The misconception about high performance in the workplace

As a coach, I work with many clients whose goal is improving their workplace performance. In the last five years, I’ve noticed a pattern emerge; here is what I discovered.

As we discuss and dig deeper, peel the layers, and get at the core of what stands in the way of my clients, one thing is always true: it's never a matter of lacking cognitive or technical abilities. The clients I’ve worked with have all been highly trained and have cultivated high degrees of expertise in their respective fields. In every instance, the challenge they faced was more foundational. On a spectrum, they all lost—or never quite established—a connection to their body, heart, or spirit; sometimes, all three. They primarily performed cognitively, devoid of the rest.

In a society that puts cognitive abilities on a pedestal, it's no surprise that it's prioritized in the workplace. People in the corporate and business world are often referred to as floating heads. From a young age, we attend school to learn and accumulate knowledge; what we don't do is develop our physical and emotional capacity. Seeking more knowledge is a common strategy for success and a typical approach to solving our problems.

When we think of performance in the workplace, we think of cognitive ability with productivity tools, processes and systems, yet, we don't think of it as the integration of the mind, body, heart and spirit.

We are no longer merely employees; we are corporate athletes, a term I borrow from Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. In their work, they compared world-class athletes to corporate executives; they highlighted the fact that athletes train and practice most of the time and only compete maybe a few hours a day, whereas corporate executives train very little and yet, attempt to perform up to 10, 12 and more hours a day with only a few weeks of time off a year, if at all.

Loehr and Schwartz's work began more than 20 years ago. Let's be honest, since that time, the level of performance we once expected from executives and C suites has migrated to lower levels in the corporate hierarchy. Now, more than ever, leaders at every level are expected to perform similarly.

There's a deficiency in how training is prioritized in everyday life, not referring to your corporate development training programs. Training refers to the proactive approach to developing the physical body, the emotional capacity and spiritual clarity of knowing what matters to us as the foundation for performance.

Below are the capacities that form the foundation for high performance and the areas I help my clients develop new rituals. I borrow some terms Loehr and Schwartz previously used because they are, in simple truth, foundational. Note that capacity is interchangeable with intelligence.

Cognitive capacity

Cognitive capacity is what most people think of when we refer to high performance in the workplace. Instead of focusing purely on technical skills, expertise and knowledge, my work emphasizes improving focus, time management, and energy management, among a few other areas.

Spiritual capacity

Spiritual capacity is tapping into the energy that flows through as we cultivate a deeper connection to our most essential values and purpose. Individuals with a meaningful understanding of why they do what they do will sustain higher performance levels than those who don't.

Emotional capacity

Emotional capacity is about the energy that emotions bring or take away. There’s a focus on recognizing, accepting and being with emotions, cultivating positive states and releasing negative ones. It’s about helping clients maintain calm, focus, and engagement even during times of challenge. Poor capacity in this area means working against states that drain energy, such as anger, frustration, resentment, or limited self-control reactions, reducing overall performance. Think of the athlete that chokes under pressure because they have a poor handle on their emotional space. 

Somatic capacity

Somatic capacity focuses on physical strength, a healthy diet, and sleep as energy sources. There's an emphasis on engaging in the cycle of intensity followed by recovery; no athletes perform at their best without it. Doing poorly in this area doesn't mean one cannot perform, it means one can only perform to lesser degrees.

My work with leaders is less about getting them to think about how to take bolder acts of leadership and more about helping them stop thinking altogether, reducing the mental noise enough so they may notice what is already available to them internally. This includes helping them see themselves differently, tapping into their capacities beyond thinking, and using the mind, body, heart and spirit as an integrative strategy for high performance.

I worked with an individual whose goal was to perform better at work: scale their impact, influence better, and improve their ability to support their people. Their initial approach focused on cognitive performance in the workplace. Our work together quickly turned toward better emotional control and capacity, regular energy recovery periods throughout the day and more time to self-reflect. Developing and building new rituals in these areas gave them more sustained energy, a clear mind to know what truly matters to them, more time with the family as they reduced time at work, and ultimately, higher performance levels during working hours. These rituals increased their overall capacities, addressed their whole being, and drastically improved their output.

I have worked with many individuals—and continue doing so—over the years who have similar stories.

Something else has also been true in my work. When someone adopts these new ways of seeing and thinking about performance, their performance improves, but more importantly, so does their satisfaction and happiness. They always do better and live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.

Performance is misunderstood in the workplace. Part of the problem is the archaic leadership culture—believing only tools, systems, and smarts are necessary while discounting emotions and the body. Seeking more output, satisfaction, and happiness requires seeing high performance as more than thinking more efficiently.

Life is meant to be experienced as a whole, not just as a floating head. If integrative high performance is what you seek, you’ll need to think less and feel more.

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.