By Peter White
I went to swimming lessons with my 4yo granddaughter and whilst I was waiting for her to finish I walked around the pool and came across the notice board for swim club.
I was drawn to a quote by Henry Ford hand written on the board.
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t you are probably right”
That got me thinking about something that we talk about as part of our leadership programs
“Skill, Will and Drill”
We can all learn some new skills. That is the easy bit. The will and drill is a choice that only the individual can make.
We describe “the will” as the desire to use a new skill (which is not enough alone because it is one thing to want to do something and a different thing to actually doing it) and “the drill” is about actually doing it.
Some people want to wait until someone else starts using the new leader skills before they start (which is a copout of course) or they think they can’t use the new skill/s because they might standout and look foolish (the fear of standing out).
There is a reason why people undertake learning new leader skills. It generally isn’t just a nice thing to do. The purpose is usually because they want to improve their leadership. Very little will change without actually using the new leader skill and reflecting how it went (what went well, what can be improved).
So in the context of starting to improve your leadership I’ll rephrase the original quote:
“If you think you have the will and drill to apply new leader skills or you think you don’t have the will and drill to apply some new leader skills you are probably right”
At LKS Quaero, we support leaders to make genuine and lasting improvements to their leadership. For more information, visit us at lksquaero.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
