companies and analyze the firms' performance.  These efforts can help refine your skills.