Management Performance & Employee Engagement 

How are we different in terms of management performance & employee engagement?

In simple terms we have worked in elite sport for many years and we have identified what works with these great champions will work with aspiring champions and anybody who wishes to improve their potential and performance in the corporate world. The two fields are very similar in terms of competitiveness and rewards. Management performance and employee engagement can learn alot from the sporting world.

In sport psychology all work and intervention is underpinned by scientific research both within the laboratory and on the field of play. This is why these techniques and practices work and are proven to do so and disassociates itself from other techniques that have no scientific evidence to back them up.

In the performing fields such as sport, entertainment, dance and business the competitor is always seeking an advantage, an edge or a gain that will enable them to succeed at the right moment in the right place and become victorious. Often there is no difference in the physical, tactical and strategic prowess but when we come to the development of the mindset, then we throw open unlimited possibilities and opportunities and untouched potential.

One point that we need to make clear is that this is not therapy or a soft skill that is nice to have, this is self-awareness, techniques, untapped potential and competitive advantage in your field to become a winner and a success and demonstrate mental strength.

Our approach to packaging these skills up and transferring them into business is assisted by our many years of corporate experience that enables us to see issues from both sides of the sporting and business divide. The pursuit of sports science allowed us to study human behaviour in its most extreme form. These athletes continually perform at the highest level often under the most extremes of pressure. However, they loved it and lived it every day. The pursuit of excellence started in many cases 16 years before all building up to a unique 9.9 seconds and a life long dream. Imagine turning your staff, managers and executives into highly focused, confident and mentally tough individuals that experience autonomy, mastery and purpose in their working lives. In fact imagine your bottom line if your workforce generates 20% or even 30% more productivity?   

Our passion towards management performance & employee engagement  

Our passion is towards bringing the concept of exceptional human performance to all organisations, small medium and large. This passion is driven by the ending of mechanistic, de-motivational and structured working arenas that have served us all well during the last period and towards the workplace where autonomy, creativity, cooperation and mastery will prevail in the new economic era and allow these enlightened companies to flourish and profit.

Following on from the sporting metaphor, we turn your staff into corporate athletes that deliver exceptional human performance, which is in the capability of anyone in the workforce to actually perform like an olympic athlete both for themselves and their organisation. We teach them the same mental performance skills to use in the company that has been used by top performing athletes for decades. The development of skills culminates in mental toughness and mental strength. This strength allows individuals to perform under pressure any and all of the time.

How do we do it?

Each organisation is different and has different performance requirements. We operate performance workshops, an online training package, bespoke work and psychological executive coaching that will fit with your requirements. We also pride ourselves on our ability to make these products price sensitive towards the needs of smaller and medium sized companies.

Our approach

Quite simply we follow a performance applied based approach, there is no Freud here!!. We identify the psychological core of an individual which has been created by beliefs, values and experiences and the interpretation of these events that moulds the personality. This core determines a mindset which is a toolbox of sorts that allows us to pursue life in our way and we dig deep into the toolbox when we encounter a challenge. Unfortunately, in most cases this mindset is fixed and needs to be changed, developed and replaced with a growth mindset. Once a growth mindset is in place psychological skills training and self awareness is introduced to pursue an inner excellence that incorporates direction, drive, control and mastery to deliver a result of mental strength. Once mental strength is available then peak performance under pressure is achieved. Many great leaders from all fields have demonstrated the need to change and pursue excellence by a process of managing oneself before managing others effectively.

Science and thoughts behind our approach

Mindset: The view and outlook that you adopt for yourself will affect your future life and how you live it, both at work and your personal life, profoundly. It can affect the outcome of whether you become the person that you want to become and if you are to achieve all your goals and ambitions. The fixed mindset totally believes that your qualities and attributes are carved in stone and because of this you need to prove yourself continually and have these skills validated by others so that you then believe that your outlook of the world is right. You will ensure that everybody knows how proficient you are in the hand that you was dealt. You cannot face the fact that you could be lacking in these and other areas. Unfortunately, many of the fixed mindset characteristics are drilled into us often at an early age from peers, parents, schools, churches and such like. Rightly or wrongly for you, they become entrenched and stored in your neural filing cabinet. You leave school and you feel that you have to prove yourself at college, home, in your relationship and career. Everytime you face a situation and recall your neural tool it will call for validation of your character, personality, intelligence and knowledge. You feel superior because of what you own and have achieved and everyone should be aware of that. 

