Have you ever felt like you’re not achieving your full potential or progressing in your career as quickly as you desire? If so, you can utilize the Learning and Performing Zones to enhance and develop your career. The key to growth lies in understanding when to develop new skills and when to apply them effectively.
Both learning and performing zones play critical roles in our professional development. The learning zone focuses on acquiring new skills, while the performing zone optimizes existing skills to deliver value. Knowing when to transition between these zones is essential for our long-term career success.
The Learning Zone: Building Skills
Learning is the process of developing new skills or knowledge through deliberate practice. It occurs when you repeat an action in a conscious, manual way until performing that action becomes automated, and you execute it subconsciously.
You cannot control learning directly, but you can control it indirectly by forcing repeated action. For example, when you learn a new language, you cannot force yourself to remember a specific word. However, you can direct your conscious attention toward repeating that word until you remember it subconsciously.
There are several steps in the learning process. The first one is the awareness that you need to change.
Change can only occur when you know that you must. Without this first step, change will happen only by chance or external influence. It is much better if we decide we must learn something rather than someone else deciding for us.
Once awareness is established, you must form a clear intention to develop the new skill or behavior. You may be aware you have to learn something, but it won’t happen unless you intend to make it happen. Then, the intention is put into action when performing a new task or practicing a new behavior through consistent, deliberate practice.
With consistent effort, these actions become more effortless in time and eventually become fully automated behaviors. At this point, the new activity becomes easy, natural, and accurate, with the subconscious mind taking over.
For example, your manager tells you that improving your communication skills is necessary to secure a promotion. Initially, this feedback surprises you, as you believed yourself to be an effective communicator. However, after a conversation with your manager, you become aware of your development needs.
The manager’s feedback was crucial here, as without it, you might’ve never recognized the need for improvement. Without the awareness step completed, the improvement process would’ve not started.
You’ve wanted that promotion for a while, so you build a strong intention to improve your communication skills. You actively adopt strategies such as listening carefully, speaking clearly, and taking on group presentations.
Although these efforts feel challenging at first, consistent and deliberate practice starts bringing results as effective communication becomes second nature, expanding your skill set.
Over time, these actions transform into automatic behaviors, making effective communication come naturally and expanding your skill set.
Unlearning: Breaking Free from Bad Habits
Before moving on to the next topic, I want to briefly touch on unlearning, or how to eliminate bad habits that no longer serve us. Unlearning can be difficult as it requires breaking deeply ingrained automatic, subconscious habits that have accumulated over time.
Because repeated actions (conscious or subconscious) tend to become habits, we must be careful what our actions are.
The best strategy for eliminating bad habits is prevention. Be watchful when bad habits sneak out on you; don’t let them stick, and you don’t have to worry about eliminating them. It’s a bit like alcoholism. If you don’t take on drinking, you don’t have to worry about quitting drinking!
However, if bad habits have already formed, the key is to patiently replace them or to build the opposite habit.
Be mindful of where you direct your focus and the actions you undertake, and ensure to only engage in activities that help you improve.
Performance Zone: Putting Skills into Action
Once you have mastered the new skill, it is time to put it into practice. Learning is an investment in the present that pays off in the future – but true growth happens when knowledge is applied.
Don’t learn only for the sake of learning; instead, use what you’ve learned to create value.
“The purpose of knowledge is action, not knowledge.”
Aristotle
The performance zone is when we perform at our best. We are fully engaged, focused, and motivated to achieve our goals. We are the experts in our field, feel confident, and execute efficiently. While the Learning Zone maximizes future performance, the Performance Zone optimizes present performance as we add immediate value to the organization.
It is important to note that the performance zone is not a static place. Even when you achieve a high level of proficiency in a particular skill, you still need to practice and maintain your skills to remain in the performance zone. And, in time, you have to update or upgrade your skills to keep up with the changes; otherwise, stagnation will occur, and you will fall behind.
Conclusion: Embracing the Challenge of Learning
Learning is difficult; you feel uncomfortable, even frustrated at times, and you make mistakes. Learning requires a lot of effort and concentration to get things right. However, it is during these challenging moments when the greatest progress occurs, laying the foundation for future success.
Today’s learning is the foundation for tomorrow’s success. Growth in your career is not a static process; your skill set either evolves or declines. Holding onto existing knowledge indefinitely isn’t an option in today’s fast-changing world.
This highlights the fundamental difference between a fixed and a growth mindset. Those who embrace continuous learning thrive, while those who resist fall behind.
“I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty
When you learn something new, your skillset expands, leading to fresh new opportunities and professional growth. It feels like the world around you is changing. In reality, it remains the same – what truly evolves is you.
Continue the Journey: Learn How to Apply This Concept
Now that you understand the difference between Learning and Performance Zones, the next step is knowing how to navigate the cycle of growth effectively.
Read Part Two: Maximizing Your Potential: A Leader’s Guide to Performance and Learning Zones to explore how you can apply these principles in your career.