Tiger Woods ranked #52 - 27/06/07 - Spininfo | Cricket

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One of the things I learnt in my career was that I should focus on what I did well and leave those that I wasn't very good at. Working with Paddy and Dale I am broadening my knowledge base on the scientific research and coaching theories behind this topic. Dale was trained by Gallup on their Strengthsfinder methodology and will be exploring the concept of 'focusing on strengths' in this week's newsletter.

Dale: Looking at the world golf rankings you wouldn't be surprised to see Tiger Woods at #1. You may be surprised to see that that in one area of his game he is ranked at #52*. Sand saves, the ability to sink the ball in two strokes from within a greenside sand bunker is not a strength of Tiger Woods.

Now if you went to your golf coach and told him you weren't very good at sand saves he would probably suggest you work on that weak area so that you have a more rounded game. Clearly Tiger Woods gets by just fine despite being comparatively mediocre at that particular part of his game. He's learnt to focus on what he does well, his strengths and to find a way around the areas that are non-strengths.

Traditional thinking proposes fixing weaknesses to create a well-rounded player or businessperson. Based on scientific research this is a drastic mistake. The Gallup organisation has researched this area for more than 35 years, conducting 1,500 focus groups and 750,000 individual interviews. The result is overwhelming - people perform at their best when they are working with their strengths.

Their argument is supported by neuroscience. During our first three years of brain development, neurons, the part of our brain that processes and transmits information, go into overdrive. They actively reach out to make as many connections as possible. Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. The synapse is a small gap separating neurons. We can observe this in a young child who has a small attention span and moves around gathering as many different experiences as possible.

From age three to fifteen a different process takes over whereby the synapses are pruned and very specific connections start to take shape. Picture a path running through a field - if many people walk the path it becomes more prominent. If vehicles start driving the path it will become a track and eventually a dirt road. If lots of vehicles drive the path it will eventually develop into a highway.

The same process happens in our brains. The synapses, or paths that are most used, have less resistance and turn into "highways" in our brains. Those that are less used become overgrown paths.

The highways in our brains are our strengths. It could be the ability to connect with other people, to be disciplined, to hit a golf ball in a particular way or to think strategically. If you dig into the life of someone truly talented at something you will find evidence of how the highway in their brain grew to accommodate their talent.

Tiger Woods began playing golf before he was four years old. At age three he shot a 48. His father said "When most kids are in those circular walkers, you give them a rattle. He had a putter." At age six he made his first birdie on a 91-yard par three. By the time he was seven his father had him listening to subliminal tapes to improve his mental game. Clearly Tiger has a few highways in his brain, which support his superb golfing abilities.

From age fifteen there is a structured network in place that defines what your talents are. Everybody is different and everybody has talents - the trick is to find out what yours are and then to play to them, in business, in sport and in life.

The mistake many people make is to try to work on their non-strengths. This is often wasted effort. Unfortunately many people have had a childhood experience where they come home with an excellent report card - say five A's and a B and get asked how they are going to get the B to be come an A.

Gallup cites research of people learning speed-reading. A group of average readers were separated from a group of above average (talented) readers. In the first round of the exercise they were told how to correct their mistakes regarding speed-reading. This resulted in the average readers scoring 90 WPM (words per minute) and the above average scoring 350 WPM. In the second round, instead of correcting mistakes only positive feedback was given about what they did well.

This resulted in the average readers scoring 150 WPM and the above average 2900 WPM, a whopping 800% improvement. This is illustrated in the graph below.

The message here is clear. Weakness fixing prevents failure and strength building leads to success. Focus on your strengths and don't try to correct your non-strengths.

In sport this means finding a position or a sport where you can mostly do what you are talented at. In business it means partnering with people who can complement your non-strengths

If you are a great communicator but a poor planner, spend your time communicating and find someone to help you plan. The impact will be dramatically better than if you try to become a good communicator and a good planner, a course that will lead you to be mediocre at both.

Mid-way through his career, with his test average in the mid-30's, Steve Waugh realised that he was getting out too often to the short ball shot. In response, he made a call to not engage the pull or hook, rather to leave it or even let it hit his body. He was using his strengths of discipline, focus and mental toughness to improve his performance. Even when under pressure to score, he was resolute in his approach not to play those shots.

As a result, he took his average from the mid 30's to 50. To get his average above 50 he would have had to score a lot higher in the second part of his career. And he did this by avoiding a shot that was not a strength of his.

The trick to high consistent performance is firstly to ensure that you are aware of your strengths and then have a plan for dealing with your non-strengths. And that plan is not about fixing them, it is finding a creative way of not needing to engage with non-strengths.

High performance cars are designed for highways. If we took them down dirt tracks we just wouldn't get the same result.

Here are so coaching questions to help identify your strengths?

What activities do you find effortless?
What are you doing when time flies past?
Which tasks do you find it difficult to explain to others because they seem so natural to you?

Over to you, Aggers