Rather, the problem is the absence of disciplined, intermittent recovery. The first is the rhythmic movement between energy expenditure (stress) and energy renewal (recovery), which we term “oscillation.” In the living laboratory of sports, we learned that the real enemy of high performance is not stress, which, paradoxical as it may seem, is actually the stimulus for growth. Our own work has demonstrated that effective energy management has two key components. Put simply, the best long-term performers tap into positive energy at all levels of the performance pyramid.Įxtensive research in sports science has confirmed that the capacity to mobilize energy on demand is the foundation of IPS.
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But they cannot perform to their full potential or without a cost over time-to themselves, to their families, and to the corporations for which they work. Obviously, executives can perform successfully even if they smoke, drink and weigh too much, or lack emotional skills or a higher purpose for working. Increasing capacity at all levels allows athletes and executives alike to bring their talents and skills to full ignition and to sustain high performance over time-a condition we call the Ideal Performance State (IPS). Our efforts aim instead to help executives build their capacity for what might be called supportive or secondary competencies, among them endurance, strength, flexibility, self-control, and focus. Likewise, in business we don’t address primary competencies such as public speaking, negotiating, or analyzing a balance sheet. In training athletes, we have never focused on their primary skills-how to hit a serve, swing a golf club, or shoot a basketball. In the pages that follow, we describe our approach in detail. Their dramatically improved work performance and their enhanced health and happiness confirm our initial hypothesis. We have now tested our model on thousands of executives. In effect, we realized, these executives are “corporate athletes.” If they were to perform at high levels over the long haul, we posited, they would have to train in the same systematic, multilevel way that world-class athletes do. Several years ago, the two of us began to develop a more comprehensive version of these techniques for executives facing unprecedented demands in the workplace. Our approach has its roots in the two decades that Jim Loehr and his colleagues at LGE spent working with world-class athletes. For instance, vigorous exercise can produce a sense of emotional well-being, clearing the way for peak mental performance. Rituals that promote oscillation-the rhythmic expenditure and recovery of energy-link the levels of the pyramid. Each of its levels profoundly influences the others, and failure to address any one of them compromises performance. We call this hierarchy the performance pyramid. Thus, our integrated theory of performance management addresses the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit. A successful approach to sustained high performance, we have found, must pull together all of these elements and consider the person as a whole. Almost no one has paid any attention to the role played by physical capacities. A few theorists have addressed the spiritual dimension-how deeper values and a sense of purpose influence performance.
In recent years there has been a growing focus on the relationship between emotional intelligence and high performance. The problem with most approaches, we believe, is that they deal with people only from the neck up, connecting high performance primarily with cognitive capacity. We maintain that they have come up with only partial answers: rich material rewards, the right culture, management by objectives. Management theorists have long sought to identify precisely what makes some people flourish under pressure and others fold. But the source of such performance is as elusive as the fountain of youth. 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.
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