Building a Sturdy House

So I show up for my post-graduate internship at a prestigious sports academy and I’m feeling great! This place was for the best of the best coming out of grad programs in sport psychology and was where thousands of elite athletes trained every year, many of whom were already pros. I had already completed all of my classes and finished my coursework with a 3.8 gpa. I was one of the smartest in my class. I had also just come off another internship where I had been working with Olympic athletes in Australia, so experience-wise, I felt ahead of the game, too.

Then, in my first week’s performance review, my supervisor gave me one of the best pieces of career advice I’ve ever gotten in the form of some blunt feedback: He said, “James, it’s clear that you’re super smart and know what you’re doing, but elite athletes don’t care about your Master’s degree or even your experience in other sports. If you are constantly trying to show how smart and skilled you are, it comes across as arrogant, and you can’t build relationships with clients like that. You need to be humble and listen more. Let others be the expert.”

I had plenty of knowledge and was skilled at putting theory into practice, and yet, developing my ability to be humble was the catalyst that would allow me to not only be a better mental coach, but a better person.

I tell you that story because for the last few weeks I’ve told stories of knowledge and skill, which are important aspects of performance, but tend to be domain specific. Ability, on the other hand, can affect every part of your life. And the best teachers seem to develop their students’ abilities more than just teaching facts or perfecting technique.

Let’s get all HGTV today and remodel a house, figuratively, at least. And what’s the premise of almost every HGTV show? That you can make ANY home BETTER as long as it has what? A solid foundation and “good bones.” Ohh, good bones, probably heard in every episode of every show on that network. With good bones you can make anything happen! Why? Because they provide a great scaffold to build onto. Bad bones, or a weak foundation is where all the problems show up later on. And as we always see, it’s way harder to go back and fix things if you build onto a weak foundation and poor skeleton. But, on the other end of the spectrum, we can build real and lasting beauty and functionality onto a strong and resilient base.

But what are the bones and foundation of performance and success?

This is where we find the connection between a strong foundation and the KSA model that I’ve been discussing the last few episodes. Quick reminder, KSA stands for Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities, and I’ve been telling stories about how each of these is vital to a successful performance, but depending on the context, one area may amplify the other two.

For instance, if you’re Mike Brosseau of the Tampa Bay Rays, outsmarting your opponent may even the playing field when you know your skill and ability don’t match up. If you’re Alex Honnald hanging out thousands of feet off the ground with no safety equipment, you better be skilled enough and execute perfectly. Today, though, is about ability, and building the foundation.

Listen, I know what you might be thinking right now. How can ability be foundational to performance if you don’t know anything about the performance environment, or if you haven’t built up any skill in that area? I hear you, because I had those same thoughts as I outlined this episode. But ability has a power, an ability, if you will, to seep into everything we do and influence who we are, not just what we do and how we do it.

When my supervisor pointed out that I needed to let others be the expert, think about how that affected all my interactions. It changed my whole approach to coaching and learning! If I wasn’t the expert, that means that I had a lot to learn from the person in front of me. If I wasn’t the most skilled at doing what I do, then it focused my efforts on practicing my craft. Being more humble as an approach to my personal performance changed everything, and not just in my professional life, in all areas of my life. Yes, going into a conversation with my wife with a focus on her being expert definitely helps! Also, it’s actually true in most cases, so, extra helpful.

But, focusing on an ability allowed my knowledge and skill to be amplified. Focusing on the foundation, the bones of my development, fast-tracked the development of all areas of my personal KSA model.

Think about a physical example: If I’m a strength coach or personal trainer, I could create a plan to help you lift more weight in certain exercises, or help you know which muscles to concentrate on, and that should help your performance. But, if I were to shift my focus to building core-strength, or building explosiveness, then it doesn’t matter what the activity is, those things will help you do that activity better.

An ability focus, or foundational focus, applies to anything you could imagine doing!

Ok, I feel like I come to a point in many of these posts where the lesson seems clear, if not obvious. Of course a foundational focus and building performance from the ground up helps!

And yet, what might seem obvious is actually not how the world seems to work.

Think about how many of our performance systems are generally set up: In sports, athletes are selected for skills (like Pitch speed) without a focus on overall strength that will prevent injury. In school, we tell students exactly what to learn (knowledge), instead of building a love of learning (an ability) and wonder why students lose motivation. In healthcare, we teach everyone how to count calories with little focus on self-control. In the corporate world, we select leaders based on business accomplishments and spend little time on self-care, and wonder why they’re burnt out or have troubled personal lives.

You can build a pretty house that appears to be wonderful, but if you skimp on foundational development and the frame, then issues will pop up at one point or another. And they’ll be much harder to address once you’re already living in that house.

I’ll end with this: I started today with a story of one of my most influential mentors. Now think about a meaningful mentor that you’ve had in your life. Yes, they likely taught you some facts and helped improve some performance-specific skills, but think about why you remember them. I’m guessing it’s because they had a knack for making you stronger, or more organized, or more compassionate, or more humble.

So, if you want to have an impact on WHAT SOMEONE DOES, you can probably stick with knowledge and skill-building. But, if you want to have an impact on WHO SOMEONE IS, spend time on the foundation, on ability.