Coaching the business world to think, prepare and perform like elite athletes

If so, we’re interested in hearing from you, especially if you’re a high performance coaching organisation! Why so we hear you cry?

Well, Keith, our CEO is traveling to Melbourne and Sydney in July to work with one of our customers and as part of that trip he’ll also be meeting up with people who might be interested in partnering with us  to help deliver the K2 programmes and spread the high performance message throughout Australia and New Zealand.

So, if you think that could be you, or you know some people who you think would be great to share the journey with us helping the corporate world think, prepare and perform like elite athletes, then just drop us a line via the website or drop Keith an email at Keithh@PlanetK2.com.

Go on, help him meet as many people as possible in Australia!

Like many others, we love the thoughts, ideas and concepts in Matthew Syed’s book Bounce. Here’s him today on the BBC website writing about pressure

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17874450

He talks about understanding, managing and controlling pressure. Become expert at managing the demands upon you and your resources to deal with them. Become “performance intelligent”.

Being humans, not machines we’re subject to an incredibly large number of variables that determine how well we perform. Many elite level performers strive for consistency in the face of tough conditions or competition, aiming to make their own performance a consistent factor in an inconsistent world.

However, even the world’s best recognise that that they cannot be at their absolute best every time, all the time. Rafa Nadal won his sixth straight Monte Carlo Masters Tennis tournament last weekend, itself a tremendously consistent achievement, beating Novak Djokovic in the final. Afterwards Nadal was asked to comment on the consideration that Djokovic had been below par, and he said:

“Yes. Djokovic wasn’t the real best Djokovic. In other finals that I played against him, I wasn’t my real best, too. But the real best are both. My real best is when I play well and when I play bad.”

And that’s how to deliver consistently great performances, to know that you’ve given your best even when you’ve not played your best.

We recently had the pleasure of spending some time with the leadership team at Evenbase. The focus of our time with them was all around collective excellence and challenging them to think about how they could work together to create the highest performing leadership team possible as they start their journey together. As a result of the session, Felix Wetzel (@felixwetzel for the twitterati) has just published this blog post on their website. It’s a great example of not just experiencing some “training” but actually thinking about how to use some core principles of human performance to focus behaviour and attitudes in order to deliver a desired outcome. Knowledge alone never led an organisation - the application of knowledge to a specific challenge did!

It’s just the kind of application we love to see. It’s easy to pass on knowledge, it’s less usual to see such direct and swift action following. With a passion for applying the common sense principles of human performance at the heart of their leadership team, they’re in a great place to find out just how good they can be.

Thank you Evenbase!

Here are links to a couple of recently published articles. We think they’re rattling good reads…

What would it be like if business leaders focused on performance - click here to see the article on FT.com

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/479b2e18-66bf-11e1-863c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1qaxbFjq3

And here’s a piece on Business Zone about the value of confidence and how it’s link to results (or not)

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/business-trends/let-confidence-carry-you-over-business-finish-line/40282

A brilliant line from Arianna Huffington’s TED Talk.

Are you getting enough sleep? Stop kidding yourself you can be great on a self-imposed sleep deprivation programme.

Thank you for the simple, powerful message. Off to shut our eyes!

We’ve been using Performance Intelligence for a while now and it’s getting some great feedback as a practical coaching tool. As part of the next steps of PI world dominance (softly, softly…) we’re putting on some training later in the year for people who want to become PI Coaches. All you’ll need to give up is your time and be willing to use the PI coaching approach with 5-15 people over the ensuing months.

If you think you might have the background skill and you have the requisite will, then please drop us an email at PI@planetK2.com and we’ll get you on the list and keep you informed of when and where things will be happening. If you’re not up for it, who do you know who’s got the skill and will to be a PI Coach?

Here’s Chris presenting at a recent Tedx Event in Portsmouth.

Let us know what you think!

The trials for the GB rowing crews aiming to take part in this years Olympics have just taken place, though final selection won’t happen for a couple of months yet. It’s an fascinating dynamic in the teams as everyone wants to be as good as they can be, and are competing for a place in the boat, but everyone also wants everyone else to be as good as possible so they stand a maximum chance of winning a medal together.

Compare that to the attitudes of individual members of many corporate teams. How many have you worked in where there has been genuine desire from everybody, backed up by behaviour, that everybod in the team succeeds, without exception? Only in this way, with true mutual accountability, does the team stand a chance of reaching its true potential. Too often individual egos and needs are allowed to get in the way.

As Alex Gregory, GB rower puts it, “In rowing you’re so reliant on your crew mates that you have to understand their needs as well as your own and that can be very frustrating sometimes but you have to find a way of working together”. So a combination of knowing each others strengths, being flexible and tolerant, and holding each other accountable, is a great blend to aspire to. For everyone.

This weekend’s rugby union’s six nations championships demonstrated again what a close tournament this is and the fine margins between success and failure. Going into each game any result is possible, and whilst the final scoreline could be close or not so close, the decisive moments and small swings in momentum are a reflection of the tightness of the teams and the expert way in which they prepare. Listening to the Scotland coach Andy Robinson after three successive defeats, he was left to reflect on three magnificent performances but not quite the right result each time.

Interesting to hear too how his team had gone into their game on Sunday against the French totally believing in their ability to win, despite two previous losses. Their belief probably came from a number of sources. We’re curious about how many corporate/business/team goals, projects and performances begin with a confirmation of everyone’s total belief that they can deliver a performance and succeed in their aims. Or not.

And one thing the Scotland example proves is that belief alone doesn’t count for everything. It can’t make you win. But, like confidence, it certainly helps. So how good is your self-belief and how much do your belief in and trust your programme, your leaders, your team mates and yourself? And if you don’t, or can’t, then that’s probably a good place to start. Bringing 100% of what you have to your work is a real performance skill, whether it be your knowledge, your talent, your energy, or your belief.