Sustaining Your Performance

SUMMARY

Performance is something that we all do. It's something you need to be able to do so that you can produce results. Results are what your bosses, clients, colleagues, family, or whoever want from you.

Yes, being able to perform is important however, as we've talked about before, there are different types of performance and motives for performing.

I have talked to you about the fact that performing to get approval from others is not healthy because there is guarantee that you'll get it. Besides, performance is what you do, but your identity is who you believe you are. I talked to you about the shifts in the area of identity in Personal Leadership.

This week, let us talk about your performance and how you can do it in a way that allows you to have enough energy left at the end of the day to be who you need to be in every other area of your life.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you sometimes feel tired early in the morning at work? Do you feel drained and like you've just been going for too long? Well, I know exactly how that feels so stick with me because in this week's episode I want to help you to shift the way you do things so that you've got enough energy to be who you need to be in every area of your life.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around the 9 crucial shifts that every leader needs to make so that they can thrive and survive in this super VUCA world by helping you to be more sustainable.

Over the last little while, we've been talking about all the areas for these transformational shifts that I help leaders to go through so that they can create a bigger impact, have more influence, and create more income in their careers.

We've just completed the first area, which is around the personal leadership shifts. So now we are going to start on the professional leadership shifts, and this week we're going to kick that off by talking about the shift in performance.

Performance is something that we all do. It's something you need to be able to do so that you can produce results. Results are what your bosses, clients, colleagues, family, or whoever want from you.

Yes, being able to perform is important however, as we've talked about before, there are different types of performance and motives for performing.

I have talked to you about the fact that performing to get approval from others is not healthy because there is guarantee that you'll get it. Besides, performance is what you do, but your identity is who you believe you are. I talked to you about the shifts in the area of identity in Personal Leadership.

So, let us talk about your performance and how you can do it in a way that allows you to have enough energy left at the end of the day to be who you need to be in every other area of your life.

I had a major issue with this many years ago and I was working flat out all the time. I thought that tirelessly working and doing more than anyone was what I had to contribute. However, I realised I was doing that to get others to like and accept me so I could feel like I belonged. And that, coupled with this hustle and grind mentality that seems to be going on in the world right now, I’ve had this idea that I just had to be a high performer all the time.

Although high performance is great, it can negatively affect your health in the long run.

I remember years ago I was presenting at a law firm on the 21st floor of a building in Sydney. It was a beautiful day outside and I was doing great. I was smiling and doing what I loved. However, suddenly, I felt this black cloud come over me, and I had no idea what was going on.

I didn't know my body was giving me some sort of signal. So, I kept smiling and doing what I needed to do without letting anybody know because I was a high performer. At the end of my presentation, I just shook hands with everyone and kept ignoring what I was feeling.

After that, I got in the lift and allowed myself the space to then go, "What’s going on? Am I having a stroke or heart attack?”

I felt like my body was about to give up. I had several meetings that day but I just ignored them, jumped on the train and went straight home.

When I went to the doctor to have myself checked, I learned that I had adrenal fatigue and I needed to go through a long road to recovery. So, my unhealthy mindset of working only in high performance mode led me to burnout.

The shift I want to talk to you about today is going from high performance to sustainable performance.

This is where you realise that you need to do things differently to thrive and survive for the long term. Yes, you need to be a high performer when required, but you also need to ensure you balance that.

You need to make sure that you understand the neurobiology of performance, that brain-body balance is important, and that taking care of the “self” is the only way that you're going to be able to sustain any level of performance for a long time.

It’s okay to have times when you put in that extra effort.

I know you’ve all got deadlines that are looming. You’ve got clients and a team that wants your attention. So, sometimes you can set an intention to work a little bit differently and keep that performance up for a particular period however you also need to realise when you should take a break.

In the story I just told you, my body made that decision for me.

Therefore, I encourage you to look at how you perform so that you see the clues and cues your body's telling you. I want to encourage you to set yourself up in a way that is prevention rather than a reaction, where you can sustain what you're doing and teach a great lesson by being a fantastic mentor to the people around you.

To do this, you need to enhance your executive function. The prefrontal cortex in your brain is your executive command centre and it needs to be hydrated and rested to do what it needs to do to operate effectively emotionally.

That's why emotional intelligence is so important. It needs to be utilised in a way that is as if it's a finite resource and you've only got a certain amount of energy there and capacity.

And you know what? That’s true. It is a finite resource!

You can enhance the way that you use your brain and body by:

•  Spacing out what you’re doing by making sure you set intentions before you get into the next thing you are doing.
• Taking rest breaks.
• Setting up your calendar so you do things that take energy at a particular time of the day that suits your biorhythms.
• Exercising self-care and doing things in balance with every area of your life.

I don’t know about you, but there's a lot more to me and what I want to achieve in life than my career and business. So, to be able to keep that energy reserve to sustain that performance in every area of my life, has now become my number one priority.

I do not believe in that thing called “work-life balance”. It's a myth. It assumes that work and life are separate, and we know they're not. They're together. Work is just part of your life.

It even says that: “work, work, work, and if you got any energy left, you then could have a life”, which is wrong as well.

Therefore, you need to shift your mindset, and you need to realise that “work-life” balance is an unattainable myth.

All you need to do is to look at your own balance.

I used to talk about the “perfect balance” years ago, and there's no such thing.

The reason being is that your balance, your biorhythms, your makeup, and what you do could be different from mine. So, work out what works well for you. Communicate that with people who can sometimes be involved in taking some of that energy. Work on your mental, physical, and emotional readiness and make sure that you are doing things in a way that is not just serving everybody else, but they're serving you first.

Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue this conversation in the Professional Shifts by looking at your “Positioning”. This is about how you show up and allow the world to see you — whether that be the world within your career or outside of that— so that the right people are aligned with you and opportunities open up everywhere.

I'll see you then.