Performance
Talents…
When we're in circumstances that look and feel totally foreign, we can often conclude that we don't have appropriate skills to deal with what we're facing. That conclusion comes from focusing on the situation as unique, unexpected, threatening and basically unwanted!However, if you're aware of all of your talents that have led you to be... Read more
Performance
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... Read more
Performance
Stating the obvious…
Do you know that people perform better when they are clearly focused on playing to their strengths, rather than focusing on how not to have their weaknesses exposed? Pretty obvious really, but there's a big assumption that everyone has their finger on the pulse of their strengths. In our experience, that's not the caseWe also... Read more
Performance
Active Recovery…
One thing that we know from working with the highest level athletes is that they value and actively exploit recovery in order to perform better. This contrasts with the views that we hear in the corporate world, where is appears there is a perception sometimes that sleep and downtime are an inconvenience to getting a... Read more
Performance
Attitudes are contagioius…
... are yours worth catching? (Great line that we've seen attributed to Aussie cricket great, Steve Waugh, but I'm sure it came from somewhere else first!).Actually, do you even know your attitudes? If you're not fully aware of those attitudes, then you're probably not realising how you're infecting people around you! When the conditions around... Read more
Performance
Paradoxes of Performing…
in pressure situations.Often the success of delivering when facing challenging conditions can be influence greatly by being able to hold two paradoxical beliefs at the same time.For example, in Good to Great, Jim Collins introduces the Stockdale Paradox, in which he outlines the importance of being able to "confront the brutal reality of the situation... Read more
Performance
Darren Bent and the World Economy…
We thought you might like to read this piece by Alan Hansen on the BBC Website about the remarkable transformation in the football player Darren Bent. It struck us that if only Harry Redknapp could be let loose on the world economy, he might have a similar impact on global confidence levels. Hansen's bottom line... Read more
Performance
Short feedback loops
I've re-learned something really important this week - that giving and receiving quality performance focused feedback and then taking responsibility for doing something about it is vital for my performance. And to enable that to happen a few things are required: I have to be open to feedback - to want to know anything that... Read more
Performance
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... Read more
Performance