Leaders who do L.A.P.s (Learn/Apply/Progress) win the race.
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, November 17th, 2009
If leaders combine a basic understanding of communication, feedback, team development, emotional intelligence, leadership & followership and accountability with an advance skill of applying their learnings daily they will great results! It requires a discipline to first learn, then apply followed by monitoring progress.
The old saying goes something like this: There are two types of leaders — those who practice their learnings and those who don’t.
I watch leaders of corporate teams everyday. I have come to learn that some leaders have a hunger to learn and more importantly, they focus on practicing and applying their learnings in their day to day experiences. These are the leaders who continually get results. There are others, who learn a competence and then seem to discount it. My assumption is – they consider it to be ‘basic’. They operate on an assumption about themselves that they know the skill and they use it regularly and yet, for some strange reason these are the leaders that seem to falter when it comes to results.
Whistler/Blackcomb opened her doors early this season. With a great dump of snow, we were invited to ski on Nov. 14th – one of the earliest season openers of all time. I jumped at the opportunity.
To give you some context on my skiing competence, I broke my leg while ambitiously learning the skill at the age of 2. I learned how to ski on Ontario snow-ice, raced on the Nancy Greene ski league for 6 years and was brought up in a family with two Canadian National ski team members, one a 1976 Olympian. Skiing was and continues to be a life-skill in my family. Needless to say, I can cut a turn, love to ski loud and fast and have both a high level of commitment and competence.
With every season opening, I discipline myself to review the basics. As I ski down the hill for the first few runs, in my head I am reviewing my body position, reconnecting with my ski legs and considering the finer points of this skill. If I don’t take the time to ‘re-learn’, practice and apply what I know, there will be consequences! So on Saturday, I focused on holding my frame – choosing not to be lazy by letting my left shoulder drop half way thru my turn. With this discipline of combining a basic skill; lazy shoulder syndrome with advanced focus of application; practicing with every turn of the day, I will experience more joy, ease and effortlessness skiing this season.
Leaders who choose to do L.A.Ps ultimately get the team results that win the race.
L.earn a skill, whether basic or advanced,
A.pply the learnings during day to day experiences; practicing, making mistakes, practicing again,
P.rogress - measure the progress of the efforts and then return to L to eagerly start again.
Ask yourself the question, will I get better results by doing a few LAPs today?
