I have applied to ChangeThis.com to publish my Performance Architecture Manifesto, which will be the core of my upcoming book, "Beyond Personal Best." They publish the content on beautiful PDF documents for free.
Tiger Woods meets Nelson Mandela in South Africa
Fundamentalists are absolutely certain about their beliefs and destinies. "We", the rest of us, cannot quite grasp or achieve this level of certitude or of self-meaning or self-belief, though many of us might dearly like to do so. Thus fundamentalists have achieved things that are always just beyond the grasp of those (self-) excluded from their system of belief.
Robert J. Mazzucchelli is a fast-track visionary leader with over 20 years of executive level business success and accomplishment. Since 1987, he has co-founded and run three successful companies. In each case, Robert rapidly got operations up and running while leveraging his leadership skills and business development expertise.
Here's one of my favorite quotes of all time by an entrepreneurial American Guru: "Meaning is not about money, power or prestige. It's not even about creating a fun place to work. Among the meanings of 'meaning' are: to Make the world a better place. Increase the quality of life. Right a terrible wrong. Prevent the end of something good. Goals such as these are a tremendous advantage as you travel down the difficult path ahead. If you answer this question in the negative, you may still be successful, but it will be harder to become so because making meaning is the most powerful motivator there is. It's taken me twenty years to come to this understanding."-- Excerpted from "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki>> Find Meaning. Buy PathPrimer at the Vortex Store
I have recently started a group called "Beyond Tennis: Tennis for Self, Business and Lifestyle." Here, you can contribute your views on technique, peak performance and the power of tennis as a networking tool for global businesspeople.
"My concept of peak performance is the following combination: drive, curiosity, positive and open mind, take care of your body and soul. What I do: Enough sleep, dance, powerplate and healthy food. Switching between rational end emotional issues is crucial meaning go dancing after a tough day. You take distance and make your thinking more flexible. If I notice that there is negative energy in my system I go to sleep or I go dancing but leave the issue for what it is. Recommendation: Start with the basis and build a solid one. Basis meaning here your body and soul. To move things in life you need positive energy. Negative energy is a car which is slurping lots of gasoline. First you need to love yourself for who you are in order to work on your challenges to improve. As soon you have experienced the impact of positive energy you don't want to let it go anymore."
- Georgette Boele - Global Head FX & Commodity Strategy at ABN AMRO
"Peak Performance tends to indicate operation at max capabilities or max capacity. You then ask how one would sustain an Ideal Performance State. Like any high-performance platform, a person can only operate at "peak" for a specific period. Gladwell points to peak performance as a physiological state of increased respiration, circulation, and heart rate. It is an enhanced state of operation often identified with athletic performance ("in the zone"). This heightened state can only be sustained by professional athletes for a restricted period, and then the individual must be allowed to rest. Otherwise exhaustion sets in, and the athlete “burns out”, ending their ability to perform at any level. I believe this description best provides your answer. If you want your top performers to maintain an ideal performance state, keeping their peak skills for key points, maintaining an optimum operation at other times, balance and training is the key. The business "athlete” must be trained and knowledgeable, an identified expert in their field. It is that level of confidence that allows the individual to push the boundaries toward new peaks with each project. Then balance must enter, and the individual must be allowed to recover from the exertion. It is these "down times" that the athlete can train for the next event, thus maintaining an ideal performance level throughout their career." - Jim Sullivan, DM - Senior Technical Manager - IS at Avaya, Inc.
Jeffrey Miller, author of "The Anxious Organization: Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things," points out that "anxiety is highly contagious and when unchecked will spread across an organization rapidly. Flexibility, objectivity, and creativity give way to tunnel vision, resistance to change, and faulty decision making. Fortunately, calm is equally contagious. Like a pebble that creates wide ripples in a pond, one relatively calmer person in an anxious system can have a strong positive effect for all involved."
If you are working in a shaken organization, Miller suggests you "become the change," by creating the behavioral ripples that will provide certainty within turbulent times.
Here are some of Miller's key tips:
Recognize your own personal anxiety triggers and signals. We may blame disturbing events for setting off our anxiety, but it's not so much specific events that upset us as our individual reactions to them.
Try to predict exactly how you'll behave when a particular upsetting event occurs. As you engage the thinking part of your brain in remembering how you've reacted in similar situations and analyzing how you're likely to respond this time, you'll suppress the domination of the more primitive brain structures that initiate and maintain anxiety.
