Supercharge Personal Growth: Role model your way to mastery.

Ever wondered how the greats achieve extraordinary outcomes? One powerful, yet often overlooked strategy they adopt is learning from the best. From Sir Richard Branson's innovative spirit to Sir Alex Ferguson’s revered coaching and winning leadership or Baroness Karen Brady’s esteemed business savvy, their secret lies in their ability to model the behaviour and thought processes of their heroes and mentors.

Modelling is an innate learning ability we are gifted at birth to assure our survival. An extraordinary combination of the visual system, mirror neurons and primal social instincts make us instantly capable of deep attention and focus which we use to mimic, connect with, and fascinate our awe-filled parents. With language development, novel experiences and imagination, our preferences form and we begin to connect the dots in a uniquely creative way.

Take a moment to reflect on your distinctive career and style, you may be surprised by the long list of people from whom you have extracted lessons knowingly or subconsciously; those who provided moral support, opened doors, shared their experience and role modelled superior performance; those who left emotional scars and lessons in what not to do.   Hopefully, you have also been exposed to a master or two.

The danger is that increasing responsibilities and routines can dampen our natural aptitude for learning but the best leaders maintain the art of mirroring, modelling, and codebreaking and they know how to spot mastery in others.

To outperform your own and other’s expectations, reconnect with your ability to model, purposefully learn from the best and create your own masterpiece.  Here’s some tips that my client leaders use.  

1. Revisit your natural orientations. What were you born to do? The more you can connect with the special something that inspires you, the more curious you will be and more likely to achieve a laser focus and staying power.
   

2. Identify the people and/or the mentor you want to learn from.  Sometimes skills are learned from distant role models like famous personalities whose styles and preferences are visible. You can watch and listen to interviews, or imagine their motivations and learnings based on what you see.  It doesn’t matter if your assessment is inaccurate, only that your interpretation offers a positive learning outcome.
   

3. Clarify why it’s helpful to adopt an aspect of their approach or style. This enhances your motivation and commitment to change.  What will it give you? How will it improve your performance?  How different or similar would you like your performance to be and where will you use it?
   

4. Find out how the mentor learned their skills or traits.  Pay attention to their motivations, their role models, the contexts, and critical experiences which contributed to their expertise.
   

5. Ask about the principles and thought processes which underpin their actions. Note aspects of their personality, background, and personal motivators. Ask what goes through their mind during performance, this can be the difference that makes the difference.
   

6. Invite the mentor to help you model the skill. Masters love to work with a willing apprentice.
   

7. Observe, decode and discuss their approach.  Mentors sometimes struggle
   

to decipher their own performance as it is the product of years of trial and error and intuitive creativity.    

• Deconstruct behaviour and actions into identifiable steps.

• What is their physiology or posture?  What language do they use? What resources do they have?  How do they start and finish?

• Identify the triggers for action and the response.

• Summarise their approach and performance outcome.

• How do they use the skill or trait in different circumstances? 

• How different or similar is their approach each time and why? 

• Study and research other examples of similar techniques or styles.

• Choose elements that you would like to adopt and plan where you can use them.

• Observe and study, noting any adaptations or elements that feel more comfortable for you.  Plan where you can practice them.

• Practice, reflect and adapt continuously.

Once you have completed your apprenticeship, notice how you develop your own version of the skill or trait.  More often than not you are able to add to and surpass the original performance that you so admired with your own special characteristics adapted to fit your context.

Are you on route to outperformance. Complete our free scorecard here https://susie-rowvcf7n.scoreapp.com/ and collect a free digital copy of Transform2Outperform, 7 powers to transform you, your team, and your results.