High performance habits – your mindset and your response

How mindset and response may once again be the best predictor of survival.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”

I have long been intrigued by this quote widely attributed to Darwin, because it talks to one of our core beliefs at PlanetK2 that talent, strength, or intelligence are never enough to be successful – they all require dedicated application in a helpful direction.

Earlier this week, this notion beautifully re-emerged for me when I was tickled by a social media post showing a retailer who has clearly embraced the need to adapt during the present COVID crisis.

Some context…

In middle March, the South African government announced an initial 21 day COVID lockdown period, and banned the sale of alcohol during that period.  When the lockdown was extended by a further two weeks, in addition to the anxiety and frustration over the disruption to free movement and to earn a living, there was also a less serious, but tangible realisation for many households, in short, the narrative was: “We have run out of booze!”.

One retailer however, demonstrated the on-your-feet thinking that would have made Darwin proud. What did they do?…they pivoted quickly and, without being irreverent to the law of the land, began hero merchandising the three ingredients (pineapples, yeast and sugar) most commonly used to create a local favourite: home-brewed pineapple beer. For many this was a problem solved – ‘if we can’t buy it, we’ll make it ourselves!’

Without going any deeper into the ethics of the topic, for these unique circumstances, this retailer trumped all other players in the alcohol market, even the traditional heavyweights with bigger, better ranges of products, simply because they were able to meet a demand with an adapted supply.

What can we learn from this?

I feel this quirky example can be a useful reminder to all of us that we are in the throes of significant change and we urgently need to be prizing our ability to adapt: to earn, to interact, to live, above almost everything else.

I believe that the value of the work we do (at least initially) will rely less on how well we do it, but rather the extent to which it satisfies a need.

We are in survival mode…and need to put all our focus on evolving and innovating rather than flexing our (possibly outdated) muscles.

What do we recommend?

As we launch our suite of human performance expertise into South Africa, PlanetK2 are determined to use our 17 years of proven track record to help businesses improve their readiness to perform, in these, and any conditions.

Below are some filters that we have found helpful to assess performance readiness.

Your mindset and your response

One of our performance mantras is to ‘help people do the things they need to do to get the results they want’. One of the best places to consider what you need to do is to review your mindset and response that can help you navigate these uncertain times.

A quick tool we use in these scenarios is to quickly assess which of our thoughts and actions are taking us in a helpful direction.

So, try re-creating the matrix below and assess which direction your mindset and response are likely to lead you. Theres a few examples in there to give you a head start.

Your performance ingredients

Now that you have established which mindset and approaches are moving you in a helpful direction, we recommend you look at the ingredients you need to get the results you want.

So, inspired by the story of the pineapple retailer here are some questions to help assess how ready you are to perform in the new normal.

What are your performance ingredients?

We are here to help

PlanetK2 is currently launching in South Africa to provide performance expertise to businesses who are serious about optimising what they do to get the results they want.

As a gift to you in these challenging times, we’re providing free access to our amazing online resource “The Performance Room” during the COVID pandemic. The best human performance resource on the planet, full of tools, guides, infographics, training plans, insights and a whole lot more, it will help you be ready to perform whatever the conditions.

If your team need an injection of high-performance thinking, get in touch for a complimentary high-performance discussion.