Focus on facts rather than feelings. Feelings can tell us that we're anxious and experiencing an emotional reaction--feeling mad, glad, sad, confused, stuck, and so forth. But what feelings don't tell us is how to resolve the issue that led to that emotional reaction. Instead, separate the facts in compartments: "What is a plus? What is a minus? What can be an interesting opportunity?"
Shift from emphasis on the other to emphasis on the self. As long as we hold onto the illusion that others must change first, we do nothing but perpetuate the problem. When any person in a relationship makes a change in how he or she relates, the whole relationship changes.
This might be a good time to revise your personal vision, your purpose, your values and design a Performance Architecture blueprint that will help you achieve, enjoy, find meaning and lead by example.
It has been a fascinating learning experience to upgrade Vortex from a basic online newsletter to a full-fledged blog. It takes time and effort, but I'm confident that the "Ideas Worth Your Time" will shine through and convert you into a raving fan.
Thanks to Widgetbox, I was able to create a "widget," which is a small application that you can paste into your Web site or Blog. It allows you and your audience to stay in touch with our valuable content and interact. Thanks to you and your readers, the Performance Architecture cause will grow and expand.
Get your Vortex Widget
Octavio Pitaluga Neto, Chief Networking Officer at TEN - Top Executives Net, asked an open question in Linked-In: How do you get a WOW?
"My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise...a part of yourself you never knew existed." -- Bill Evans, jazz pianist
While ‘the blues’ can progress into depression, there are vast differences between these two mood occurrences. Clinical or major depressions are generally defined as those due to a biochemical disturbance within the brain. Suggesting that someone suffering from depression ‘snap out of it’ is as helpful as telling a fish to bark.
A number of psychiatric disorders can be directly linked with chronic stress, including depression. It has been suggested that up to 10% of the population will suffer from a major depression at some point during their lives. It is important to recognize that there are many types of depression. Reactive depression is a response to something that you have a perfect right to be upset about, such as the loss of a job or the loss of a loved one. Or the depression may be caused by factors which aren’t clear-cut within either the body or the mind. Bipolar depression is characterized by negative emotions alternating with periods of mania. There is also schizo-affective disorder, where symptoms of schizophrenia and depression are interspersed.
There also are some unusual forms of negative affect, such as Seasonal Affective Disorder or the ‘winter blues.’ Another, which has been mentioned already, is premenstrual syndrome, which has unique symptoms, many of which overlap with depression. It is important to realize that, as is true of so many psychiatric disorders, we are not dealing with just one disease. In the case of depression, there may be multiple causes.
One of the neurotransmitters that has been implicated in depression is norepinephrine. The evidence linking this transmitter with negative affect is based upon studies showing that drugs capable of elevating this chemical also alleviate the depressive symptoms. There also is evidence suggesting there might be a genetic deficiency of the enzyme that produces norepinephrine. But there still has to be something that triggers the initial change in the norepinephrine, and that trigger is usually an environmental stressor. Problems do not arise as long as the susceptible person is not subjected to a stressor or event that causes the initial decrease in norepinephrine. Difficulties arise when the norepinephrine becomes depleted through chronic stress and the neurons cannot produce adequate amounts to compensate. In other words, supply fails to keep pace with demand.
Norepinephrine is not the only neurotransmitter linked with depression. One of the most popular drugs now used in treating depression is a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor, suggesting that serotonergic pathways are involved in certain types of depression as well.
Major depression can be recognized through several unrelenting symptoms, including
Overwhelming fatigue
Impaired concentration
Impaired memory
Increase or decrease in appetite
Changes in sleep behavior
But it is important to realize that many of these same symptoms can occur as a consequence of a number of organic illnesses. Pancreatic cancer, dysfunction of the thyroid gland, as well as a deficiency in cortisol production may all result in such symptoms.
External changes, including diet, exercise and talk therapy, often have a profound impact on overcoming depression. But when such efforts produce no positive effects, it is important to seek medical intervention to determine the underlying cause and proper treatment.
[Adapted from "Orchestrating Mind and Body" by Dr. Nicholas Hall]
>> Learn more about the Body-Mind connection
Trish Gullett has had over 25 years of experience in the healing arts and theatre. She has coupled her education in nursing with a Master Practitioner certification in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). Trish has an international client base that includes corporate executives, artists, world-class athletes and professionals, among others. At the same time, she is an accomplished painter, a prolific composer of musical theatre, a singer and a playwright.
