A "secret substitute" for experience?Would you like to learn a secret shortcut, that can serve as a substitute for experience? Long time client Jeff Gamboa, dear friend and inspiring leader, brought up a great point today when discussing experience. I wanted to share with you what I shared with Jeff. First of all, have you ever looked at your competition, your peers, those you wish to be like, and thought, "they'll always be more experienced than me"? I told Jeff that there IS a substitute for experience. The substitute is called Intelligent Reflection. Intelligent Reflection can refer to several techniques. 1. Looking back on your own experiences and leaving no stone unturned in search of lessons that can be learned, acted on, and invested into the future. On a related note, I'd encourage you to make a list of 20 lessons you learned this year, and 20 actions you will use to apply the lessons next year. Pick one and do it immediately. 2. Ask others about their experience, and apply what they share. This is the value of teachers; listen and stay open to new ideas and you can flatten your learning curve. Choose three people to ask advice of in the next week. Reach out to them. Distill values, ideas and inspiration from their experiences. Reach out to one person right away. 3. Look forward into the future. There are two ways to solve problems. until after a problem] arises, and then finding a solution. 2. Proactively. Anticipating problems, and planning ways to prevent the problem ahead of time As a leader, the second is more appealing. Time spent planning - literally sitting down with a calendar, note pad, and most importantly, uninterrupted time - returns a greater reward than almost any other use of a leader's time. |
