Winning....

We're doing a lot of work with sales teams right now as they seek to thrive rather than just survive - and as you'd expect with sales teams, the concept of winning is coming up a lot. I think a lot about what winning means and when it's tough out there, when the attention is all on you, when the pressure is cranked up and when your competitors are just as hungry, the meaning of winning is put sharply into focus.

does winning mean beating your opponent - at one level I guess it does but so what? It's not as simplistic as that - referencing your sense of winning to the performance of others puts them in control, not you. Perhaps the real competition lies inside. Perhaps that's the real target, not the one with numbers on and upon which sales teams are often fixated.

If the real target was inside - was us, was about getting better at your job every day, about finding what we're capable of achieving, about discovering how great we can be at dealing with challenging conditions, then we're in control, the performance belongs to us and the journey never ends.

Focusing on the inside gives our opponents a different role too - we want them to be good so they can push us to new heights - we honour them and are grateful for their part in our journey. and how do we focus when the pressure's on, the expectations are high and the fear of failure strong? In the words of Cathy Freeman on that iconic Monday at the Sydney games, just "do what you know." Simple.

Microsoft Office...

... is apparently a very good place to work indeed (if you use some criteria we like!).

In their recent advert about ideas, or keeping it weird, the Microsoft advert states how they work on keeping it human and keeping it real, in the workplace. The advert goes on to say how, "you have to have an environment where people are comfortable sharing ideas. Anything we're working on has to be out in the open, where anybody can see it and feel they can build on it... so we do everything possible to keep people as connected as possible and put about as much work into the culture as you would in the products that you've created".

It's interesting to not attention being paid to the value add of culture and connectedness. This is very much "process" AND "outcome" thinking working together - get the human inputs right and focussed on allowing the talent to be free of unnecessary noise and the results that you're after are more likely to be delivered more consistently and more effectively. Within highly competitive markets AND in an environment that is making it tough to perform, it becomes even more important to focus on the human variables that it's clear make a difference to performance. Make sure that people have a real sense of control over their performance - how they do things and when they do them. Make sure people recognise how their role is valued by the organisation and absolutely essential to the success of everybody. Keep people focused on building on each other's work and knowing how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Control, Confidence and Connectedness are things we talk about ad infinitum and now, more than ever, the businesses that optimise these three elements of motivation will really differentiate themselves from the competition.

Jim Collins...

is a very clever man, on all sorts of levels. Not only has he authored some very good books , he's also just produced this timely bit of PR, which has got some great stuff in it.

Most interestingly, Collins asserts that; "What we're experiencing now, get used to it! It's life, and it's the normal life. " Which suggests to us that a lot of what we've been blogging about is going to become consistently important, rather than people thinking this stuff might be relevant for them because of the current circumstances.

Another point that is of relevance to us all relates to thinking long term and keeping a much longer end-game in mind and not simply becoming great at reacting (or overreacting) to the here and now.

The final points to highlight are the following:
"The right people don't need to be managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake.
The right people don't think they have a job: They have responsibilities. If I'm a climber, my job is not [just] to belay. My responsibility is that if we get in trouble, I don't let my partner down.
The right people do what they say they will do, which means being really careful about what they say they will do. It's key in difficult times. In difficult environments our results are our responsibility. People who take credit in good times and blame external forces in bad times do not deserve to lead. End of story. "

We've been talking for a long time about ultimate confidence actually being "knowing that you WILL do what you say you are going to do." Nice to have the thoughts backed up from elsewhere. But to us, more than anything, these examples just show an exemplary focus on performance - if the focus is performance, then a lot of this stuff makes even more sense. Have you got the people around you who understand performance and how to perform in order to get the desired results? It's easy to become an expert and identifying results, talking about them and then explaining failure to deliver those results - it's a lot harder to become a performance expert.

Oh, and thanks to one of our performance focused friends within D&B for highlighting the article to us.

Getting your tactics in Synch

We've just finished the 2 day kick off to the athlete at work^® programme and really enjoyed some interesting conversations around performance in these testing times. One of the most interesting discussions was around the perceived pressure to get more done in less time. Wouldn't we all like that? So, when we talked about being mindful about what tasks people are choosing to do, at what times of day, it seemed to really strike a resonant chord. The group reached the conclusion that they would get more done in less time if they worked more in line with their their natural energy rhythms throughout the day. If this sounds deceptively simple, then that pleases us immensely... it suggests it might just work!

So, stop for a moment and think about which points of the day coincide with your most effective work? When does work feel easiest? Is it in the morning? Late afternoon? Evening?

