Jimmy Stewart was asked one time as to what was the number one goal of his career. The interviewer thought Stewart would say that his goal was to win the Academy Award for Best Actor or for Best Picture or to earn millions of dollars or be recognized by his fans as the greatest actor of all time. Instead Steward calmly replied, "My number one goal throughout my entire career was to hone my craft."

This is what top performers do. They constantly work on their craft. They realize it is an art form to consciously refine and work at and not a scientific formula to follow. Their craft is more important to them than the external indicators of success. Of course, they realize that by honing their craft these externals will flow toward them. However, and this is important, their emphasis and effort is continually focused on honing their craft. Over the long run the incremental improvements they develop within their craft lead them to a level of mastery that very few people ever experience.

Here are five ways to hone your craft:

1. Study The Masters
2. Meet With Mutual Supporters
3. Find A Mentor
4. Improve One Piece Every Time
5. Step Out Of Your World

STUDY THE MASTERS

Regardless of your industry, identify the individuals or groups who you consider to be the very best at your craft. Read about them and anything they have written, study them, watch them in action, interview people who know them and capture every little detail about how they operate. Ask them if you can interview them. I interviewed 29 top executives last year for twenty minutes each. They shared with me golden nuggets that I would have had a hard time ever learning on my own. However, and this is a key point, don't copy them. If you are ever going to be a world-class craftsman, then you must be original. Take what you learn from these masters, reflect on it, decide which pieces you want to keep and which ones you want to let go of, refine these approaches to meet your style and then apply them in your own unique way.

MEET WITH MUTUAL SUPPORTERS

Find a few key individuals who support what you do and whom you support what they do. Schedule regular meetings with these people. At these meetings, which can be in person, over the phone or even via e-mail, ask each other open-ended questions such as:

1. What have you done to improve your craft?
2. What worked and what did not work?
3. What lessons did you learn?
4. How can you apply these lessons in the next thirty days to achieve even better results?

Be enthused for the other person's progress and expect the same in return. Challenge each other to keep finding new ways to improve your respective craft. These conversations are tremendously motivating because each person is there merely to support the other person. There are no reprimands, no performance reviews, and no evaluations. The goal is to encourage, support and offer practical suggestions to each other so that each person will become continually more effective.

FIND A MENTOR

Mentors are tremendously valuable. They provide wisdom based on experience. This wisdom can trim years off of our learning curves. Mentors come to us in three ways.

1. They volunteer to be a mentor. Within some organizations there are formal mentoring programs that ask for people who are interested in serving as mentors. If this is true within your organization, I encourage you to pursue being a mentee. However, be sure to clarify what this mentor's expectations are of you as the mentee and what your expectations are of them as the mentor. See if you are going to be compatible. After a three-month trial period, if it is not meeting your needs or expectations be willing to step out of the mentor program. During those three months give it everything you've got. I once had a mentor in a situation like this named Larry Baker and he was tremendously helpful. On the other hand, I know of mentors who made it so difficult for their mentees that the mentees just stopped meeting with them.

2. Ask someone to be your mentor. Let them know that you just want to be able to pick their brain a few times a month either over the phone or via e-mail. Ask them if this would be ok with them. If they say no, then honor that and don't ask them questions. If they say yes, then honor that and only do what has been agreed upon. Don't operate outside of the predetermined boundaries.

3. Hire a mentor. By far the best investment I made in the last three years was hiring a professional mentor named Alan Weiss who is an expert in my industry. Who is an expert in your industry? The advantage of paying someone is that there is a greater sense of accountability for the mentor. Also, you won't be as hesitant to ask them for advice since you are paying them.

IMPROVE ONE PIECE EVERY TIME

No matter what your craft is look for one thing to improve each time you do it. Slowly but steadily you will reinvent your artistry. Even one small detail at a time will quickly add up to substantial progress. Try this for thirty days. Each day look for one small thing to improve. At the end of thirty days identify the difference in your level of performance. If you will do that consistently for a year, you will be two and three times more effective than you were at the beginning of the year.

STEP OUT OF YOUR WORLD

Sometimes you can find a way to hone your craft by watching or studying one of the greats in a completely unrelated industry. Two or three times a year I will do an in-depth study of someone who is truly world-class in their field. The objective is to search for two or three small intricacies or habits that made that person unusually successful. Over the years I've studied Albert Schweitzer, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Mother Theresa, Vince Lombardi, John Wooden, Pleasant Rowland, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. Each time I learned some habit that really enhanced my own level of performance.

In conclusion, I encourage you to not just be a technician in your field, but also a master craftsman. This is where you separate yourself from the very good and move to the level of the extraordinary. The key is to continually hone your craft.

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