Can ‘Excellence’ be Taught? A Review of the book, Learned Excellence

BOOK REVIEW: Learned Excellence: Mental Disciplines for Leading and Winning from the World’s Top Performers

By Eric Potterat and Alan Eagle/Harper Business

Reviewed by Kenneth Dekleva

The Reviewer – Dr. Kenneth Dekleva served as a Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrist with the U.S. Dept. of State from 2002-2016, and is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Psychiatry-Medicine Integration, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX; he is also a Senior Fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations.  He is also the author of the novels The Last Violinist and The Negotiator’s Cross.  The views expressed are his own and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government, the U.S. Dept. of State, or UT Southwestern Medical Center.

REVIEW — Dr. Eric Potterat is high-performance psychologist, who retired from the US Navy after serving as the Chief Psychologist for Naval Special Warfare, and who has subsequently served as a sports psychologist for the LA Dodgers, Red Bull, and various Olympic teams and individual athletes.  His first book, Learned Excellence, co-authored with Alan Eagle (a former Google executive), is both superb and timely, and a welcome addition to the fields of leadership, excellence, and elite performance. 

This book should be mandatory reading for national security professionals and leaders, especially given the unique challenges that they face in today’s volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous world of threats and challenges.

In the world of national security (especially in CIA), much has recently been written about its operational, leadership and morale challenges, notably for high performers such as operations officers, analysts, technical/scientific personnel, and support personnel, especially those serving overseas, in rapidly evolving, austere, and dangerous environments. 

Countless media articles and podcasts have commented upon how individuals and CIA need to adapt and change its organizational culture, such as dealing with a younger workforce (e.g., Gen Z), work-life balance, mental health, and moral injury.  Personnel and leaders at CIA, other 3-letter agencies, and the US diplomatic community will find Potterat’s book a welcome addition to their libraries, and one chock-full of wisdom.

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Potterat’s basic premise is that elite performance can be both learned and improved upon, and that in domains such as national security, entrepreneurship, elite sports, law enforcement, space flight, arts, medicine, and public service, at the highest levels, even small, incremental improvements – that 1-2% edge – make a difference.  How do top performers achieve this?

First, they focus on values and identity, rather than reputation — a psychological and philosophical conundrum in organizations that prize results and a ‘mission first’ ethos. 

Second, they make goals, breaking larger goals into smaller, more tangible ones. 

Third, they focus on process, rather than outcomes per se. 

Fourth, they emphasize mindset, instilling a combination of discipline, grit, time management, and positive thinking to move forward. 

Fifth, they have a high tolerance for adversity, a trait common to CIA employees, diplomats, and other national security professionals. 

Lastly, they focus upon balance and recovery – better known as resilience – and constantly re-charge their batteries and learn from failures and poor outcomes. 

This all sounds easy, right?  Potterat shows while such things can be learned, and elite performance can be improved upon, adopting his principles requires a major effort and mindset change.

Potterat’s strength lies in his practical, matter of fact approach, and in sharing such principles, in his interviews with top performers from communities including elite athletes, physicians, entrepreneurs, artists, first responders, intelligence professionals, astronauts, and special forces personnel.  Potterat’s conversations with these elite performers are fascinating, as they reveal not only their excellence, but also their flaws, their humanity, and their failures.

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It has become fashionable to complain about the next generations (e.g., Millenials, Gen Z) and to somehow suggest that they are not up to snuff.  But having worked as a diplomat-physician (mostly overseas, in less greener pastures) and more recently, as an academic psychiatrist in a large-fast-paced medical center, with young diplomatic, intelligence, military, law enforcement, and medical professionals, I’d argue that the next generation, while ‘different,’ possesses the right stuff. 

One only need witness the heroism, sacrifice, and dedication of such young professionals during the most lethal heights of the COVID pandemic.  Only a fool would argue otherwise, or in legal parlance, res ipsa loquitur — the thing speaks for itself.  Dr. Potterat’s large body of work, including counseling young special forces personnel, elite athletes, and other top performers, suggests that he and his co-author Alan Eagle would agree with the above sentiment.

Overall, Eric Potterat and his co-author Alan Eagle have written a first-rate book about excellence in performance, leadership, mindset, and resilience, which applies wonderfully to individuals and organizations in the national security space.  Every employee at CIA, U.S. Dept. of State, and other national security agencies can learn much, and greatly benefit from reading this singular book.

Learned Excellence earns a solid four out of four trench coats.

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