And moreover, the top 100 companies with the highest well-being have also outperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones markets by ~20% since 2021^[2,3].

Why is it then that well-being is often still neglected for unsustainable push/speed that leads to constant survival mode..?!

One key reason? Leadership that, while well-intended, overlooks well-being.

For yourself as a leader. For your teams. And organizationally.

Shifting from survival mode to sustainable success, above all, starts with leaders prioritizing well-being—not as an afterthought, but as a core strategy.

Leading well-being is a key differentiator, an enabler of performance and organizational growth.

As part of my continued 9-month coach training with Hintsa Performance to become a Hintsa Performance Certified Coach in 2025, I’m entering an exciting new coaching phase in August.

It’s been a powerful experience so far — for instance learning Hintsa’s holistic methods of human performance, well-being, and personal development.

We are working with the Hintsa’s Circle of Better Life that emphasizes the core (your inner motivation to change), physical activity, general health (your overall health), nutrition, mental energy, biomechanics (optimizing your body’s movement), and sleep & recovery^[4].

These are the same methods that have helped F1 drivers, Fortune 500 executives, and top talent all over the world thrive and perform accordingly at the highest level — and now I’m excited to bring them to life through practice coaching specifically for the programme.

That’s where you come in…

I’m looking for two committed people — ready to put it into action — to join me in a free, 5-session coaching collaboration starting this August.

Therefore this is a great opportunity if you’re:

Ready to take your well-being and performance to the next level
Curious about your inner drivers, habits, and potential
Open to change and grow
Interested in experiencing Hintsa’s approach — firsthand

Here’s what you’ll get:

→ A guided Hintsa Well-being Assessment
→ 5 x 60-minute 1:1 coaching sessions (virtual)
→ All sessions free of charge / pro bono
→ Full confidentiality

Interested?
Send me a message by 4 July 2025 the latest with answers to these two questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What do you want to accomplish in terms of well-being and performance?

I’ll personally review every submission and follow up to select the two clients.

Coaching start dates:

𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 #𝟏 – Begins in the week of 11 August.
𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 #𝟐 – Begins in the week of 18 August.

I am looking forward to partnering with you!

𝐏.𝐒. Know someone who might benefit from this experience? Feel free to share this with them.

Photo credit: Giacomo Berardi, Unsplash.com.

References.
^[1]World Economic Forum (2025) The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Available at: The Future of Jobs Report 2025 (weforum.org). (Accessed 7 June 2025).
^[2]Le Pertel, N. (2023) Sustainable competitive advantage, Hintsa Performance White paper: Wellbeing Strategy, pp. 4-12. Available at: Wellbeing Strategy (hintsa.com). (Accessed 7 June 2025).
^[3]De Neve, J-E., Kaats, M. and Ward, G. (2023) Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, Working Paper Series (2304): pp. 1-42. Available at: Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford (ora.ox.ac.uk). (Accessed 7 June 2025).
^[4]Hintsa Performance (2025) Circle of Better Life. Available at: Our method – Circle of Better Life (hintsa.com). (Accessed 7 June 2025).

The post Optimize your well-being and performance? Join FREE 5-session coaching opportunity appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

Still today, some leaders believe that better performance should focus on “maximum effort = maximum results”, but that’s an outdated way of thinking about performance that doesn’t work like that in reality^[1].

In fact, well-being and optimal performance are interconnected.

Balancing personal well-being needs with the push for business needs and short-term performance is a challenging leadership paradox, which contains contradicting, yet interrelated objectives^[2].

Leading such challenging paradoxes fails if leaders and organizations don’t begin to really recognize that optimal performance requires a strong foundation of well-being for individuals and teams.

And then make the necessary changes structurally, systemically and through leadership behaviors to make well-being a strategic priority.

If that connection between well-being and performance continues to be neglected it results in sad outcomes such as bad stress and burnout affecting not only the individuals, but also their teams and broader their families.

In a Harvard Business Review article, Greg McKeown highlights that the widespread burnout culture nowadays requires a shift in mindset and culture among leaders and organizations everywhere^[1].

