Of course, we got Scott to speak at Present to Succeed 2022 where he shared his story about how he came to be the inspirational university professor, entrepreneur, podcaster and public speaking expert he is today. Essentially, it all boils down to… deliberate practice.

Influenced by author and psychologist Anders Ericsson (Peak. Secrets from the New Science of Expertise), Scott borrowed the term deliberate practice and talked us through its four key components. This small list of pillars below is like a roadmap of building your own expertise and can be applied to any area you might be working in. Presentations included. Let’s see what they are.

This component is about the long hours you put into a task. Some researchers, like Malcolm Gladwell, suggest that to reach the highest level of expertise, you need to stick to the 10 000 hours rule. Scott Allen, however, says that this alone is not enough to make you an expert.

Another thing that we do a lot in the strive for proficiency is rehearsal. The same goes for preparing for a presentation. You need to do as many rehearsals as you need to beat the presentation anxiety and start to sound natural. You test your equipment and the software of choice to prevent any tech issues. But again, time and practice are not enough to become an expert, says Scott.

According to Scott, one of the two indispensable ingredients of excellence is having someone mentor you and guide you through the process of taking it to the next level. Managers delivering presentations to their teams need to learn from it, says Scott, and start not only to present, but engage with the employees and consistently ask for their feedback. If managers don’t get concrete advice on what could be improved, there is no place for learning and growth. Hey, you who’s not a manager! This applies to you, too!

When presenting, think of yourself as an athlete and of the audience as the coach. A coach gives you those precious bits of strategies that could spare you a lot of trial and error and directly move you to another level.

The fourth element of deliberate practice is your own perseverance and willingness to outgrow yourself. Scott puts it like this: always strive to improve while saying to yourself “I’m not there yet” . We think it’s very similar to what another Present to Succeed star guest, Horst Schulze, said: Excellence is never an accident.