Skill Development Program

The model stresses that effective skill development requires learning how to master a process of developing skills. To do that, one needs the right mixture of feedback, motivation, practice and theory.

�Skill Development Phase 1: Find Sound Theory

Your skill development program is only as good as the theory behind it. In other words, before you practice, you must know and understand intellectually what has to be done. Good theory is relevant, practical, detailed and convertible into a behavior.

Skill Development Phase 2: Practice

Some skills development efforts require a few minutes; others take hundreds of hours. In the hundreds of hour�s category, we have becoming a persuasive speaker. Even those with great aptitude blessed with a large dose of talent must practice endlessly to get really good.

On the other hand, skill development on how to make a positive first impression takes takes less than 30 minutes since the theory is not that complicated. However, one must still practice a many times to get good at it.

Practice Requires Motivation

Standard assessments are very good at measuring some things, but they can't measure motivation. In our model, a person serious about skill development must be internally motivated to perfect the skill. It is unrealistic to expect any teacher or coach to motivate the apathetic or the lazy to perfect developing a skill. Still, smart organizations are wise to have defined consequences for desired and undesired behaviors.

If you never practice, you can fall down, but you can't ski.

�Practice Requires Feedback

Skill development requires feedback. Unfortunately, behavioral feedback is commonly not done in most programs. There are two ways to get feedback: do it yourself or get others to do it for you. In our programs, we typically provide skilled coaches who can provide positive and negative feedback.

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Skill Development Phase 3: Skill Mastery

This is our term for perfection�to "be all that you can be."

This is a special state of mind when skills development in largely over and the skill runs largely in the unconscious.

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