The Field Grade Leader

**This book review is provided by Daniel Von Benken. It focuses on how to apply Syed’s work to the domain of military expertise: training for and fighting wars.

Synopsis: In Bounce, Syed makes a strong and thought-provoking argument that purposeful practice and a growth mindset are the keys to developing expertise. Bounce builds on Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule, an idea familiar to military leaders that expertise requires 10,000 hours of work and not just talent. Syed provides greater context surrounding expertise and how experts are created. He delivers his message in three parts. First, he debunks the myth that natural talent is the key for the most successful people. Second, he investigates the psychology of performance and its interaction with proficiency. He closes with a deep study of purposeful practice and psychology, considering whether alternative conditions for expertise like genetics or geographic disposition enable success. In the end, he crowns purposeful practice and a growth mindset as king. Examples of purposeful practice and a growth mindset are examined below.

Syed uses familiar stories and an accessible writing style, a quality allowing the reader to move quickly through the book. For the military leader, the book’s first two sections drive home the lesson that talent isn’t a natural trait, it is earned. Focus your reflection on the first two sections, and re-read if able. Syed’s third section adds credence to the book’s thesis, but most likely leaves the door open for future dialogue.

Applications for a Military Leader: Syed offers three salient points benefitting leaders responsible for training an organization.

1. Take a quality approach to training. Make training meaningful and resource it properly. The book references a time when Syed’s table tennis coach changed his practice routine and challenged him with a longer table and multiple balls. This forced him to make cognitive and physical adaptations to his game, leading to enormous performance gains in future matches. To a military professional, one could imagine a unique approach to a stress shoot on a rifle range, or even as I have recently seen, a virtual-constructed Fire Support Coordination Exercise. Syed’s training philosophy nests well with the training outcomes we expect in the military: developing Soldiers and leaders able to adapt their physical and cognitive approaches to increasingly demanding conditions in order to maximize performance (e.g., gaining every tactical advantage possible).
2. Evoke a growth mindset. Syed details a psychological study showing students who are rewarded for effort instead of talent choose harder tasks and show greater growth over iterations of problem sets. A military professional who sets conditions where failure in training is accepted and hard work is appreciated, evokes a growth mindset in a unit. Leaders could challenge their units to the edge of their capabilities in training, an approach consistent with the current Army vision of training to operate in the challenging conditions envisioned for future warfare. Additionally, resilience-trained professionals on military installations would provide a great resource for practical and creative approaches structuring training to evoke a growth mindset.
3. “Sets and Reps” as a key contributor to mastery. Being good takes time. Artillery sections require multiple repetitions at emplacement; distribution platoons require repetitions at rearm, refuel, resupply and survey point operations to gain efficiency; infantry companies require combined arms live fire repetitions to mass combat power at the decisive point. Leaders invest time into Soldiers and protect time for key trainers within an organization. Senior leaders at all echelons stress the importance of protecting time for leaders to train their personnel. Emphasis on Sergeant’s time is a great example of how senior leaders in tactical formations make that commitment.