Recently, over the course of two hour-long bike rides in my basement, I watched a DVD of Darren Hardy speaking about the traits of some of the world’s most successful people he had interviewed as Editor of Success Magazine. During the presentation Hardy talked about a critical lesson he learned during his interview with Warren Buffet. Buffet said the secret to his success as an investor and his advice to others is to, “Stick to Your Circle of Competency”. Buffet explained that does not invest in anything outside of his circle of competency, a strategy which has made him one of the richest men in the world.
It struck me that “stick to your circle of competency” would be good advice for speakers, trainers and writers. There are people that are great writers, but not great speakers. There are people that are great speakers, but not great writers. There are people that are great physical skills trainers, but they are not good on a platform speaking to an audience. There are people that are great speakers, but are not good physical skills trainers. There are people that are great trainers or speakers who are not good personal coaches.There are people that are great personal coaches, but they are not good speakers or trainers. There are people that are highly proficient practicioners who are not good trainers. Sometimes we mistakenly believe we must do all of these things.
The key question for each of us then is what is your true ‘Circle of Competency’? I say true circle of competency as we need to be careful about deceiving ourselves into believing we are great at everything. Now, there certainly are people who are good at both speaking and writing, or teaching in the classroom and teaching in the combatives room, but we all have a ‘circle of competency’. Does this mean you cannot expand your circle of competency? No, but it does mean you need to make an honest assessment, and seek some honest feedback and determine your true circle of competency. Being good at one thing, does not automatically make you good at other related skills.
If you wish to expand your circle you must become become a dedicated student of the areas in which you need to improve. You must read the top books on the topic. You must study the people who are the best in that area to determine what they do differently and what makes them so good. Get coaching. Get feedback. Study. Learn. Do the work. And, perhaps most importantly practice, practice, practice. If you are not prepared to do the work to expand your circle then simply stick to what you are good at and continue to work to improve n that area.
Take care.
Brian Willis,
Thought Leader, Speaker, Trainer, Author
President of Winning Mind Training – Leading the fight against mediocrity through Life’s Most Powerful Question – What’s Important Now?
To book Brian to speak at your event contact him at winningmind@mac.com.
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