Now have a think about those times in the day when work seems a little harder. When do you find it tougher to concentrate? When do those meetings just seem to drag? Are there times when you have a slump in energy? For many people, early afternoon is a time of reduced effectiveness - but not everyone, so have a think.

What are you choosing to do with these different times? If you're someone who is most productive first thing in the morning, then how can you make the most use of this time each day? And if you're more of an evening person, what work are you saving up for your best working time? This is when your most challenging and important tasks are likely to get done most effectively and efficiently. So be selective about what you do and when you do it!

Which activities are best left for the naturally less productive times? Perhaps the less taxing elements of your work, or something that you find really energising to do, or you could even choose to meet with someone who you find interesting to work with and who doesn't drain your energy levels (they might even top them up!). In your less productive times it's probably best to avoid the business critical tasks (I know they're all business critical, but some of those emails are less important than others!). You're less likely to do key activities with the quality and focus that they require when everything is feeling like a grind. The key tasks are likely to take longer and you're more likely to make errors.

So, don't just use up your time every day - focus on using your time mindfully. Time is a precious thing and it's even more important to use it optimally in such interesting and challenging times.

Do what I know...

It was interesting watching a clip of Cathy Freeman yesterday reflecting on her gold medal success at the Sydney Olympics, in front of 112,000 people, carrying the hopes of a nation and performing under a huge weight of expectation.

In the midst of all of that hype, excitement, pressure, hope and expectation, as she warmed up, Cathy Freeman simply kept repeating to herself, "Do what I know, Do what I know". Nothing more complicated than that. Some incredibly powerful, simple, self-instruction. Under all that scrutiny, what did she know she could do? She knew she could do what she knew she could. She knew her abilities in detail and simply had to trust that they would be there when she needed them most (no reason to believe they'd suddenly disappear!). No self-instruction like "win gold" or "don't screw up" - simply, "do what I know", which is all about the process. Get the process right and you maximise the chances of getting the outcome you know you're capable of.

So, do you know yourself well enough to trust what you'd get when you do what you know? Have you spent enough time thinking about your process, so that you can trust it under the most intense pressure (as well as when you're having an easier time)?

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, so someone once said, but to be as simple as that, you have to have studied yourself and accepted your abilities in some detail. Go on, be in a position where you can do what you know, and enjoy doing it.

Bad Science, Performance Focus

We'd highly recommend visiting www.badscience.net to help you debunk a lot of the nonsense that gets published about what might or might not be good for you. It's clear from a lot of the trash newspaper articles that Ben Goldacre takes to task, that the common theme stems from lazy journalists or out and out charlatans trying to convince people that they have uncovered something amazing that will change everyone's lives.

If you adopt a high performance mindset a lot of the Daily Mail bunkum, detox nonsense, and medical misinformation is rendered instantly redundant. The high performers we know ALWAYS take complete responsibility for their performance and they know that there are no short cuts to success - they have to work hard and follow basic mental and physical rules to keep in the best shape possible to perform. They also know their minds and bodies very well (great self-awareness) and realise that no magic potions can remove toxins (especially one's that aren't in the body in the first place!), and no superfoods exist that will suddenly change their lives. In short, they don't look for answers that are outside of their control, but they look to take action that is proven and totally down to how tenaciously they stick with their rules for winning.

At a time of year when you're looking for performance gains and a renewed resilience, look no further than the simple principles of eating a balanced diet, burning off as many calories as you put in (or slightly more if you want to lose weight!), understanding your strengths and knowing where and when to apply them, and staying focused on great mental and physical preparation one day at a time.

Thank you Dr Goldacre for promoting good science and high performance thinking!

Track Records and Perspective

A quick thought for you...

Step 1. Look back over your career and identify your top 10 career highlights (or 5 if you're pushed for time!)

Step 2. You're a common denominator in all of those highlight performances. Which of your personal qualities shine through as instrumental to success in each of those occasions? Are there one or two qualities that are ever presents in all of the successes? Are there any qualities in there that you've taken for granted or forgotten about?

Step 3. Looking back over the last month, how and where have you deliberately exploited those qualities that are obviously so important to your success? How effectively have you been playing to the strengths that you have?

Step 4. Whilst taking some time off over Christmas, when your thoughts turn to work, why not spend some time planning how you're going to kick-off your performances in 2009 completely led by your qualities from step 2. How are you going to bring those qualities to life, one day at a time as you face the early challenges of a new year?

