The good news is that high performance is something that is available to everybody.
It does however require a specific mindset that needs to be developed.
To begin with, high performers consistently seek greater clarity. They not only ask more questions typically than others, but they also ask different types of questions.
Once they achieve the greater the clarity that they seek, high performers then act with absolute intention. This intention is always action orientated.
This cyclical process. Seeking clarity and setting intention is carried out repeatedly, again and again with an insatiable appetite by each and every high performer.
It is this that enables them to achieve more, find greater fulfilment, direction, purpose, goal attainment and improve overall levels of satisfaction and success.
Recently, while working with a group of management clients ambitious to become high performers, I put the following questions to them.
What immediate actions would you take if you only had four weeks to complete your 2018 goals?
This question focused their minds straight away and created a sense of urgency. Many teams regularly procrastinate, waiting for the ‘right moment’, delaying taking action until its too late. If you believe that a goal is part of a 12-month strategic plan, then inevitably it will take 12 months (at least) to complete. This question allowed the team to temporarily reframe what is truly possible and demanded that they genuinely commit.
What would you do if there were no limitations here?
Related to the previous question, this one encouraged the team to question their own individual and collective limiting beliefs. Often the limitations that we believe to exist are imagined or perhaps exaggerated. Removing them, even temporarily creates all kinds of opportunities and possibilities.
What would you do if you could start again?
This question asked the team to reframe the situation and consider it from an altogether different perspective. It allowed them to detach and think about whether the objective that they are chasing is the correct one today and if so, are they definitely following the correct path? It also created the space to remove the ego. To say that ‘its okay to change, to pivot and acknowledge that something went wrong and that individually and collectively we are willing to learn from it’.
What actions would somebody else (or another company) in your exact position take?
Finally this question, similar to the previous one, encouraged the management team to detach and examine the problem from a ‘helicopter’ view. What alternatives are there out there? Have they missed something? Maybe another opportunity? At times an individual or team that takes ownership over a goal or objective can become overly invested in pursuing it regardless of how it is going. This question creates the opportunity to separate ourselves even temporarily and consider alternatives.
These questions demanded clarity and intention from this particular management team. The session supported and enabled them in finding alternatives, reinvigorating themselves in terms of motivation and rediscovering that sense of excitement and energy that was missing.
Remember the following: Clarity + Intention = High Performance
Joe McDonald is Founder of create10 providing one to one professional coaching, team workshops on leadership, team performance and innovation creation as well as affordable, flexible online courses. Please see www.create10.ie for further information.