Why Stability Comes Before Skill
I am in another waiting room filling out another form. Name, age, email, address... Then, the symptoms, history of illnesses/surgeries, and then circling the parts of the body needing treatment on the little muscle anatomy figures. I draw a lot of circles.
From massage, to physio, to chiros, to Sports Medicine Doctors, I've seen almost all of them over the years. Twenty years of thrashing my body across many sports (predominantly cricket) have left my middle aged body with a lot of scar tissue. The hunt for a practitioner and treatment regime I can commit to begins again.
As golf is my major leisure activity these days and brings with it stressors and strains on my body, it made sense to see a practitioner specialising in golf. I was recommended an Osteopath (Dave) and begun the experiment a few weeks ago.
Its embarrassing that after two visits I am still remembering injuries I hadn't listed on that 'new patient form'. But, with patience the partnership has started well and initial diagnosis of my body is making sense. As the regime takes shape, Dave said something that stuck with me that was a perfect summary of his approach.
To paraphrase, he said the first step is to bring stability back into my body. It was weird to see how bad my balance was when doing something as mundane as walking. Investing in the work to gain stability into my frame seemed obvious. Then, once stability is established, the next step is to work on motion. Being able to regain the full range of motion in joints is critical. The body also needs to learn to retain its integrity when in motion. All of this means the muscles are being used as they were designed and decreases the overuse and underuse causing so much of the chronic pain. The final step would be to overlay skill. Once the body was ready, only then can we look at adding the synchronisation and application of the body to the skillsets needed in golf (as well as dynamic activities in general life).
Diagnosis always proceeds action in the medical world. Why would it be different in leadership? But, then a focus on stability first when taking action may be the smartest thing any leader can do when it comes to their own leadership strength and influence.
This idea of function through the steps of Stability, then Motion, then Skill struck a cord with me in terms of the stages leaders need to go through to take their team and/or business from a point of struggle to function and their measures of success. Here a few observations I have seen that can help leaders with this:
Stability, Stay in your lane - I want to do six reps instead of three. The exercises Dave has given me seem too easy and too simple. I am impatient. I want to work harder and get results quicker. Sound familiar? I see this in almost all of my clients where I need to slow them down (almost to the point of irritation) for them to build the practices that create a stable core for their leadership. It is where their ultimate leadership power stems from as they take on bigger, more complex challenges. Almost all leadership frameworks begin with Diagnosis or Analysis followed by a phase of quick wins and clearing down weaknesses or acute pain points. Leaders realising this are able to stablise their operation.
Motion, Get the momentum up - Getting forward motion from a static position is where the highest amount of friction is felt. Newton's First Law of Motion tells us this as it is where the most inertia is experienced by any object. It is no different in the workplace. When a professional is new to a role it will take six-twelve months to get to the performance level experienced in their previous role. When you start a new project the first phase will be the longest as people 'figure out what this is all about'. To get momentum up, we need to take our new found stability and start bleeding it out into others. Helping them to be stable, and supporting them to get short term results starts to release tension and pressure. Empowering them with frequent communication, individual coaching, and clear direction are often helpful. The team gains motion as people solve their own problems and starts to set up a team environment where constant fire fighting dissipates.
Skill, Adding Craft - Synchronisation is such a conceptual idea. In sport it is an art, yet out brains want it to be science. Personally, I am always looking for triggers. In golf it may be that my right foot needs to do this, then my right hand needs to get to there, before my weight shifts across, and then I drive my left shoulder to the... you get the idea. To try and do all of this in less than a half a second is impossible for the brain to be able to think through and execute. As in golf, cricket, or any other sport or artform we need technique (see stability), but when it gets to this stage it is more than technique that is required. It is the application of already learnt experience, exposure, and education. It is just as much in the unlearning as it is the learning of anything new. For a CEO I worked with recently, it was the refinement of their presentation skills. That was it. For another, their ability to distill the market's needs into three key projects to drive over a 12-24 month period may sync their whole organisation. Or, to do what they have always been doing, but tweak it for the next curve of disruption. Often, it is less change at this point than we realise, but change and development none the less.
I am re-learning that the temptation to skip ahead is often our biggest downfall. Without stability everything else will not go well, it will continue to be a huge a struggle, and things will get worse with little chance of them getting better. It is as accurate for my lower back pain as it is for the strains of every day leaders facing all kinds of challenges in their respective work lives.
My hope is this will be the last 'new patient form' I fill out for a while, as I hope the investment in stability will pay dividends for you and your leadership for years to come.