Planning how you're going to perform to your strengths will bring you an extra few essential bits of control and confidence over your performance when you need it most and will help to start the year in style. This helps with controlling the situation and not letting the situation you're in control you.

Survive or Thrive?

I was talking with a team we work with the other day and remarked how they were in a perfect storm. End of year mayhem to bring home the promised numbers, a change of leader, planning for 2009 to be completed and a really uncertain external climate. The perfect situation for a team to fracture.

At this point, ordinary teams become groups of individuals, with increased focus on individual areas with the mindset of "I don't want to be the one responsible for failure." In these circumstances, teams often stop communicating and become focused on making safe choices rather than brave ones, they stop building confidence and instead focus on making sure they don't lose too much of it. They feel less and less in control as the external conditions present ever increasing challenges and rather than the mindset in buoyant times which is much more likely to be "how can we make the most of this?", they choose the mindset of "I hope I / we survive."

Thinking about how to survive 2009 is one choice. Thinking about how to thrive in 2009 is another. The external conditions won't change, though your individual and collective performance probably will. It's not about ignoring external reality. It's about actively accepting it and and then asking "how can we make the most of these conditions?"

Go on, be brave...

Whilst having a rare flick through the FT the other day, we happened across a book review for "Managing to Learn Using The A3 Management Process to Solve Problems, Gain Agreement, Mentor, and Lead" by John Shook. Not the most enticing of titles! However, the FT article was entitled "The Toyota mindset revealed", which got us interested straight away.

The review is here if you'd like to see it for yourself.

However, if you can't be bothered to read it, here's some bits that we thought were great and we wondered how many people were going to be brave in these challenging times and see if they could take advantage of these simple, but powerful ideas (or make more from them if you're already doing it!).

"Western managers think their job is to get results. Toyota thinks managers’ job is to design and sustain processes that generate these results as a matter of course. Western managers think they employ workers to do a job. Toyota employs workers to learn how to do the job better – to keep improving that process, and therefore the results. Western managers think management is about knowing the answers and telling other people what to do. Toyota disagrees again: if managers tell staff what to do, they take responsibility away.

The manager’s job is to help staff learn problem-solving skills and work out what they need to do for themselves. Real organisational leadership is about doing both – improving operations and developing people – at the same time in such a way that they are mutually supporting."

Highly simple, highly effective ideas. Very in keeping with the PlanetK2 view of things in relation to eliteteam concepts and very clear that if you ultimately want high performance that is culturally dependent and not reliant on individual leaders, then these kind of ideas are the way forward... especially when the performance demands are higher than ever.

Next step thinking...

The concept of "next step thinking" came up last week in a conversation. This is all about focusing on being in the moment and being confident that you can do the next thing you need to do with complete focus and confidence. It seems that this is very important at the moment. Much of our thinking, confidence and focus is constantly tempered by a view to the future and a sense check of whether we're going to "deliver the result". We rely heavily on this barometer of future success to give us a sense of belief in the here and now and as a result we confuse personal confidence to perform with our perception of expected future success.

So, given that the ability to predict the future and work out that everything is going to be o.k. seems to be a near impossibility at the moment we have a couple of choices.

1) Choose the fact that we can no longer predict the future and become very stressed and have a constant feeling of impending doom with us every step along the way, or
2) Accept that information about the future is essential, but untrustworthy at the moment, so focus on building the future one step at a time.

If we focus on the next step and think about all the reasons why we are completely confident that we can take the next step with the required skill, style and commitment, then we have a chance of getting on a confidence roll. We all still have the same skills, abilities, knowledge and experience, so it's essential to keep focused on applying these skills to new sets of problems that arise.

So, what's your next step today?

Competitive Learning...

Something we work on a lot in the world of high performance sport revolves around the concept of "competitive learning". If we can learn quicker, more effectively and produce performance refinements quicker than the opposition (between races or matches, or within a tournament), then we know we're gaining a competitive advantage when we're not head to head.

Imagine how much speed of learning and reaction to learning is critical in the current climate. Agility is often talked about with the corporate world (are you agile or fragile?, etc). However, agility has to be the result of great learning through superb knowledge of your own performance and extreme confidence to be able to make the right decisions about how to alter your focus or intent.

Individual or collective learning is a skill, so you have to practise it to get better at it. Just hoping you'll get better at learning quickly in these highly pressured times simply doesn't cut it. Maybe by working out how learning can be competitively advantageous for you, you'll be able to decide how you might invest more effectively in this critical element of performance.

