By Jeffrey Seckendorf
Why Training, Not Motivation, Is the Key to High Performance
People often ask me what it takes to achieve big goals. They assume the answer is motivation, discipline, or talent. But after a lifetime working in, filmmaking, education, aviation, and endurance sports, including setting five world endurance cycling records in my seventies, can tell you the answer is none of those things.
The real answer is training. Motivation is whimsical, it comes and goes. Discipline is a necessary component but does not directly translate into high performance, which can make discipline an unreliable trait. Talent is subjective, it is not measurable, and can be overrated. But training, a structured process of improvement over time, produces high performance in every field.
This is true in business, in leadership, in sports, in creative work, and in life.
High performers are not necessarily more motivated than anyone else. They simply understand how to train, how to improve, and how to stay in the process long enough to get very good at what they do.
Education can be classically defined as creating a change in behavior of students. Over decades of training adults and instructors in many different fields, I now understand that the change in behavior is worthless without retention. If the student or, in our case here, the employee, does not retain the changes, then the education was a failure.
This is one of the myths that goes with motivation. Many organizations believe that if they just motivate their employees, performance will improve. So they bring in motivational speakers, run retreats, or launch new initiatives designed to get people excited again however, if those events do not create an avenue for retention in the new things learned, the new motivation works for about a week at which point people return to their routines and their old habits. Motivation does not create lasting change. Training does.
If you want people to perform at a higher level, you must train them at a higher level.
Pilots don’t rely on motivation to fly safely. Surgeons don’t rely on motivation to perform surgery. Athletes don’t rely on motivation to compete. Filmmakers don’t rely on motivation to run a film set. All of these high performers rely on training to be successful and reach their goals, regardless of what those goals are. The pilot’s goal may be just getting from New York to Cleveland safely. The athlete’s goal may be an Olympic medal. Motivation can be a part of this but the high performing outcome is based on training.
What Training Really Means
Training is not just repetition. Training is a structured process that includes:
• A clear goal
• Breaking the goal into smaller skills
• Practice
• Feedback
• Adjustment
• More practice
• Gradual improvement over time
This is the same process used in aviation, medicine, athletics, filmmaking, and any profession or endeavor where performance matters.
I often call this The Training Cycle — a continuous loop of learning, practicing, evaluating, and improving.
Organizations that understand this outperform organizations that rely on motivation alone.
The Long Game
One of the biggest mistakes individuals and organizations make is thinking short term. They want quick results, immediate improvement, and rapid change. But high performance doesn’t work that way.
World records are not set in a day. Great companies are not built in a quarter. Expertise is not developed in a weekend workshop.
High performance is the result of small improvements, made consistently, over a long period of time. It is the long game.
The people who achieve extraordinary things are usually not the most talented. They are the ones who stay in the game the longest and continue to improve.
What This Means for Leaders
If you are a leader, manager, or educator, your job is not to motivate people. Your job is to train people.
That means:
• Building systems for learning
• Creating a culture of improvement
• Allowing people to practice and develop skills
• Giving feedback
• Understanding that improvement takes time
• Rewarding progress, not just results
• Accepting some amount of failure
Great leaders are not just motivators. Great leaders are teachers, educators, and trainers.
Final Thought
After decades of teaching students and instructors, racing my bike to world class status, filming award-winning movies, and working with people in high-performance environments, here is what I know for sure:
• Motivation starts the process.
• Training builds the skill.
• The long game produces the result.
If individuals and organizations want to perform at a higher level, the answer is not more motivation.
The answer is better training, a better process, and a commitment to the long game.
About Jeffrey Seckendorf
Jeff Seckendorf is a keynote speaker, educator, award-winning cinematographer, and world record endurance cyclist. His presentations focus on leadership, training, performance, and the process of achieving big goals over time. He speaks to corporate, healthcare, government, education, and association audiences on how people learn, train, and achieve high performance.