Tonight is the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship, and the matchup between Kansas and Kentucky features not only two storied programs but also two high-profile coaches. The performance of a team in sports is often related back to the coach, and it is more or less accepted as fact in our society that athletes with coaches perform better than those without. However, we rarely ask how this principle might apply in other settings. In this article, Atul Gawande looks into the topic of coaching and even takes on his own coach for his surgical performance. Even a top-notch surgeon like Gawande found that there were many ways that he could improve, but for coaching to work, the person being coaches has to be truly welcoming of the feedback. This is a good reminder of the need to be humble about what we know and think we can do, which isn't always easy, especially in many of the most demanding and highly-competitive professions.
"Personal Best" by Atul Gawande
Published in the New Yorker, October 3, 2011
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande
Eric
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