Manage Your Own Performance

In our teched-up and super busy world, where we are taught to outsource as much as we can, there are some things that we just need to keep to ourselves. One of those is our own “Performance Management”.

When did it become the responsibility of other people to keep us on track and push us to be who we need to be in our workplace?

Performance Management is a long-suffering, compliance-driven dinosaur that needs to be taken back from human resources and re-distributed to the individuals it belongs to. Come on people, let’s take some ownership here!

We have all been tricked into believing that we can just come to work and someone else will manage us and it’s not true. Others put a new spin on it and say that it’s a ‘leadership’ imperative that enables a leader to take others on the journey with them. I’m calling BS on that. If it is to be it’s up to me (and you).

Let’s get real here. To be able to perform at an optimal level in today’s fast-paced, VUCA marketplace, we must be suitably equipped to manage our own performance. It’s a vital ingredient of our ‘personal leadership’ and I would love to get you started.

So before we jump in you need to understand something first. We simply cannot rely on last century methods to navigate the here and now. Keeping this in mind, effective personal leadership training is more about enhancing brain and body functionality than techniques and strategies to reduce the size of your to do list.

In the cutting edge i4 Neuroleader Model developed by the About My Brain institute, *“Performance refers to the optimal level, both mental and physical, that a person is able to achieve when implementing a task”.* Now that makes total sense to me. When I am not getting enough done or producing sub par quality at work, it’s usually because I am tired, stressed or feeling overwhelmed. Changing this is all about me getting on top of my mind game and looking after myself better.

It starts with the brain but the latest advancements in neuroscience show us that is just the beginning. It’s all about integration of the various parts of the brain and body that result in a healthy system.

Balance is also very important. Not your old school ‘work-life balance’ nonsense that some people are still peddling. It’s more about a series of actions and attitudes that will help your brain to perform at it’s best, combining with the body in a homeostatic state. Good nutrition, exercise and sleep hygiene are just a sample of what you need to consider. Others include having enough down time and socialising to keep the brain circuits active.

Our ethics, the moral values and principles that we filter our decisions through, have a major effect on our performance. It is what sets our personal standard of excellence and guides us to make judgments and decisions based on our true priorities. When we have that congruence we perform so much better than when we are working against the grain of what we value.

And last but by no means least is our mental readiness. A well balanced psychological state that produces confidence, focus and proper planning that helps us think more clearly and deal with the unknown that lies ahead. Remember, our brains and bodies form a system that needs to be maintained regularly so it can perform at an optimum level. Failure to recognise this and take proactive steps to get this in order can lead to mood disorders, poor performance and long term health issues.

So then, the key to taking back the responsibility of your personal performance is to develop the pillars of Integration, Balance, Ethics and Mental Readiness.

Contact me today if you would like to know more.