12 Skills You Must Teach New And Young Leaders To Do To Become World-Class Performers

Would you like your organization’s new and young leaders to change your industry and become world class performers?  Absolutely!  However, it is essential you have a robust training and development system in place that empowers them to reach their full potential.  If you have not established such a system yet, or if you’re looking to further strengthen your existing training program, this article is for you.

In the above video, Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed teach a group of high school football players how to watch film.  It is a masterclass on how to develop young leaders to become people of excellence.

As I watched their session, I gleaned the following:

12 Skills You Must Teach New And Young Leaders To Develop To Become World Class Performers

1. New And Young Leaders Must Receive World-Class Coaching To Become World-Class Performers – This requires humility and curiosity.  Everyone gets better with a coach.  You simply cannot put a price tag on the level of wisdom and insight this group of players received from Hall of Famers like Lewis and Reed.  The question now becomes will these young men implement the following eleven lessons?  Will they be good stewards of what has been imparted into them?
2. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught To Constantly Self-Evaluate To Become World-Class – Great leaders ruthlessly self-evaluate.  Lewis said, “The most important thing is film study.  Why?  Because you have to watch yourself repetitively over and over and over again doing the same things.”
3. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught To Properly Evaluate Reality To Become World-Class – You have to take a hard look at yourself and inventory your performance. Reed recounted, “I’ll never forget this the first time I met Ray.  He said, ‘Believe what you see in what you study.  What you study on this tape and what you see, it’s gonna happen.  It’s just a matter of time when.’ “
4. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught To Recognize Trends To Become World-Class – The most successful leader have developed the skill of pattern recognition.  They can see around corners and accurately predict outcomes based upon study and experience.  Lewis has observed, “The game is so repetitive.”
5. New And Young Leaders Must Develop World-Class Intelligence To Have World-Class Performance – Dumb people do not make good leaders.  Lewis said, “The game is mastery guys. .. When you have to play against minds, every little thing it’s a chess match and ain’t checkers.  In college and high school y’all playing checkers.  Usually the best player can double jump. … When you get to the league, it’s a whole other ballgame.”
6. New And Young Leaders Must Have Trusted Teammates To Become World-Class – Great teams are built on a foundation of trust.  Lewis noted, “If you trust each other on defense, man you’re great together.”
7. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught Communication Skills To Become World-Class – Reed said, “Constant communication on defense, I mean every snap, there’s there’s not a time when you shouldn’t be talking to each other.”
8. New And Young Leaders Must Develop The Discipline Of Note-Taking To Become World-Class – This skill of note-taking is so important, I have included a 60-second clip on this portion of the lesson which you should show your entire team by clicking HERE or on the image below.  Reed pleaded with the players, “Ray will tell you how many times that I stopped training camp meetings and like, ‘Coach hold up, we got  guys ain’t taking notes.’ ”
   

   60-Second Clip on Note-Taking

9. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught To Remain Curious To Become World-Class – Lewis added, “There’s not one word, if you haven’t heard it before if you heard that a thousand times, that you should not write down.  Now that’s the only thing that creates mastery.”
10. New And Young Leaders Must Be Taught To Develop Instincts To Become World-Class – Food tastes better coming out of a crockpot than a microwave.  Instincts are the same.  They take time and seasoning.  You can’t microwave instincts.  Reed observed, “When you see guys making plays, you’re like how you made that play?  Looked like he guessed.  It ain’t guessing.  Your instincts took over.  You’ve done wrote everything down that you just saw you.  You drew up the plays.  You talked it over with your brothers.”  For a deeper dive on the subject of time, read How Heat, Pressure, Disappointment, And Constraints Prepare Leaders For Great Things In The Future.
11. New And Young Leaders Must Have A World-Class Work Ethic To Become World-Class Performers – Hard work works.  Lewis acknowledged, “First time in the history ever the two Defensive Players of the Year went back-to-back from the same team.  It isn’t because of what we said.  It’s because of the work we put in.”  For more on the subject of hard work, get my book Timeless: 10 Enduring Practices of Apex Leaders.  I dedicate an entire chapter on the work ethic of the world’s greatest leaders.
12. New And Young Leaders Must Pay A Price No One Else Is Willing To Pay To Become World-Class – Lewis concluded, “It’s because we was laying on our backs after every night sick passed out and do not want to get up the next morning.  But when that light come on, we got to be working.  We got to be working.”

Speaking of world-class leaders, my latest eBook is available for download.  The Top 65 Leadership Quotes Of 2022 Part 1 is a resource every leader should have.  Great quotes bring clarity and put into words who we intuitively feel as leaders.  They give us wisdom and insights which advance the mission and vision of our organizations.  This eBook includes thoughts and insights from leaders like Warren Buffett, Nick Saban, James Clear, Dawn Staley, Jurgen Klopp, Jerry Seinfeld, and even Ted Lasso.  This resource will take you about 10 minutes to read but a lifetime to apply.  You will want to stop and ponder the implications of each quote.  Click HERE or on the image provided for immediate download!