Welcome to Module 3. So far, we have gone through a good portion of what The Superboss playbook looks like, from finding amazing talent to motivating them with the yin and yang, creating that vision that compelling uncompromising vision and unleashing creativity. But there is something we really haven't talked much about at all and that is how do Superboss leaders develop people, how do they develop talent? What did we learn from talking to these people and their proteges? Etc. That's what this entire module is all about. I call it the master and the apprentice because that is really what it is all about. It's amazing because what Superboss leaders have done is that they have resurrected not only classic but probably most common methods that people had for learning their craft, learning their trade, that's been in place for centuries. It's amazing really. Where are master-apprentice relationships today, we see them in some of the crafts and trades, but when it comes to management, when it comes to leadership, when it comes to building careers, when it comes to being an entrepreneur, we seldom see it except for the Superboss leaders. Let me set it up with an interesting historic example in the story that'll get the ball rolling. If you aspired to become a successful artist during 15th century Italian Renaissance, there was one skill you needed to master above all others, the ability to draw. But where could you go to learn this? Well, there were no Master of Fine Arts Programs back then, and you couldn't very well just hop online and watch another Coursera video. What you could do, was go to a master artist and work for him as an apprentice. If you were just a beginner, you would receive training from the ground up. If you are ready, fairly accomplished, you would hone your craft by assisting with the master's commissioned artworks. Budding artists tended to flock to one master in particular, in Renaissance Italy, a man by the name of Andrea del Verrocchio. Beginning in 1460, Verrocchio operated a workshop that produced a variety of media for wealthy patrons, including painted, sculpted, and cast-bronze works. But Verrocchio was especially famous for his drawings, most of all for his ability to render the intricacies of the draperies commonly found in Renaissance painting. Verrocchio tried to recognize among the youths of his time, the gifted and the imaginative, and he was quick to obtain their collaboration. In Verrocchio's hands, the master-apprentice relationship also served as an immensely powerful structure for imparting skills and knowledge. Researchers like Liletta Fornasari has characterized Verrocchio's workshop as available "School of Design" which is an interesting term because we use that today. School of Design, with Verrocchio teaching his pupils the rules of perspective and encouraging them to practice drawing from life. Experiments with drapery formed a special branch of his teaching. Verrocchio also made plastic casts of figures and body parts such as hands and feet for his assistants to study and sketch. This was a pretty high-level workshop and Verrocchio was one of the absolute best, if not the most well-known. Verrocchio's workshop must have been an exciting place for young proteges to work and learn. It was in the forefront of artistic technologies, such as the chemical preparation of pigments, new ways to handle tools, and innovative metal casting processes. Verrocchio's efforts also allowed him to become a Superboss of his day. The artists who passed through his workshop were some of the most recognized of Renaissance Italy, including Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Francesco Botticini. Verrocchio even spawned one of the greatest artistic talents in the history of Western art, that's right, Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo began his apprenticeship with Verrocchio at the age of 14. After some time, however, it became clear that his skill had eclipsed that of his master, and that his talent was in fact extraordinary. Well, Verrocchio was very secure in his own capabilities, his own stature, his own skills, and so he continued to rely on Leonardo's genius in a shop. All the while, taking the opportunity to also learn from him and teach him to further his own skills. Leonardo eventually became a master himself, of course, and secured his own commissions, going on to become one of the most famous proteges of any Superboss, in the history of western society. Given how successful apprenticeships such as Leonardo have been over the centuries, you'd think they'd still be everywhere in developed economies. I mean, in some countries like Germany, apprenticeships are relatively common. Less so for managerial jobs for sure, more in the crafts or traits. Elsewhere though, on-the-job training, if you want to call it that, has largely disappeared, replaced by formal education and universities and specialty schools. Young people who are just starting out learn through internships now, while older employees receive ongoing training from their employers, usually the formalized and highly structured programs and online courses. As good as some of these online courses may be, say, for example, this one, deep learning happens on the job more than anywhere else. So much of how people learn in the workplace today, from 360-degree performance evaluations to mentoring, to coaching has become bureaucratized, impersonal, a far cry from the personal relationships of learning that existed between Verrocchio and proteges like Leonardo. Moreover, the best, most competent bosses and leaders today generally don't prioritize engaging their people informally in an immersive learning experience. Aiming for more certainty and clarity in their organizations, they just talk about rules and establish bureaucracies that distance themselves further and further from employees. They also choreograph their days to ensure that work gets done leaving very little time for unstructured interactions for coaching, for talking, for just interacting in an organic way. They certainly don't use the word apprentice very much. The very concept seems quaint. The product of a bygone era. But guess what? Close direct on-the-job training work wonders for a genius like Leonardo. Imagine that what it would be like for mere mortals with such modern jobs as marketing manager, attorney, and sales rep. In the absence of such a personal master-apprentice relationship, employees may learn technical basics, but they don't necessarily learn the subtleties and the nuances of their professions, of their careers. They don't learn the critically important softer skills that matter in any industry, such as networking, giving and receiving feedback, negotiating, leading. Up and coming managers might be able to come up with the right answer to a business problem on their own. But they'll often need personal coaching to learn how to communicate that answer, how to convince other people, including their bosses, of its viability, how to inspire colleagues and subordinates to help implement it. They may even need help understanding that having the right answer isn't worth very much if you can't bring other people with you. When highly educated manager start a job these days, their bosses almost always assume, they're ready for action. They have everything they need to excel. Unfortunately, quite often they don't. In this module, I'll show you how to do for the people around you what the master Verrocchio did for his apprentice, Leonardo.
