I recently had the good fortune to listen to an interview with Dallis Fontenot, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. She appeared on the Gallup Called to Coach podcast channel (you can listen to the podcast through this link). Dallis is a recognized expert in helping teams have greater impact and deliver better results.
During the interview, Dallis launches her theory on the 10 – 10 – 10 rule: 3 powerful ideas, 3 tips that according to Dallis are very important and will help you improve your leadership and the way you manage your teams. I think they are very interesting tips and for this reason, I wanted to share them with you in this post.
THE 10 – 10 – 10 RULE IS BASED ON:
- 10 DOMINANT TALENTS. The first rule, Dallis’s first big piece of advice, is to get to know your top 10 talents. To do this, as a Gallup-certified coach, Dallis recommends taking Gallup’s Clifton Strengths test. If you don’t know it yet, it is an online tool developed by Gallup after decades of research that will allow you to know your talents, and discover those patterns of thought, feeling, and action that allow you to have better results. Discovering what you are very good at, and what your areas of greatest potential are, is essential so that you can offer your best version. I’ve been using this tool for over a decade (and I’m a certified Gallup coach) and I can assure you that it’s wonderful. Having helped hundreds of professionals discover and enhance their talents through the Clifton Strengths, I guarantee you that it is a great help to improve your performance. Dallis recommends focusing on your top 10 talents—knowing them thoroughly, nurturing them, and continually developing them. And above all, apply them to the maximum in your day-to-day. In this way, you will have a greater impact and you will enjoy the process.
- WHAT DO YOU DO BETTER THAN 10,000 OTHER PEOPLE? This second rule is based on the question frequently asked by Don Clifton, who was president of Gallup and creator of the Clifton Strengths test. He was fully convinced that we all have some activity that we do better than 10,000 other people. I wrote about it in my post What do you do better than 10,000 other people? Dallis Fontenot recommends spending time thinking about the answer to this question. Finding the right answer to this question takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process of inner discovery, a long-term trip, and knowing your dominant talents can help you. Also, having a coach or mentor to walk you through the process can make it much easier the process of discovering what you do better than 10,000 other people.
- 10,000 HOURS. To have high performance in any discipline you must dedicate at least 10,000 hours to it. But, if you invest 10,000 hours in any activity, you will have a high performance only if you also have a talent for it. Talent alone is not going to give you a great performance either. Just as investing 10,000 hours in an activity will help you improve, you will only achieve excellent performance if you also have the talent for it. For this reason, it is essential to know your talents well, and your areas of greatest potential. And once you are clear about where to invest, and where to focus your efforts… dedicate 10,000 hours to that activity. Dallis’s third tip has to do with deciding well what activity you are going to commit these 10,000 hours to. It is not an easy decision, but if you have followed ideas 1 and 2 well, it will be less difficult for you.
In short, 3 ideas, 3 POWERFUL RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WILL HELP YOU GROW PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY. And I close this post with a phrase from Dallis Fontenot herself related to growth. Dallis says that “Growing is painful. And if you’re not experiencing a little bit of pain, you’re probably not growing.”
