Friday, January 9, 2009

What it takes to be great

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Why?
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*HBR paper on the same topic (Ericsson is one of the authors): The Making of an Expert
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Related posts:
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Related books:
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Other related links:
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Malcolm Gladwell's definition of talent (from this interview):

“Talent is the desire to practice. Right? It is that you love something so much that you are willing to make an enormous sacrifice and an enormous commitment to that, whatever it is -- task, game, sport, what have you.”

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David Brooks did make a critique of Gladwell's book in which I thought he brought up a point that should be given some weight in trying to understand expertise (Gladwell responded HERE):
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Along Brooks' point above, there's a story about Warren Buffett and a dinner party he attended. The host asked the table: "What factor is the most important in your success?" Buffett answered “focus.” Notably, one other guest at the dinner had the same answer: Bill Gates.
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Daniel Goleman also chimes in with something he thinks should be added to Gladwell's work:
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A massive amount of data collected by companies on their own people suggests that such personal abilities are the secret ingredient in success over and above those Gladwell describes so ably. The data I’m referring to derives from “competence modeling,” in which companies systematically analyze the abilities found in their stars (those in the top ten percent of performance by whatever metric makes sense for that specific job or role) but not found in counterparts who are mediocre. A goodly amount of these abilities – like initiative, the drive to achieve, and empathy — are in the emotional intelligence domain. Competence studies show that the higher a person goes up the organizational ladder, the more prominent the role these personal abilities play in performance. In other words, the more successful someone is, the greater the contribution of this skill set to his or her triumph.
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