If there is one quality that executives seek for themselves and their employees, it is sustained high performance in the face of ever-increasing pressure and rapid change
In a corporate environment that is changing at warp speed, performing consistently at high levels is more complicated and more necessary than ever. Narrow interventions simply aren’t sufficient anymore. Companies can’t afford to address their employees’ cognitive capacities while ignoring their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
High performance depends as much on how people renew and recover energy as on how they expend it on how they manage their lives as much as on how they manage their work. When people feel healthy and resilient—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—they perform better, with more passion, for longer. They win, their families succeed, and the corporations that employ them win.
”Companies can’t afford to address their employees’ cognitive capacities — their focus, time management, and critical-thinking skills — while ignoring their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being”
A successful approach to sustained high performance must consider the person as a whole, addressing the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit. This integrated hierarchy is known as the performance pyramid. Each of its levels profoundly influences the others, and failure to address anyone compromises performance.
Peak performance in business has often been understood as a matter of sheer brainpower. Instead, we should view it as a pyramid. Physical well-being is its foundation. Above that rests emotional health, then mental acuity, and at the top, a sense of purpose. The Ideal Performance State—peak performance under pressure—is achieved when all levels are working together.
Life is tough, and it is only getting tougher. But that is precisely the point. While it isn’t always in our power to change our external conditions, we can train to manage our inner state better. We must use the full range of our capacities to thrive in the most challenging circumstances and to emerge from stressful periods stronger, healthier, and eager for the next challenge.
In The Making of a Corporate Athlete, the authors present basic strategies for renewing energy at the physical level. If any of these strategies aren’t part of our life now, their absence may help account for fatigue, irritability, lack of emotional resilience, difficulty concentrating, and even a flagging sense of purpose.
