Reference no: EM132886107

Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect

Ricardo is an associate financial analyst in a large financial consulting firm. He works in the emerging markets division developing low-cost products for the Southeast Asia region. He was selected for this position because of his wide range of skills, relevant experience, and analytical abilities. During his time at the firm, he has worked on a variety of projects and has become well respected among his peers. He is satisfied with his job and with his progress so far, but he strives to work on more challenging projects, wants to make a greater impact, and seeks a leadership-centered role. Ricardo has a strong drive and eventually hopes to get a position at the highest levels of the organization. In recent years, the firm has remained stable but has struggled with growth. The recent economic downturn changed the financial landscape and is requiring new and innovative solutions to common issues such as reducing and calculating risk. As a result, the firm decided to launch a company- wide competition for the best risk assessment model in order to motivate all of its employees to work on solving this issue. After several rounds of assessment and interviews, the top two finalists will be invited to present their ideas to the CEO who will make the final decision regarding the winner of the competition. The winning team will receive a substantial cash prize alongside significant prestige. Ricardo sees this as the perfect chance to impress his colleagues and supervisors and to establish himself as a top performer. This competition presents the ideal circumstances for him to not only prove himself but also really shine. He and his team are incredibly excited about this opportunity and have been working tirelessly on this project. Ricardo's strong math and finance background help him come up with a comprehensive and complex algorithm that seems to be surprisingly effective in predicting risk. Each member contributes to different aspects of the project and together they create strong proposal that they believe is worthy of winning the competition. Ricardo emerges as leader of the group due to his detailed knowledge and understanding of its proposed model. He is excellent at motivating and guiding his small team, but he gets very nervous in formal situations and speaking in public, which questions his ability to influence people. He knows that part of the selection process will involve presenting his team's idea to different departments and important stakeholders and that he will be expected to take the lead during these presentations. He also knows that the key to passing through each round of the selection process will be to get people on board with their idea and convincing them of its potential. You are Ricardo's manager, and he comes to you for advice and guidance about the current situation. You believe that he is one of the brightest employees in the company and that he has the potential to become the most successful as well. However, he will need to overcome his fear of public speaking and develop his presentation skills in order to win this competition and reach his goals. Ricardo is committed to improvement and to becoming a top performer, and he understands that this will require a considerable amount of time and dedication. However, he hasn't heard of the concept of deliberate practice and is unsure of how to get the most value out of the time he dedicates to improving his performance.

1. Based on the concept of deliberate practice, list the five steps that lead to excellence.

2. Provide Ricardo with specific recommendations on how he can "deliberately practice" his presentation skills.