Achieving Your Psychological Best At Work – Getting from low to high performance in split second.
I decided to write this article in one of the airports around the world, after successfully delivered a program on being our psychological best at work, and It dawned on me that all significant and perceived risky attempt starts with our mind.
There are only two doors that we can open in our mind. One that blocks our mind from an action, or the other that drives us towards action. In my current work on behaviour as a professional speaker and facilitator on influence and leadership, I realized that we tend to open the door that blocks us from the action.
A study conducted showed that our mind decides to be courageous 7 seconds before we decide to take that action physically. The hidden answer lies in what we need to do more of before that 7 seconds so that we can muster our courage to be at our psychological best every day, every time, in every space.
MIND STRATEGY 1: LEVEL THINGS OUT
One of the most significant challenges we faced when we are about to make a big decision, make a crucial presentation to a senior stakeholder, or walking into a tight situation, is that we tend to magnify the power of the other party, so much so that we lose confidence in our position.
Confidence is a state of mind. By levelling things out is to put that person or the situation on the same level as you are. By placing everyone on the same level and footing, we can compose ourselves, versus trying to be someone we are not or desperately trying to impress.
By levelling out, we can make a proper decision without compromising.
MIND STRATEGY 2: 100 PERCENT, ONE ITEM AT A TIME
Multiple tasking is a myth. We are not programmed to do that from day one. Giving ten percent each to ten items is not an effective way of living. Either you give 100 percent or none. Offering 10 percent is equal to none.
The study showed that each time we are distracted by our phone message and returning to the job takes on average one minute to be back in the zone. On average, we are distracted by our phone more than fifty times a day, that’s a good 50 minutes off effectiveness.
Stay on that task, giving them 100 percent, one at a time.
MIND STRATEGY 3: PAUSE OFTEN
One of the most precious commodities today is the ability to stop, pause and to think before taking action. Majority of people are rushing from one task to the next without giving too much thought to their strategy.
Pausing, help us to be more conscious of the choices we made and not fall into following the crowd and missing opportunities. Are you pausing enough?
Starting today, Make a conscious choice to level out. Take one item at a time with one hundred percent dedication, together with a conscious effort to pause by taking time out to think.
Article by:
Joseph Wong, a multiple award-winning leadership and behavioural transformation coach, captivating author and game changing professional conference speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to influence@traininggearasia.com
