This week I spent over 12 hours a day for a week studying for and participating in a virtual High Performance program with 200+ other students from around the globe. Up to this point, I have been doing the pre-work since February 2020, an online High Performance Master’s Program. So, I thought I would be more than ready, I would attend the training, check the box and add this new certification to my list.
What I didn’t know was how different this training would be! We learned so much about the process, each other and ourselves.
We covered topics like Clarity, Energy, Productivity, Courage and Influence just to name a few; we learned the topic then we coached each other on how to use it in our daily lives. Many of us are corporate citizens and work for Fortune 100 companies, science labs, tech start ups, software developers, plus a few entrepreneurs.
The question that came up a lot was: “How can we apply this at work?” It was easy to apply at home, get clear on eating healthier, take more walks, spend quality time with family, etc. But, we all wanted to use this as an edge at work, so each topic we would brainstorm ways to apply this to either showing up with more Energy, getting more Clarity around our goals, using the new Productivity Planner we learned, having Courage to speak up during meetings and learning how to cultivate Influence to drive projects to completion.
One of the areas I particularly want to work on is cultivating Influence in a more social area like coaching people to use these tools to get into the Boardroom of the future. Looking at the landscape of this past week, I met a female Fire Chief, a CEO of a multi-national company, an author, the Principal for a science lab, plus many other fascinating people. One thing I noticed, they all are driven to make a difference. From coming home early to spend more time with their kids, to getting out of toxic relationships, to helping train and elevate others at work. It was inspiring to hear so many stories of Influence and the ripple affect they have had on their community.
Another perk of meeting all of these wonderful, diverse humans was seeing them in action, actually living the principles we all learned. While a few of us were new to this process, many folks were coming back for advanced training. All of them had stories of how much this original High Performance training had impacted their lives in a positive way. One of the first keys, is to get Clarity around your goals and have the confidence to move forward even through the ambiguity. Sometimes leaning back on past successes to catapult you through the fog of uncertainty.
So I am now a Certified High Performance Coach, I feel like I have to show up differently, at work, for myself and for my family. The ripple affect just across those three areas is enormous! I learned so much from this week that I will apply to my day job immediately, here are a few examples:
- Use the High Performance Planner to set your intention for your day instead of answering emails first thing in the morning, move the needle on your projects first
- Get Clarity on the top three projects that will make the most impact in the next 90 days and work on them with your team
- Learn what will help you Influence your team, your projects and your internal communities and spend quality time on those relationships
- Challenge your team to show up as leaders, cultivate trust that will allow everyone the Courage to speak up at meetings, especially now that we are all virtual
This was a game changer of a week! I encourage everyone to get some training and hire a coach, these two things alone could completely change the trajectory of your entire life. Be the change you want to see in the world. Also, take advantage of the fact that you can work from anywhere right now, you have more time at home and you can implement from a desk and a computer.
