Natural talent is no guarantee of excellence in business. So what's the secret? It's all down to demanding practice, hard work and going beyond your skills range

Finding good news in a recession isn't easy, especially when it appears the UK will be hit particularly hard. But this downturn presents a significant new opportunity for the development of businesspeople.

Demanding situations such as this—if they receive a proper response—are exactly what's required to make you a much better manager.

The evidence comes from a mountain of scientific research on what makes great performers in any field. This research is so important that I've written a book about it called Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else. The essence is that what most of us believe about the source of great performance doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Specific, innate gifts—a natural ability to play the piano or lead an organisation—don't seem to account for top performance.

We all know of excellent performers who showed no particular genius for their field in early life. At the same time, simple hard work doesn't explain it well either; we're all surrounded by good, conscientious workers who've toiled for 20 or 30 years without approaching world-class greatness.

Instead, the research shows, great performance comes from a distinctive type of activity called "deliberate practice" that is neither work nor play. Its key characteristic is that it is designed to push us constantly beyond our current competencies, forcing us to adapt and get better. The process is never easy, yet a habit of pursuing it steadily is what all great performers have in common.

Most businesses don't observe this principle well. Pushing people beyond their competencies is risky and carries costs; incentives at most companies encourage employees to stay safely within their abilities. A few excellent organisations move promising managers into unfamiliar assignments meant to extend their skills, but even this can only be done with certain people.

The wonderful thing about a recession—there's a phrase you don't often hear—is that it pushes virtually everyone beyond his or her current abilities. Not that merely being pushed is enough to make you better. The effect happens only if you identify specific skills that you must develop or improve to meet the new challenge, and then work on them through high repetition.

Yes, that requires extra effort, and in tough times most people are feeling overstressed already. That's why this is such a rich opportunity. The research shows that a willingness to expend that extra effort, to develop higher abilities in response to the new challenge, is precisely what separates great performers from the rest.

Geoff Colvin is the author of Talent is Overrated (Nicholas Brealey). To order your copy with free UK p&p, call 020 7239 0360 or email sales@nicholasbrealey.com quoting Director