My friend Coert Visser mentioned the book “Talent is Overrated” in one of his interesting postings (here).
I’ve just finished reading that book, and there are quite a few noteworthy concepts in there.

First, though, my critique.
My main complaint about the book is that, as Coert again succinctly put it in a personal note, it should have been titled “Deliberate Practice”.
The author, in an attempt to give more relevance to the concept of “deliberate practice”, sets out by criticizing the notion of talent as an explanation of expert performance.
Granted, the author does a good job in highlighting the limits of talent-based explanations; however, the most one can say about these explanations is that they are incomplete – not that they are not valid.
His overall attack is based on a handful of studies and falls flat: all he achieves to do, in my opinion, is to note that the concept of talent still needs to be worked out in the details and that it is still debated among researchers.
It kind of reminds me of the creationists’ attacks on evolution: since biologists are still arguing about the details of evolution (e.g., punctuated equilibrium), then evolution is false.
The author, moreover, in an attempt to convince readers of the vital importance of skill-development and expert performance, dedicates a full chapter to explain that because companies and banks are awash in cash and money is everywhere, the only area where businesses can build a competitive edge is in the development of human resources.
That chapter written in 2007 before the current financial meltdown can either make you cry or make you laugh out loud.

Having said that, the core of the book is pretty good.
The main idea is that the way to excellence is practice. Deliberate practice.
Deliberate means that:
- it is designed specifically to improve performance
- it can be repeated a lot
- feedback is continuously available
- it is highly demanding mentally
- it isn’t fun
Jogging 5 times a week, same route, same amount of time–that is practice.
It is maintaining an acceptable level of performance.
Running 3 or 4 times a week, alternating between long runs, speedwork, tempo runs and different routes, following a program, monitored by a coach—that is deliberate practice!!
It is about stretching the limits.
In this process, a key role is given to the COACH.

As the author points out:
- an expert coach can observe you in ways that you cannot see yourself
- an expert coach can design a program that fits your needs, based on the body of knowledge on how performance is developed in that field
- an expert coach can tell which specific elements are needed for a specific performance and need to be developed by working intently on them.
Therefore, starting out on a path of deliberate practice is “extremely difficult to do without the help of a teacher or coach“.

The author illustrates these points by using some interesting examples: a study done in then West Berlin on talented violinists; studies done on chess players; stories about football star players.
He also distinguishes between different models of deliberate practice: the music model, the chess model and the sports model.

Interestingly enough, the advantage of practice is cumulative.
I remember reading a book written by a SAS member (Special Air Service, the elite British Army unit) on his experiences with that outfit. He said that the motto of the SAS should be changed from “who dares wins” to “practice, practice, practice”, because of the mind-numbing, continuos rehearsals. Yet that is the very key to their successes: they could not have dared, let alone won, without all that practice!!

The book “Talent is Overrated” reminded me of how much we as coaches need deliberate practice too.
That is why I loved Solutionsurfers advanced brief coaching training program, more specifically the “live coaching days”: 3 days of live coaching with real clients.
Intense; a lot of practice; real time feedback; stretching the limits.
I learned more in those 3 days than in hour after hour of “regular” coaching.
I am looking forward to the next “live coaching days” in April 2009!
Top Gun for Solution Focused Coaches.

Tags: coaching, deliberate practice, performance, talent