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#10. How Many “Excellent” Employees
(and Kids) Do You Have?

Questions About “Excellent”  

1. What percent of excellent employees do you have within any job niche? 
2. What percent within each niche think that they are in the top 50%?  
3. Is the “illusory superiority effect” (a cognitive bias) – where everyone is above average – in play? (Example: 93% of US drivers think they are top-50 for both skill and safety.) 
4. How does anyone define - “excellent” – with a given job niche? 
5. Your plans to better enlighten and motivate everyone to get on the path of mastery to improve towards being “excellent”? 
6. What are employees, who are parents, doing to teach their kids how to master the process of mastery? Why? 
7. Given tech-driven-change: won’t both employees and kids have to master – learning, unlearning and relearning – skills (on their own?) for a career of good employment? 

Defining “Excellent”

Pick a job (or a skill for a kid) and apply martial arts belt rankings to skill levels: “white belt” (novice) to Black Belt Nth degree (wise master/teacher). 

White-belt NOVICES know nothing, but observe, mimic and stumble forward. 

ADVANCED BEGINNERS can do some basics in a conscious, mechanical way.

COMPETENTS can do routine activities in an automatic, habitual way - well enough to get by (and not get fired).

HIGH COMPETENTS can apply earned skills flexibly in most situations. They can be good role models for beginners, but not necessarily effective coaches. 

EXPERTS can do it all as well as create new levels of effectiveness. Some are snobs and not good coaches.  

WISE EXPERTS are additionally great at coaching both slow and quick-learning beginners. 

It generally takes years to move from novice to expert at any skill worth mastering. So, how can we learn to love the path(s) for getting better to insure both gainful employment and being able to help others to do the same.   


Advice On Becoming Excellent

Self-help gurus promote: I’m successful; here’s my recipe and slogans; so, “just do it”. But, most can’t achieve their dreams without a good plan and some help. 

Two authors wrote good books on “Mastery”. George Leonard in “Mastery” (1991) details how to get on and stay on the path toward excellence in any “hard-skill” (touch typing, musical instrument, martial art, etc.). And, he suggests the same principles will work for “soft-skills”: like empathetic listening or synergistic negotiating. 

Robert Greene’s “Mastery” (2010) focuses on how to become an outstanding professional through apprenticeships with best mentors. 
But, neither address how to release the negative thoughts that keep many from persisting towards their dreams. What are the educational and coaching solutions for helping more kids and employees:

1. To reduce their negative, braking emotions while boosting their positive want-to, can-do motivations? 
2. To design improvement plans with enough built in support to grow towards their dreams? 

I’m working on these questions at www.merrifield.com. Will you join and help me?