The growth mindset never accepts that you are stuck with the cards that you have been dealt with or past changes that you have made. This is the starting point for your future development. Your efforts will change qualities and attributes as you progress and learn. Experience and learning will change you and allow you to grow and validation from others is not important. Your ultimate destination and potential is unknown at the start of this journey whereas a fixed mindset has gone as far as it can go. Do not waste your time getting others and yourself to prove how great you are when you can continually improve. Identify your shortcomings and overcome them, allow your friends and staff to challenge you for your betterment. Use goals and development to stretch and challenge you along a great learning path.

Inner Excellence: The next stage after change of mindset is the pursuit of inner excellence. The ability to live a full life and achieve everything that you desire. You will find new ways of thinking to replace old restictive though patterns and allow yourself to stay in the present ignoring anxieties of the past and expectations of the future. You will discover that all thoughts and images in your mind has a consequence and learn the relationship between the mind and the body and accept that this connection affects each other. Our approach will develop the whole person, mind to body to spirit or conscious to unconscious, being to doing and autopilot to controller. The outcome is the best type of employee, manager or executive. This person wants to learn and experience not always be right and isolated. They will challenge their beliefs and identify the disempowering ones and set course to change them for better outcomes. You will identify some of your actions and behaviours and understand why you do what you do and how to eradicate them and replace with inner excellence ones.   

We will look to make you true to yourself and not true to others that make you like everyone else. The desires and wants that we pursue are often short lived when achieved. Beyond these outcomes are fullness of life and to achieve full potential in all that we do. We want challenge, creativity, mastery, autonomy and growth. Freedom of mind and body to live with passion and eradication of fear to take on challenge through change, opportunity and achievement of full potential.

Inner excellence can be achieved through self awareness of 12 fundamental areas of mental strength development.

	Professional Attitude
	Goal Setting
	Motivation
	Intensity
	Concentration
	Psychological Preparation
	Self-Confidence
	Emotional Control
	Mental Rehearsal
	Positive Thought Control
	Mental Toughness
	Team Dynamics & Cohesion

Work and practice in these areas will challenge what is already in your mind, what you can change and what you can add to it. You will have the ability to stay calm and make effective decisions; stay in the present so your performance will be optimal everytime; become an effective manager of people and resources; better health; healthy mind; build endurance and optimistic outlook; build better relations with direct reports and significant others; welcome adversity to learn from and improve and much more.

Mental Strength: The outcome of developing the 12 skills above coupled with a change of mindset and understanding of your psychological core will be mental strength. Mental strength is a resource, a capability, a competitive advantage, an edge, a decider between success and failure and many more things. It is on par with creation of new product, new distribution channel, acquiring market leading technology or acquiring new contract. Individuals who demonstrate mental strength are committed, determined, focused, full of self-belief, unshakeable and persistant in their pursuit of excellence in all that they do. This is the next area of development for enlightened leaders and companies who wish success in the new era.

Peak performance Under Pressure: Pressure is a good thing if controlled. It keeps the mind focussed and drives sports men and women, artistes and business leaders to achieve great things in all that they do. However, if not controlled then it becomes dangerous, counterproductive and unhealthy. It leads to poor decisions, cardiovascular disease and unpleasantness all around. We can also freeze, choke or clutch at the critical moment when we need to perform at our best. Our work can allow you to manage the pressure that you may feel to facilitate peak performance. The strategies above allow you to use your thoughts and images to enhance your experience and performance and to maintain a baseline of stress that is right for you. Your physical response to pressure can be managed and controlled to help and not hinder you. We are all performers, in the bordroom, at the customers premises, in an interview, performing an incision in the abdomen, landing the plane in the cross winds, delivering the concert, in takeover and merger talks and so on. Often the whole thing comes down to one or two minutes. The work is the connection between body and mind and the psycho-physical control that releases tension, worry, fear and limiting thoughts and images and to use this pressure to empower yourself. Our successful clients are highly motivated and have a clear blueprint of what it is that they wish to accomplish. They have honed and perfected their technical skills and knowledge and have created a perfect mind, body and emotional integration to achieve the above. They enjoy calmness, preparation, clarity, enjoyment and being totally present in all actions, behaviours and performances. Management performance and employee engagement is the area for corporate development for the new area.