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High Performance
Nelson Mandela said; "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
I tend to think that resilience is the same. A resilient person does not notice the pain, but acknowledges it and keeps going in spite of it.
Some people a scared of sales, others love it. Some consider public speaking worse than death, and others make it a career. For some, the idea of working freelance is impossible. Others would have it no other way. Of course, some fears are rational, and helpful. But most aren't, as my eight-month old daughter taught me just the other day.
When we see someone performing at their best, in business, sport or the arts, we do not see someone being busy. We see someone committed; to the moment, to the task at hand, or to the mission they are on. We see them do exactly what needs to be done - no more, and no less.
So how do we achieve high performance across an organisation? We need three things. We need the right mindset, the right skills, and the right culture. Let us use the analogy of a garden. Think of skills as the seeds, mindset as the soil, and culture as the sun.
Vulnerability is not some squishy threat to good old-fashioned hard work, grit and resilience. It is the key to it. Real opportunity lies in looking the fact of our imperfection in the face and accepting it. Remember, acceptance is not approval. You don't have to like it or be happy about it. But you can't make a plan to get to where you want to be unless you acknowledge where you actually are. The opportunity is that if we accept that we don't have all the answers, we start asking better questions. And once we start asking better questions, we can find better answers, and do better work.
I can always tell who is great at what they do, and who is not. I can tell by the way they talk about what they do. There seems to be no need to 'warm up' or get in the zone. In the zone of their chosen field is where they live. What they do is a part of who they are, an extension of their identity. I've wondered for a while how to explain this difference in people. That sets them apart? You know they will succeed. You know they are great at what they do. It is because their business is their Craft.
We live in uncertain times - now more than ever. A great deal of life we cannot control. But we can control our Mindset. How we think is how we view our world. With a High Performance Mindset, we can overcome bigger challenges. We can achieve greater things.
These are some of the Principles of the High Performance Mindset that are being trained as I navigate the wonderful world of Fatherhood.
The approach I take with clients is to build the mindset they need for the levels of high performance they want. After all, be it in work or in life, everything starts with the right mindset. Of course, high performance is a nuanced yet potent blend of more than mindset alone. In this article I’m going to suggest four components of high performance and how they interrelate; Body, Mindset, Soul, and Environment.