If you can get access to this Harvard Business Review article, it's well worth a read to help clarify one particular way in which learning might work for you. (Learning in the thick of it).

Come and pick our brains about how competitive learning works - can you afford not to right now, when every experience is precious and every performance moment counts?

Performance Intelligence...

So, how Performance Intelligent are you?

We've got a simple formula that you can begin to think through that will help you begin to work out what your PI score is.

There's four questions to ask yourself:

How well do I know the world that I have to perform in?
How well do I know my own performance ingredients that are unique to me?
How well do I turn knowledge about my world into effective strategy to deliver?
How consistently do I deliver a performance that exploits all of my unique ingredients?

Have a think about those things and see if you are 100% confident in your answers to the questions. If you're left with an uneasy feeling about the honest appraisal of the questions, then there's probably some pretty simple solutions for helping decrease your concern over the area in question.

We're pretty sure that people who can answer all of the questions with 100% conviction and confidence are very Performance Intelligent. The more Performance Intelligent you are, the greater control you have over delivering results with certainty. Now, wouldn't that be a nice feeling to have - knowing you're going to deliver!

More done in less time...

We received the following feedback on planet K2 yesterday. Not only did it make us feel quite good about ourselves, but we also realised that there's quite a bit we can learn from these select words, particularly when it comes to filling the physical component of the performance pie...

"My training continues – making the right eating choices still goes up and down, but increasingly more ups than downs as time goes on. I’ve no doubt that my current physical performance and state of readiness contributed to my recent success and I have to say, it all started with the principles from your workshop.

The business pay-off? Afternoon slumps are a thing of the past and I’m getting more done in less time. Bonus!"

What can we learn from this gentleman?

First, most change in behaviour is not a straight line. There will be ebbs and flows in how well we do what we set out to do. The two keys to his success in making sure an ebb did not lead to a total lapse?

• To have a constant reminder of his commitment to pursuing his goal. He used the colour blue to remind him, gave himself a blue screen saver on his work PC, wore a blue wrist band got himself a blue water bottle (he was training for his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu!).


• He accepted that making changes to habits will not be a straight line. Stuff gets in the way! He has a young family, a demanding job and walks past an award winning bakery on the way to work! He judges himself by how well he sticks to the behaviours and also by how well he gets back on track after a slip up. First prize is to have no slip up. Second prize is related to how well he recovers from slip ups. This doesn't mean he's easy on himself, but it enables him to retain perspective and root his efforts to change in reality, not in a fictional perfect world.

The fitter he gets and the more healthily he eats, the better he performs at work. He's choosing his fuel more wisely and making sure he's training appropriately. Good food choices and regular exercise are now physical performance fundamentals for him. Without them he'd be getting less done in more time! So he's controlled the things he can control (no-one else puts food in your mouth!) and has systematically developed his physical capacity to perform.

Do you know what your physical performance fundamentals are? Are you in control of them? Do you have a strategy, not only for what you intend to do, but how to stick to them? Commonsense? Perhaps. But how commonly are you applying this commonsense? These simple physical performance fundamentals become even more vital in allowing you to deliver consistently to your best in the face of changing demands.

So, are you choosing to get more done in less time or less done in more time?

In a simple choice...

In my last post I reflected on the change in context of my role and identity at work and how this impacted on my performance and emotions.

I took a decision there and then to look at my situation differently and to choose to feel something else more useful.

Of course, it is never really as simple as choosing is it? Along with the decision to choose comes the action one has to take to reinforce and affirm the choice. Otherwise it is nothing more than a thought (a field will remain unploughed if you keep turning it over in your head).

So for the past week or so I have been doing just that. Catching myself when I am feeling anything other than what is most helpful and changing the thought pattern; taking time out at the end of the day to either review my personal success (either by myself, or verbally with my partner) and making note of the differences in my emotional and mental state from day to day.

And guess what?

Well, I certainly feel different. I have experienced a sense of walking taller, of feeling prouder and of being a little more self assured inside. "Miraculously" I have also found it easier to carve my groove and get my niche at work...people have started to seek me out once more and involve me in projects and work that they hadn't seen necessary or important before.

Now isn't that strange? Can it be all related to my simple choice?

Of course the clever wotsits at K2 would tell me its all about what I put out there; that it is all about putting myself at the cause rather than than being the effect in my life.

And you know what? I think they might have a point!

Some more on goals...

We like copying the great coaches from sport who we've worked with and we've noticed they talk a lot about the same things, because they're the fundamentals, until people get it! So, even though we put some stuff up about this last week, it's still important and it's probably useful to keep focusing on goals for a while yet!