Great competitors see the world differently. They have developed a capacity for sustained, creative effort and the ability to access extraordinary states of mind. During his career as a 7-time Formula One World Champion, Michael Schumacher endured 90 minutes or 78 laps on races under these conditions:
Helmet: 8 kg
Sound: 120 DB
Temperature: 50 C
Gear changes: 3,276
Mental operations: 4,000+
Heart rate: 90 to 170 BPM
Weight loss: 3 kg
G force: 3.4 to 4.5 G
According to a personal friend who lived in Schumacher’s home for three years while he resided in Geneva, Switzerland, Michael’s commitment approached the sacred. He won the championships so he could look back and justify the countless hours spent in the gym along with the grinding behind the wheel. He also aimed for victory every year so he could move his life into a plane reserved only for those who have embraced that level of commitment: immortality in the collective memory. He committed 500% and the world came to meet him.
>> Learn more about Winning in Sports applied to Winning in Business
On what could have been the greatest day of his life as an Olympian and World Record-holder in speed skating, Dan Jansen faced tragedy… twice. On the evening of the race he “owned,” the 500-meters, his sister died of leukemia and he fell on the ice. In the next Olympics, he fell again. He told his coach he wanted to quit. After a painful period of introspection, Dan decided to work with Dr. Jim Loehr (photo) on his psychological limitations.
Together, they worked systematically for three long years. In Lillehammer, Norway, he slipped in the 500 meters. The only race left in his career was the 1,000 meters, a distance he always hated. To his surprise, he won the Gold Medal with a World Record-breaking time. During those three years of intense physical, mental and emotional training he didn’t ask “Why me?” He asked: “How can I do it better?”
Robert Salum is a USPTA - PTR - RPT and USTA Sport Science Certified Teaching Professional with over 25 years of experience. Robert has coached ATP and WTA ranked players, as well as top juniors from countries around the world. He has contributed to the training of exceptional players such as Guillermo Vilas, Sergi Bruguera, Betsy Nagelsen-McCormack, Hugo Armando, Holden Seguso, Jessie Levine (Wimbledon Junior Doubles Champion) and Pedro Henrique Davisson, among many others.
[Song: "Sunyata" - Basic Pleasure Model] - For educational purposes only
"I am a progressive, a man who deals for peace, and who has struggled for enlightenment in the world. I am not just an entertainer.""I want to be a man who will represent as an active witness my time, and who wants to say, without words, my feelings about the world."
- Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau passed away in October. I am privileged to have been trained by Angel Elizondo, founder of the Argentine School of Mime and Corporeal Expression, one of the largest mime schools in the world. Elizondo worked with Marceau on stage and on French TV. Both were trained by Etienne Decroux in Paris.
Through mime training and corporeal expression I learned to love the theatre and better understood how to teach movement. It improved my ability to coach tennis a thousand percent by reducing verbal instructions in favor of visual cues and dramatizations. It also opened my mind to the power of silence, pause, symbols and metaphors, which guide the mind towards intuitive discovery.
Elizondo passed on the teachings of Decroux and Marceau with great reverence and even went beyond their conceptions, developing new ideas and techniques. Today, we need to develop "decoding" skills far more than ever to navigate the information glut, the media's clutter and the degradation of human communication. Our sharpened intuition also comes in handy to discover "what's not being said" and the alternative realities manufactured in the garbled world of politics and economics.
"Peak Performance happens for me when I am totally in the moment. It is where everything happens effortlessly and in slow motion. My body and my mind react in unison to accomplish a task. I am calm and happy. To sustain peak performance, I focus on staying on task and in the present. Physical and emotional energy are being utilized but not exhausted. Breakthrough occurs when peak performance is maintained over time. It gets me to areas that I have not experienced before. For others to be peak performers, they need to find their goal, determine a path that is consistent with their strengths and their passion, and maintain that over a period of time. "-- Peter Popovich, Owner, Keller Williams Realty and Professional Training & Coaching Consultant, Charlotte, North Carolina Area
Among the many thinking tools developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, you can find the Ten Direct Attention Tools that allow you to focus on different aspects of a situation to either solve it or to develop new perspectives.
For me, Peak Performance is a dynamic state of being and it ebbs and flows based up the task at hand. I believe Peak Performance should not be viewed as a point on a continuum but rather a measurement of the distance you traveled from where you began. When you understand the relative nature of Peak Performance, the concept becomes less daunting.
