So what is The Mastery Continuum? The Mastery Continuum explains how we learn and apply new knowledge. You have probably heard the adage that Knowledge is Power but it is not True at all. Knowledge creates the potential for Power but it is only through the application of that Knowledge that you can create Power. The 3 steps of the Mastery Continuum include Intellectual Mastery, Emotional Mastery and Physical Mastery.
Why is the Mastery Continuum important? All companies have some type of training programs in place whether formal or informal and whether they cost or not. The Mastery Continuum is important for 3 key reasons
- You will maximize your time or dollar investment in all training you provide in your business.
- You will substantially enhance your business growth potential.
- You will significantly contribute to building a company culture of employee improvement and empowerment.
Let’s
examine and explain the 3 steps of the Mastery Continuum. It is critical you understand you cannot skip a step
in the Continuum and the further you get on the Continuum the more benefits you
and your company will experience.
- Intellectual Mastery. Gaining Intellectual Mastery is quite simple and we do this almost every day. If you want to learn something new and take some specific action to gain that new knowledge you are creating Intellectual Mastery. You can take a formal course, you can read a book, you can watch YouTube videos and more. For example, let’s say you want to improve your golf swing so you watch a bunch of shows on the Golf Channel. Having completed the ‘training’ you typically say to yourself something like “that makes sense – I can do that”.
- Emotional Mastery. You create Emotional Mastery by using the knowledge you gained to do something. Using our golf example, you go to the local driving range and try to put into practice what you learned. It probably takes a few shots and maybe you even brought your tablet to replay a couple of the tips offered but finally you start to hit the ball better. Now you say “I did that” and in effect you have created some initial Emotional Mastery; by actually doing what you learned you have moved beyond just Intellectual Mastery.
- Physical Mastery. When you have applied your new skill or ability over and over and over again you are on the road to Physical Mastery. You have likely heard the term ‘muscle memory’ which is commonly discussed with high performance athletes. You can also create what I call brain muscle memory for non physical skill or learnings – by doing something repeatedly over time you can perfect it.
This sounds pretty simple so what is the catch? It is not really a catch but more of an aha moment as you learn the difference between training and coaching and the challenge of skill fade. Studies have demonstrated that if you only achieve Intellectual Mastery without Emotional Mastery you will lose up to 85% of your new found knowledge within 6 weeks. You create Intellectual Mastery with training and you create Emotional Mastery with Coaching. You can use the 4 Step Apprenticeship (learn about this here) process to provide the Coaching or depending on the nature and complexity of the new skills needed you may have to hire a coach or mentor.
Once you have achieved Physical Mastery, coaching or mentoring is only needed if and when you get off track and need minor course corrections. Skill fade occurs when you have not used the skill for a while and forget some of what it takes to complete the task at hand. Sometimes a quick refresher or review with your coach gets you back on track.
You have an awesome
and unstoppable business when you have followed the tried and true model that
Systems Run your Business, People Run your Systems and You Lead your People.
Connecting the dots to the Mastery Continuum, creating Systems is the Intellectual
Mastery, getting the People able to run the Systems is the Emotional Mastery
and Leading the People is the Physical Mastery.
If you would like to learn how to get the most out of every opportunity to leverage The Mastery Continuum in your business to get to the ideal business model needed for long term growth and success, book a short phone call with me to chat. To your Success!