In his book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”, David Epstein references “desirable difficulties”, from the work of psychologist Nate Kornell. These are difficulties that someone experiences while learning something, and generalists, the people who decide not to specialize early in their profession, benefit from this.
These generalists are often in situations where things are uncertain, since they’re in territory they don’t specialize in. They’re trying new things, and they’re learning from many different domains. They’re cross-training their brain, which helps them adapt faster in unfamiliar scenarios, compared to specialists who thrive in the same predictable game, with the same rules. These generalists build transferrable thinking, learning to see patterns, and using the resilience they’ve built up from past difficulty.
Leaders are often pressured to get things right, fast.
“Thinking is a luxury.”, I hear often in my coaching practice.
Sure, those learning experiences feel difficult, there’s struggle, but perhaps the struggle is a sign that your learning is growing deeper?
Learning takes time. It feels slow, which challenges our patience. Going into a new situation knowing that you’re going to do some learning, can help prep you for what you’ll experience.
Think of it like training for a marathon with ankle weights. In training, you might just dedicate your short runs to using ankle weights, and yes, it sounds a little weird. Think for a second about how that would feel – everything will feel heavier, slower, less graceful, maybe even clumsy! But what will it be like when you take the ankle weights off and run? That’s when the power, agility, and speed kick in that you might not have thought was possible before. When things are heavy, your body and mind build strength in all sorts of new, interesting, previously unknown ways. Your stabilizing muscles strengthen, which helps you in all the future moments when you’re tired and need to keep going or use a different stance.
Wearing ankle weights as a leader can look like:
- Giving space for your team to experiment, stumble, and stretch
- Getting to know your peers personally, as well as members of your team
- Working with a coach to practice reframing difficulty or building skill in adaptive thinking
Your working relationships will benefit from your ankle weights.
Your team will benefit from your ankle weights.
You might experience growth you didn’t think was possible from your ankle weights.
The difficulty usually isn’t desirable in the moment, but with some reflection, those “ankle weights” will show you that it might have been just what you needed to become a stronger, more resilient leader that everyone around you needs and hopes for.
If there’s a “desirable difficulty” you’ve realized for yourself lately, send me a note and tell me about it!
Here are a few resources that I’ve found interesting and have been sharing with clients:
1 // We’re all imperfect, we’re all goofballs. (1 min read)
2 // 10 insights from the book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World”. (10 min read)
3 // “A simple formula for a pretty nice life is independence plus purpose.” (10 min read)