When I was in U.S. Army Ranger school I acquired a severe case of Achilles tendonitis in both my heels. Every step resulted in excruciating pain. The conclusion of the Ft. Benning phase of the program is punctuated with a twenty-two mile forced march. I knew that I was incapable of doing it. The plan was to begin the march and shortly thereafter fall out. Soon into the march I realize that every step was a success and brought me closer to the objective in the distance. As with many challenges, the unknown will bring surprises. On this occasion the pain became so bad something was triggered in my brain that shut it off. Instead of each step being worse than the one before it, the numbness that overtook me made each step better than its predecessor. Before long, I felt nothing. I finished the march and once I figure out what was causing the tendonitis I fixed the problem and finished the program two months later.
The fear of failure has been my strongest motivating force to succeed.
Virtually all Peak Performers involves others. Because I do not accept the acceptance of mediocrity it is always challenging for me not to react aggressively to it.
Every journey starts with a step. If that first step is in the wrong direction you have just extended the trip. By taking a systematic approach to accomplishing goals I create a blueprint for want I want to achieve and it is that blueprint that keeps me on course when unforeseen circumstances attempt to alter my path. Go to the Form
View success as a catalyst rather than a goal. If you understand that success builds confidence and confidence is the fuel of Peak Performance, you will attempt to achieve success as quickly as you can. A small success now may prove more beneficial that a big success at some distant juncture.
TELL YOUR STORY
Share your peak performance story. It only takes five minutes >>
Carole Elchert is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Communication at The University of Findlay, Ohio, a writer, a photographer. For twenty years, she has been leading trips to Nepal and Central Tibet and collaborates on exhibits (her photographs and his paintings) and projects with artist Phil Sugden. She is organizing an eco-cultural trip to Tibet in June 2008 and a Mt. Kailash pilgrimage in 2009. This year, two wedding ceremonies were arranged in Nepal, one in the shadow of Mt. Everest and one in the newly renovated Garden of Dreams in Kathmandu.
Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis, in his book Greatness: Who Makes History and Why, explains of highly productive creators, “These individuals are driven by huge motivational forces that far eclipse the impetus behind less accomplished colleagues…Geniuses cannot spend so many hours without an inherent passion for what they do.”
The reason the successful people are successful, Simonton found, is that they produce more than their colleagues: more works of art, more scientific experiments, and more political initiatives. Because of this productivity, they are more likely than the average person to hit the jackpot and stumble across a truly meaningful contribution.
-- Excerpted from Dr. Brett Steenbarger's article "Finding the Zone"
>> Find out how you can improve your productivity and creativity too
Karin Buchholz is the Vice President of Community and Fan Development for the legendary New York Knicks basketball team. She will be featured in the upcoming DVD "Peak Performance and the Mind" to be released at the end of March. She joined the Knicks in September 2002 with over 15 years of experience in the sports industry. She had successful stints at the United States Olympic Committee, the United States Tennis Association and most recently with the WNBA.
Dwight L. Moody
We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine.
Lee Iacocca
The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they're expected to do -- they always reach.
Isaac Disraeli
It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.
Colin Powell
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Horace
No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.
T.S. Eliot
Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
Henry Ward Beecher
We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.
Robert Townsend
If you don't do it with excellence, don't do it at all! Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
Abraham Lincoln
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
Robert Collier
Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.
Margaret Thatcher
People think that at the top there isn't much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.
Pat Riley
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
>> Find more Quotes at our Vortex Newsletter
I've had the pleasure of meeting Richard Saul Wurman (photo) during an event I organized in Venice, Italy for a Swiss private bank. Since I first read an article on "Inc. Magazine" that revealed how he designed his life around his interests and unique ability, I longed to learn more about how he managed to pull it off. He's a fascinating person, the founder of the Access Guides and the world-renowned TED Conferences. [Watch a Clip of Richard Wurman]
Pete Olsen, PhD, is the Executive Consultant in Organizational Psychology for Madison Square Garden in New York City. His experience in working with High Performance Teams in sports can be applied to business, as he describes in an excerpt of his upcoming book, "Gameplan."
