Traditional Vs Deep Performance
Achieving a state of “Deep Performance” is the holy grail for organisations. Think Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Warren Buffet, all examples of sustainable, markedly above average performance. Purpose driven, aligned and sustainable, deep performing organisations “think” expansively and “do” with unwavering focus and explosive energy.
When we think and do this way, we create “Situational Awareness” a powerful concept that allows you to make sense of the world and exploit opportunity and recover quickly when the wheels come off.
We develop high performing teams when our day-to-day activities align to our long-term Purpose. Isn’t that enough? Not really! Deep Performance is created when we take that extra step. To reflect on each day and ask ourselves a simple question.
“Did we do the right things today to get closer to our goals tomorrow?”
Deep Performers reflect, learn and do. Together!
what is Deep performance?
To achieve Deep Performance, we must understand the relationship between four essential ingredients.
Purpose – There’s over 20,000 books on the topic of purpose on Amazon. The purpose model I define here is the answer given by 100’s of successful people when asked “How do you define your purpose”. It also happens to be how I now frame purpose to give myself context everyday!
GID Mindset – Don’t just get stuff done. Get IT done or borrow my mantra “GID!”. IT is one thing per day inching you closer to fulfilling your destiny. Too often we’re just doing too much, or NOT doing it. Up to 50% of the work you do at work is pointless. If you can’t answer “What’s the point?” to the stuff you do each day, then stop doing it.
Situational Awareness – Is connecting what we want to do to what we have to do because the world throws us curve balls all the time. Sometimes we hit a home run, sometimes we miss. Good situational awareness means we can adapt quickly and keep moving forward.
Reflection – Ask yourself these four questions
“What did I set out to achieve today?”
“What did I do?”
“Was there a shortfall?”
“Why and what will I tomorrow”
Commit to fixing the shortfall!
WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?
Purpose is your collective story, it is “IT” the one big goal you have to achieve to engage the heart and the mind; it may even be a fairy tale for now! Remember, back in the old days it used to be our “Vision, Mission and Goals”, throw in three or four values and then put it in the bottom draw, never to be read!
You want people to read your story, we don't want it gathering dust in a draw somewhere. Keep it simple, fit it on a page. After interviewing hundreds of leaders as a performance coach and co-host on “The Few Podcast” I think purpose can be distilled down to these seven basic “chunks”.
So what's the fundamental element of your story?
Make an Impact! What do you want to change in your world? An Impact is the same thing as a goal really, it’s just a big meaningful one that gets you out of bed in the morning.
Did you notice one traditional component missing? It’s TIME.
Time is the killer of Purpose. Why? Because we live to our purpose everyday. We do the small meaningful things, every day, we GID “Get It Done”. That means we win more and when we win, we feel great, simple right?
Everyone wants to be part of a winning team. Deep Performers create a winning mindset called “The GID Mindset”, they find a small win everyday.
"THE GID MINDSET" - GET IT DONE!
“I have always believed anything is possible. I believe in myself. I believe I must perform. I believe actions speak louder than words. I believe living to your purpose is how you measure success. I believe doing something is better than nothing. I believe we should embrace failure. I believe you never give up when the journey gets tough. I call these beliefs my GID Mindset. When we have this mindset, all of life’s detail falls into place." Boo
Boo’s personal journey has been defined by deep understanding of performance, almost by accident. He was bestowed with purpose from the age of six, with a dream of becoming a fighter pilot. A dream fulfilled 15 years later.
He has committed himself to pursuing a life with purpose, to invest in businesses, opportunities and adventures that inspire action for himself and those around him. He has developed a deep understanding of the nuances of human performance and how success is a powerful motivator, yet something we sometimes fear. We just need to understand what success looks like, the journey to get there and then, do it! To survive then thrive, that’s what he has learned to do. To make things happen. To Get it done.
Human performance is a bit like the Apollo rockets that captivated humanity 60 years ago. Prior to launch it is lumbering, inert and full of potential. To unlock that potential, we needed a spark. That spark unleashed unbridled raw power, igniting the fuel that created an unstoppable momentum, powering the rocket it to its destination.
This is deep performance, finding purpose, igniting your potential and shooting for the moon. GID!
Situational Awareness is….Clarity
Have you seen the movie The Matrix with Keanu Reeves? As Neo he is always one step ahead of the agents and able to “Plug into” the matrix. That is situational awareness, finding the right information at the right time to make great decisions.
IS LIKE A BUBBLE OF CLARITY. SOMETIMES we have great awareness – our Bubble is “BIG”, more OFTEN “SMALL”. If you close your eyes for a moment you can imagine yourself in the middle of this bubble.
Outside this imaginary bubble is the world! The smaller the bubble, the less clarity you have and the less time you have to deal with everything the world throws at you, eventually it’ll burst and you’ll be overwhelmed.
Now imagine a big bubble! Now you clarity and more time!! Everything is further away, you’re less reactive and you can think more. You’re now an extremely valuable member of the team, because you have time to think before you act.
A big bubble means amazing clarity and the great news is there is a technique to pump your bubble up whenever you feel it’s deflated.
We want our LEADERS, TEAMS and PEOPLE to proactively CREATE “Big” bubbles.
To develop their ability to lead teams that find the right information at the right time to empower good decisions.
these decisions equal actions, the actions that deliver the IMPACTS that define your success.
Learn more about situational awareness
THE SA LOOP
FOUR SIMPLE STEPS TO UNLOCK UNLIMITED POTENTIAL
STEP 1 – What was the intended impact you were hoping to achieve?
STEP 2 – What was the result (what actually happened vs your expectations?)
STEP 3 – What was the reason for this result and why is their a gap in your performance
STEP 4 – What action are you going to take NOW to close the gap
Start the SA Loop again until the next debrief! Simple.