We know from working at the Olympics that if you're totally obsessed with the gold medal then when it comes to actually delivering a performance, you'll be thinking about the wrong thing completely. We also know that you have to be totally obsessed with winning the gold medal in order to have a chance of winning! As with comedy, the timing is everything. Focus on the wrong kind of goal at the wrong time and you'll underperform - maybe not by much, but enough to make a critical difference when it matters most.

That's why sports people understand and exploit the complementary difference between process goals and outcome goals in a consistently effective way. If the Outcome goal is the gold medal, little point constantly saying to yourself throughout a race "I've got to get the gold" - that's not going to help. Such outcome focused thinking just gets in the way of the thing that matters most, right now.

Athletes make sure that they have identified, 100% clearly, the gold medal Process targets, the inputs, that they'll need to deliver one moment at a time through a performance. Complete commitment to delivering each one of the inputs, as effectively as possible, creates a much more effective focus for delivering great performances. So, when the pressure's on, they can focus every ounce of desire to achieve the outcome into the controllable, step by step process.

Your goals are probably pretty clear right now, from an outcome point of view. Is there the same clarity and level of discussion about your process goals? Is there the same obsessive drive to deliver on the inputs? If obsession on outputs is not matched by tenacity of focus on the trusted inputs, then you're not setting yourself up to deliver in these challenging times. Worth going back and reading the other stuff we posted on goals!

Negatively stressed? What's your chosen response?

"It's subtle this performance coaching stuff, but it works. This time last year if circumstances had been the same I'd have been sh*!ing myself and unhealthily pessimistic. This year I'm still pessimistic, but understand that this pessimism is actually useful. If I use it appropriately, it helps me to perform better. Also, last year, I'd have eaten crap, drank too much and responded negatively to the stress. Now I think... 'I feel stressed, better go to the gym'."

Roughly these words were said to me by one of our clients last week who has been coached around performing in challenging circumstances. He understands how to perform a lot better now and this new self awareness has enabled him to choose how to respond to the feelings he is experiencing in these testing times, and therefore use them to stay in control and fully confident of his own performance.

Is anyone else feeling the strain? How are you currently responding? How would you like to respond? Are the answers to these last two questions the same?

Be Careful What You Wish For

My performance has, more than ever before, been at the forefront of my mind recently.

I have just started a new role...same company...new role though. When first approached about the job, I thought "Wow, what a great opportunity; a new challenge without the usual upheaval and culture refamiliarisation required with a move to a new organisation."

I couldn't have been more wrong.

It seems I had underestimated the impact of my identity loss...I was Head of Blah, now I am Head of a Different Blah. All of a sudden I went from a position of clarity, focus, confidence and control to...well...not clarity, not focus, not confidence and not control!

All this and the credit crunch! Oh woe is me.

Woe is me, until I reflected upon some of the stuff I was discussing with a colleague recently in a coaching session (well, there is nothing quite like taking your own medicine is there?). In this reflective moment I recalled some self talk of recent times...in fact it might not just have been self-talk, more like blatant-open-talking-to-anyone-who-would-listen...

I can recall saying, thinking and affirming..."I need a new challenge!", "I'm getting a bit bored", "I learn best when I am out of my comfort zone", "I feel like I want to get my teeth stuck into something different", "I need to move on"...you know what I mean, don't you?

And I am reminded of the saying "Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it". I have wished for and manifested this situation...so why on earth am I spending my time in woe? Why aren't I doing what I do best - learning when out of my comfort zone?

So, I make the choice now. I am getting on with it, enjoying the ride and learning...and being careful what I wish for!

Happy Friday!

Keeping your head...

...while all others around you are doing a good impression of something without a head, requires a lot of mental toughness.

Like anything that's difficult, the more you prepare for the challenge, the more of a fighting chance of success you have when the key moments actually arrive. So, given that the playing field has changed somewhat at the moment, the need for top quality preparation becomes ever more important. We've learned a lot from helping people prepare for key sporting moments... and we think what we've learned translates pretty well.

We could write a lot on mental toughness and mental preparation, but that's probably for another day. So, instead of that, have a look at our thoughts on how to use 3 cornerstones of performance (control, confidence and connectedness) to help you have the best chance of delivering a great performance, even when the world around you is making it very tough to do so. It works for people at the Olympic Games... so can it work for you?

Once you've read it, tell us what you think! Go on, we'd love to know that you think.