"The process of building winning team performance has not yet evolved to the level of a hard science. In fact the ways by which highly successful teams build chemistry has always been a bit of a mystery; almost like some type of interpersonal alchemy. Creating great team chemistry may seem even more difficult than changing base metal into gold because it requires that competitive individuals, often successful in their own right, to come together and subordinate their self-interests to the goals of the group.
At the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Nikki Stone became America’s first-ever Olympic Champion in the sport of inverted aerial skiing. What made this performance so unbelievable was the fact that less than two years earlier, a chronic injury prevented Nikki from standing, much less walking or skiing off a 12-foot wall of snow that launches aerialists 5 stories into the air.
Philipp Johner is one of my dear associates, a member of my Advisory Board and a mentor. He is the Managing Director of Manres AG, a consulting company based in Zollikon, Zurich (Switzerland). His profile as a peak performer is nothing short of remarkable. Philipp embodies the qualities of the individual who's seeking to live life at its fullest. He has reinvented himself several times and strives to share the discoveries made in his personal journey from his psychological, philosophical and spiritual perspectives.
One apple seed placed in a nurturing environment can yield, in a relatively short time, a tree that will bear tens of thousands of seeds. Take these seeds and place them in a nurturing environment and you will have millions of fruit bearing trees that could feed a nation. The peak performance of this one apples seed would be to reach its potential. The most powerful force on our planet today is that of a single "Thought Seed." -- Fred Robinson is the USA's top-ranked 50-and-over tennis player in both singles and doubles, a member of the 2006 Seniors World Team champion U.S. Team and an evangelist for his sport
Learn more about Fred Robinson and watch a video clip interview on Peak Performance
The way I'm designing my breakthrough is by making my short and mid-term goals fit into a 25-year vision. That's my Focus, what we usually call "the big picture." That vision has milestones I want to achieve every five years. They are my measure of success, which I monitor through four aspects: I check my degree of achievement, my satisfaction, the significance of the output and if I'm leaving a path for others to follow. Sounds grand, but it's just a series of interconnected dots along a dimly illuminated path.
Every war strategist talks about having "the resources and the will" to achieve victory. Focus requires willingness as much as it requires Energy behind it, and only sustained effort leads to Breakthrough. Managing my energy by "making waves" of stress and recovery will allow me to develop the necessary strength, endurance, flexibility and resilience to get to the finish line.
Now, every effort requires support. Being surrounded by positive, optimistic, encouraging people keeps me on-track and inspired. Sharing the experience helps me tolerate the ambiguity associated with developing new behaviors and a new identity. Sharing the experience adds the "Joy Factor," the realization that our thirst for improvement is part of being human and a quality that unites us.
How do you design your Breakthrough?
>> Would you like to have some guidance to do it?
Everyday Heroes- How Ordinary people can do extraordinary things
By Joan O. Wright, Master Certified Coach
We can grasp the meaning of success and how delicious the fruits can taste. However, the term significance may feel out of reach. How can an everyday person like me be extraordinary? You must be talking about Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa or Dr. Martin Luther King. These are people who changed the world. These are people who are truly heroes.
Me on the other hand, I may be a homemaker with a husband and three young children or high school teacher, or a banker making just enough to meet my financial needs. Certainly, we can’t be thought of as significant?
Personal Story- Several years ago, as I approached my 50th birthday, I found myself asking some questions about my own significance. I became inspired by a quote from Dewitt Jones who said “instead of striving to be the best in the world, why not strive to be the best for the world?” This quote caused me to see that I was caught up in my own success trap treadmill. Like an addiction the highs became shorter-lived and the urge for bigger success became stronger. At the same time, my faith was growing, teaching me about the meaning of significance. Thankfully, at 50 I began pursuing a life that supports and serves others with the gifts God gave me.
Here are stories of two heroes that continue to inspire me. These are stories not of the obvious heroes, but everyday people around me doing extraordinary things.
Jennie’s Apprentice- “Years ago, a young boy’s next door neighbor invited him to watch her in the kitchen. Now he could be the city’s most promising young chef.” Charlotte Observer, October 3, 2004. The article continues to tell readers about how this unlikely friendship has suited them both for almost 17 years. The glue that bonded their friendship was a love of cooking. Jennie not only had a special gift for cooking, she knew how to transfer that love into a mentoring relationship with this young boy who dreamed to be a chef. Just this week, Jennie received an email from her protégé chef Andrew in France about how he aced his exam finishing in the top third. This news does not surprise her, but brings on a knowing smile. Jennie transformed Andrews’s life. In early childhood he was diagnosed with significant learning disabilities causing some teachers/counselors to doubt his being able to succeed in college level academics. Encouraged to follow his passion, Andrew has overcome these obstacles and is scheduled to receive a bachelor of science degree in the culinary arts. Her example has challenged me to offer the same mentoring relationship to others I know. Jennie models how to give freely of her own resources without expecting anything in return. No doubt, the blessing returned to Jennie can’t be measured or ever bought.
