Image credit: ESPN

[UPDATE: Due to the positive feedback I received on this series I turned it into a short book called “Lead Like Mike”. If you want to support me and read the ten posts all in one place you can now order the book here.]

Okay, so we finally made it to the final episode of “The Last Dance”. It took me a little longer than I wanted to write this series but I did it. If you haven’t, check out episode 9.

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“His [Michal Jordan] gift was that he was completely present. And that was the separator. The big downfall of a lot of players who are often gifted is thinking about failure… Michael Jordan didn’t allow what he couldn’t control to get inside his head”

As alluded to by the quote above by Mark Vincil, the author of a biography on Jordan. There was one overarching theme in episode 10.  Mindset. What separated Jordan from his contemporaries was a mindset or “gift” for seeing constant improvement, hard work, and improving weaknesses as the prize.

When reading articles about Jordan, he’s usually described as one of the most “talented” basketball players in NBA history. The Cambridge dictionary defines talent as “(someone who has) a natural ability to be good at something, especially without being taught.”

If you know anything about Jordan (and other greats) describing him as athletically talented is insulting because it ignores so much of what he has done to succeed. There are tons of talented musicians playing in the subways of New York City. There are so many talented basketball players who didn’t make it to the NBA and many who made it but didn’t make an impact in the league.

The world is full of talented people who never come close to reaching their potential or joining the elite at what they do.

The other problem with easily slapping a “talented” label on people is that at the same time this creates an excuse for those of us who were not born prodigies or extraordinarily gifted.  It’s an excuse that gives us an easy way out of not trying to excel at something because we believe we weren’t born with some innate talent or gift.

Whether you’re talented or not, you can’t master something without putting in the work. And you can’t put in the work without the right mental tools. What separated Jordan from other basketball players was more due to his mindset and less to his athletic ability.

In his book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Anders Ericsson makes a strong argument that prodigies don’t exist. To shatter a lot of the commonly held prodigy misconceptions, he uses Mozart, who started playing concerts at the age of five, as an example. He argues that Mozart’s father, a trained musician himself, dedicated his life to creating an environment where his son’s interest in the piano could flourish. According to Ericcson, Mozart started learning the piano before he could walk. Ericcson argues success for “prodigies” like Mozart came from constant “deliberate practice”, commitment, and a desire for mastery. 

But there are other experts who argue that prodigies and super talented people are born that way because there are traits that come easily and naturally to them without any training.

So, whom should we believe?

I think both can be true to some extent and they’re not mutually exclusive. My middle daughter has a clear natural athletic advantage over her sisters that she was born. My three daughters train in tennis the same amount of hours weekly, have the same coaching, and started taking tennis lessons at the same age but my middle daughter has a clear physical advantage.

But even with this athletic advantage, it will still take years of effort, focus, and Ericcson’s “deliberate practice” for my middle daughter to truly excel. Without the right mindset and hard work, my middle daughter’s innate athletic ability is useless.   

Instead of debating nature versus nurture, psychologists have recently started to focus more on how to create an environment where anyone can improve and even excel at their craft.

Was Jordan talented? I’m sure he had some innate athletic talent. But it’s nearly impossible to measure how much his talent is responsible for his success because he worked as if talent didn’t exist. Kobe Byant, another NBA great, was known as someone who worked as hard if not harder than Jordan.

So, how do we measure talent here?

Well, we don’t.

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #10: You don’t have to be the greatest just better than you were yesterday.

So, how do we do all this? Develop a mindset that sees hard work, self-discipline, and deliberate practice as a reward.

At each stage in Jordan’s basketball career you see clues into the mind of someone who never thought about his talent or was satisfied. His mind was like a GPS locked into a destination of excellence. This is all about mindset.

I think Jordan’s great innate competitive advantage was a love for the game, a desire to improve, and an obsession to compete which sometimes went too far.

Psychologist, author, and researcher Carol Deck coined the term “growth mindset” which she defined as when “people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

Jordan had a growth mindset. He’s been quoted as saying, Jordan himself said, “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.” And that mindset has followed him from the basketball from to business as evidenced by the fact that he makes more money in retirement than when he played.

So, how does this apply to the real-world?

Think like a craftsman who slowly and intentionally improves at that thing you are most interested in. You can bring that mindset into an area of life that’s important to you from marriage to personal finances to our careers and hobbies. What would you like to improve or even master in your lifetime?

So, how intentional are you about getting better at your craft, whatever that might be?

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And if you liked this series and want to increase your leadership I.Q check out my book, “Leader by Choice.”

Some of the reviews:

“I think everyone can benefit from reading this, but especially those who feel they are held back by their past.”

“I read a lot of leadership books but few are as accessible, personal, and action-oriented as this one.”

“This was just the book I needed (as someone who has been in middle management for a while, but feeling stuck. Mid life!).” 

“Leader by Choice is a must read! Do yourself, or someone you care about, a favor and order the paperback version of this book.”

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