Let’s say you’re hiring an employee, or a consultant. If you were to expect that person to come in and make an immediate impact, you might believe your expectations to be reasonable.
You might believe that simply because you are paying money for something, that you are entitled to sidestep all learning curves.
If you believed these things, you would be wrong.
Learning curves are part of the equation, and this rule rarely has exceptions. The only variable is time; how long will it take to get to the result.
Great leaders are patient.
What makes great employees great, and great consultants great, and great athletes great…is their willingness to get up when they get knocked down. It is also their ability to adapt and continue to move forward.
You can often recognize great talent not by their immediate impact, but by how they approach the learning curve.