Mrs. Brown’s Sherpa
Three women, a recent 70 year old widow and her two grown daughters travel to Alaska to enjoy America’s last frontier. Knowing one of the daughters well, and her love for outdoor adventure of the physical kind, I assumed that she would be the only one to take the challenge of the exhilarating and somewhat scary zip wire ride through the rain forest. Yes! there are rain forests in Alaska. This was one of the day excursion options on their two week trip.
On her return, my friend Shelly told me of another everyday hero, a young man who demonstrated the power of encouragement. Mrs. Brown, Shelly’s mom wanted desperately to share the thrill of the zip wire with her younger daughters but was overwhelmed by the long list of release indemnifications outlined by the trip manager. Her apprehensions grew as the three women traveled in the back of a truck to the top of a mountain. Their course 11 four foot platforms averaging 150 feet above ground included swings lasting 30-45 seconds. A younger guide named Levi spotted this eager yet fretful senior citizen and took her by his side. “Don’t worry Mrs. Brown, you can do this and I will help you all the way through. Not only was Levi the Sherpa leader that day, he became an everyday hero in the lives of the Brown family. The story could have ended with Mrs. Brown experiencing the thrill of her life while feeling as young as ever. But today the story continues as she shares her adventures with family and friends with pictures of her hanging miles high over the rain forest. They serve as a vivid reminder of what encouragement can mean. The kind of encouragement that mobilizes us to go for dreams even in the face of fear and those that doubt us.
Call to Action
What can you learn from everyday heroes like Jennie and Levi? How might you use their stories in your own life?
Like Jennie’s passion for cooking and mentoring
What talents or gifts might you consider developing in others?
Who might those others be?
Would you do best by mentoring, coaching or teaching this talent?
How will you help them to celebrate early progress and celebrate often?
Sometimes, we are called to believe in others when they can’t yet believe in themselves.
Like “Sherpa Levi’s” ability to encourage and take people to great heights
Who might you engage that is sitting on the fence? Someone stuck where they are, yet yearning to get to where they want to go?
what limiting expectations might others have of this individual that you might change?
How might you advise others to overcome the limitations imposed by rules and regulations to go for what is uniquely possible for them?
Who will you invite as your Sherpa?
As you create conditions for your own pursuit of success and significance, consider this quote from Frederick Buechner: “God calls us to work at the place where our deep gladness and the world’s deepest hunger meet.”
Joan Wright is a Master Certified Coach who enables Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial business to develop and retain the leadership strength and talent they need to achieve their goals. She has developed an audio CD program with Val Williams, also a Master Certified Coach, who specializes in helping senior corporate leaders strengthen their vision, strategic planning, team alignment, execution and people development.
Their program is called "Leadership: Three Essential Questions for Executives." It zooms into the 3-C's of Leadership: Clarity, Courage and Connection, while posing three critical questions dealing with the upcoming challenges leaders must face: Setting Strategic Direction, Developing Leadership Capacity and Creating Work-Life Balance.
>> Listen to Joan Wright and Val Williams - "What leaders are up against in the future" - Windows Media Audio - 2:57 min. >> Purchase the Audio CD
Last year, I asked several acquaintances a simple question: "What's my Unique Ability?" The exercise is based on the book inspired by Dan Sullivan from The Strategic Coach, fittingly called "Unique Ability."
“Sport is not the whole of life, but, by joining consciousness to excellence in form, it ushers us into life's wholeness. Sport may not make one a better person, but by showing much of what is best in us, it can help. It may not bring spiritual enlightenment, but it does display the spirit's dazzling glow. Sport rarely brings substantive self-knowledge, but few things so readily connect us with the source of self-knowledge: the center of our being, that place within the swirl of action where we find what Rilke called the "stillness like the heart of a rose." The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business?
Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all. It's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes.
The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it. Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.
Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another.
The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.
Source: Excerpted and adapted from "What it takes to be great," Fortune on CNNMoney.com by Geoffrey Colvin
