Peak performance is not only about how effective you are today, but how effective you are throughout your career. ~ www.jaywren.com
Here are 8 steps that will help you manage and build your skills to accomplish more.
Peak Performance
- Seek Advice
- Gain the Extra Yard
- Do One More Task
- Read
- Focus on Solutions not Problems
- Turn Your Solutions into Services
- Build and Diversify Your Network
- Set Goals
Seek Advice
Seek advice before acting on important decisions. It is so easy for me to go into difficult situations and make large decisions with the belief that I already have all the answers. It is equally easy for me to overlook things that I should have considered before acting. I better understand my circumstances and find far greater solutions by discussing my decisions before acting,
Gain the Extra Yard
Get the greatest results from each activity. The National Football League wide receiver Jerry Rice holds 23 NFL records. He caught long passes. More importantly is the number of yards he gained after he caught the pass. It is those extra yards that enabled him to set so many of those records.
Business professionals can do a better job for their company by identifying those small details that turn mediocre projects into hugely successful projects. They do the same tasks everyone else does and achieve greater results than anyone else. One example of how these people achieve excellence is that they set a finished product aside overnight and return to it when they have a fresh perspective.
These people build companies like Apple, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, and so on across the spectrum. What these companies have in common is they gain the extra yards to make their products exceed the quality of their competitors.
Do One More Task
When you finish your work before the end of the day, do at least one more task before leaving work. It is easy to sit around at the end of the day. It may feel good to leave early. By starting and completing one more task on the days when you have extra time, you will find that your production will rise dramatically. If you add and complete one extra task per week, you will complete fifty more tasks over the course of the year. Your company will benefit. Your value to your company will grow.
For example, when I was a new sales rep at Procter & Gamble, I went from last in the district to first and held that position throughout my time at P&G. What did I do to change my standings? After I finished my schedule for the day, I made an extra sales call. Sometimes these calls were just retail visits. However, these small efforts added up to make a huge difference in my productivity.
Read
Regularly read articles and books about your job and your goals. Nearly every job continues to evolve. Many jobs disappear entirely. New information and tools become available to make job performance easier and make you more marketable. Take advantage of this information to grow in professional value and for personal enrichment.
Focus on Solutions not Problems
Everyone has problems. Everyone encounters obstacles. It is easy to procrastinate or give up instead of acting on these obstacles.
However, by focusing on solutions, you can develop effective, often new ways of dealing with these obstacles.
Turn Your Solutions into Services
As you create solutions, look for ways to help other people use your solutions. People have founded companies based on providing products and services to overcome common obstacles. If you can sell the solutions you have developed in overcoming obstacles, you have a business.
Build and Diversify Your Network
Continue to expand your network of friends and mentors. My son has multiple circles of friends. The people in each of these circles are people he has met at different times and in different settings. Some of these friends are from high school classes. Other friends come from his sports activities. Additionally, he has friends from college and his career.
Since graduating from college, he has met these people from different circles to pick up new hobbies and to travel. Additionally, he has long-term relations with people in his career. These people are valuable assets to help with solutions in his career.
Set Goals
Continue to set goals. Goal setting will help you focus on your daily plan. Furthermore, goal setting can have a subconscious power to drive your actions even when you are not working directly from a daily plan.
Having goals can give you a sense of purpose and a feeling of accomplishment. Rather than focusing on the ruts of your life, you can focus on your goals and how to move toward them. Goals lead to peak performance.