Knowledge, skill, and stamina
It’s not that grinding spices is difficult, but turning the crank gets tiring. (Image by Dimitris Vetsikas)
In the first stage of learning, we figure out what to do.
The next stage is to be able to do it.
Then comes the ability to do it well, over and over again, over a period of time.
In your profession, projects, and pastimes, you find yourself playing in all three of these stages at once, based on your knowledge, skill, and stamina in different aspects of the work.
For instance, you might have a hard time with making decisions about what to do next in a business venture because you don’t have the data, information, and experience to make choices confidently (a knowledge problem).
At the same time, maybe you’re good at delivering the service you sell, creating a great rapport and building trust with clients with each session (you have the skills).
However, perhaps when it comes to marketing, you are inconsistent (a stamina problem).
When we don’t know what to do, we’ve got a knowledge gap.
When we know what to do and struggle to execute it well, we’ve got a skill gap.
And when we are able to do it well but not all the time, we’re looking at a stamina gap.
No matter where you are, it’s okay. Because maybe now you can see the situation more clearly, and that’s the first step toward improving it.
It can be challenging to recognize that a piece of knowledge is missing if we’re used to thinking of ourselves as someone who has the answers. That can be a revelation in itself. From there, however, solving the problem is pretty straightforward. Most of us are used to improving our knowledge. We know how to find the information we need, and school has taught us the process for absorbing it.
Repairing a skill gap is where things get tricky. Often, this requires going out and asking for help from another human being. It’s awfully difficult to improve your own tennis swing, singing voice, or social skills without feedback, and the kind of direct feedback we get from an expert can take years off of the learning process. This is how we go from just knowing something to knowing how, being able to, and then performing at a high level.
Once we’ve built up the skills, we’ve got to continue to practice. For a professional, it’s not enough just to be able to execute effectively — we have to be able to do it every time, day after day, under stress and facing pressure. That’s what makes the difference between “very good” and “world class.” How does the tennis swing hold up in the fourth set of the Wimbledon final? How do we sound on the twentieth concert of our North American tour? How do we behave when we’re being introduced to a rival world leader regarding a sensitive issue of international diplomacy — on four hours of sleep? This is where the stamina comes in.
Improving our knowledge, skill, and stamina is the work of a lifetime. We aren’t born with these things and they do not develop by accident. It is the patient, day to day work, with the necessary support and resources, that will allow us to reach our highest level of potential and realize our desired capability.
What knowledge is missing for you? What skills do you need to develop? And where do you need to build stamina? And what might you need to let go of in order to free up energy for the work that needs to be done?
What support do you need to accomplish what you’ve set out to do? Where are you succeeding? Where are you struggling?
And where might you have the knowledge, skill, and stamina to contribute your support, insight, and encouragement to help others?
