Neither charisma nor experience replaces practice

Neither skill nor experience can ever replace practice.

Barack Obama’s personality is warm and engaging. But when faced with his first debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, he trusted his personality, not deliberate practice, to win the night.

The week prior to the debate, Obama’s chief advisor expressed concern that the presidential candidate wasn’t putting his best effort into preparation. Instead of careful hours of practice and review to hone his message and anticipate his opponent’s moves, Obama decided to go sightseeing and gave a lackadaisical effort in rehearsal. Obama’s response exposed his inexperience with this insight; “I’m a game-time player. I’ll be there at game time (Mcgowan, pg. 32).”

Obama anticipated the skill he’d accumulated in debate and public speaking would be enough to win the day against his rival. I suspect he had a history of success in debate with little preparation. But he, like anyone with talent and experience, was eventually (and publicly) reminded that charm and wit cannot replace deliberate practice.

A charismatic entrepreneur is likely to make the same mistake. After hours of practice, he might believe that he’s gained all that he needs in communication skill and begin to slack in his preparation. For a while this may work, but a time will come when his complacency will be exposed in a visible way that loses him credibility and possibly business. As McGowan highlights, “No one graduates from eloquence school (Mcgowan, pg. 32).”

Obama’s story surprised me. I wouldn’t expect anyone who was running for the highest office in the land to depend upon their charisma and a little practice to get them through. It’s sobering that someone who had spent so much effort to get to the presidential debates would be tricked into believing he no longer needed deliberate practice. If that’s true for him at the start of a challenging night, it’s likely for me in the course of an average business week. Therefore my application is to watch over myself and question whether I’ve prepared adequately for a meeting or presentation, or whether I’m foolishly depending upon my improvisational skill to win the day.

References