Someone mentioned today that there is opportunity in chaos…Seems like a sensible assertion. And there is opportunity for sure, providing your know what abilities you have to exploit that opportunity. It’s been said that “chance favours the prepared mind” and these two ideas sit nicely together. Opportunity and the prepared mind.How prepared is your individual, [...]
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 [...]
… 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 [...]
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 [...]
Viktor Frankl (author of the great book, Man’s Search for Meaning) observed that “where there is a why, you can endure almost any how”… deep words… but very true.So, have a look around you. We’re in pretty tough times, and the people who have a “why”, either a personal why, team why or organisational why, [...]
In my last post I reflected on the change in context of my role and identity at work and how this impacted on my performance and emotions.
I took a decision there and then to look at my situation differently and to choose to feel something else more useful.
Of course, it is never really as simple [...]
Looking for a previous article from HBR on resilience I came across the attached old favourite which seems as pertinent now as it did in Jan 2001 (when the market was bouyant).The Making of a Corporate Athlete
We like copying the great coaches from sport who we’ve worked with and we’ve noticed they talk a lot about the same things, because they’re the fundamentals, until people get it! So, even though we put some stuff up about this last week, it’s still important and it’s probably useful to keep focusing on goals [...]
“It’s subtle this performance coaching stuff, but it works. This time last year if circumstances had been the same I’d have been sh*!ing myself and unhealthily pessimistic. This year I’m still pessimistic, but understand that this pessimism is actually useful. If I use it appropriately, it helps me to perform better. Also, last year, I’d [...]
Reading The Times this week, Ben Mcintyre reminded me of something that Miss McIntosh taught me in 1971. 2+2 = 4. The maths is true and is the same this year as it was last, but something has changed - what we have lost is not the ability to add up but something much more [...]