Leading such paradoxes is definitely challenging and in this first blog article of 2025, I will discuss how leading well-being will positively affect sustainable performance in organizations.

Well-being and Performance.

Employees who have a good optimal level of personal well-being are far more likely to perform well at work^[3]. Research has found that meeting employees’ well-being needs results in around 1,25x greater engagement, 2x higher energy, and more than 2x more loyalty to the employer^[4].

Furthermore, engagement has been positively correlated with company profitability^[4]. In a Gallup meta-analysis of 263 research studies across 192 companies, the companies with the most engaged employees were 22% more profitable than those with the least engaged employees^[4].

A recent working paper by Oxford University from 2023 have also found that the top 100 companies with the highest well-being outperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones markets by approximately 20% since 2021^[3,5].

That is amazing, really!

But, not surprising.

I have included the latest Work Well-being 100 and Stock Performance overview compared to the markets from 2021-2024 below (Figure 1).

Notes: Simulated simple wellbeing-based investment strategy by Oxford, starting with $1000 in the top Work Wellbeing 100 companies in January 2021, which would have grown to $1,533 by July 2024 compared with $1,479, $1,408, and $1,401 had they invested instead in the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, or Russell 3000, respectively^[5,6].

As you can see from Figure 1, the top 100 companies with the highest well-being impressively continued to perform better into 2024 than the S&P 500, Russel 3000 Index and Nasdaq Composite markets^[6].

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, who is the Professor of Economics at Saïd Business School and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also recognizes that “research consistently shows that how we feel at work matters. It deeply impacts our general well-being as well as company financial performance”^[6].

Overall, it shows that leading well-being is a critical foundation for optimal performance, also financially.

Let’s have a look at how optimal effort and performance works in the next part.

Optimal Human Performance.

In 1908, the researchers Yerkes and Dodson introduced a model for human performance, known as the Yerkes-Dodson law, showing that too much stress leads to burnout, while too little leads to boreout^[7]. 

The sweet spot for optimal performance lies somewhere in between, around the middle (see Figure 2).

To perform well and be well, we need to oscillate between the stretch zone and the comfort zone, with intentional moments of recovery and renewal^[2].

And research shows that what actually works is the 85% rule, aiming for 85% effort (not 100%) to get better performance individually and as a team^[1].

We know that from sports, when we need a rest after a strenuous training session to come back stronger, also known as supercompensation where you create balanced work-rest ratios^[9].

Yet in many organizations, that cycle of recovery and renewal is often overlooked.

Instead, we push ourselves—and are pushed—to maximum effort, firefighting in survival mode year after year, sacrificing sleep, physical activity and personal well-being. 

This approach inevitably leads to burnout (see bell curve in Figure 2).

“Well-being is both the foundation of and result of achievement^[2]“

Aristotle

But boreout—the state of feeling underchallenged and finding work meaningless—is just as critical.

And, we often in organizations fail to notice boreout, which can also happen.

Boreout, often mistaken for a lack of motivation, is the opposite of burnout: a psychological state of boredom and apathy.

It leads to lower performance, decreased productivity, and job dissatisfaction.

Surprisingly, boreout is not a lack of motivation altogether. Boreout is actually a sign of untapped potential. 

People who are bored at work are motivated to do more, not less.

Preventing boreout and burnout is in my opinion about plain old good leadership: aligning tasks with strengths, providing challenges that stretch people, and creating meaningful work.

In the next section, let us explore some key elements of leading well-being.

Leading Well-Being is Leading Optimal Performance.

Earlier, we saw how higher levels of well-being and engagement positively affect individual, team and company performance.

Gallup research shows that leaders account for as much as 70% of the variance in employee engagement, and engagement is one of several performance variables^[10]. And if personal well-being needs are met it also positively affect engagement, which again positively impacts performance^[4].

Now, what does this all mean to leaders and organizations?

Well, given that leaders have such a significant impact on engagement and performance, it’s clear that their role in leading well-being is essential.

And individual team members also have a responsibility to react and change the situation, when something is out of tune. If the work you are doing is not meaningful to you, if you are not learning, if you feel overworked or not stretched.

Today’s leaders are facing unprecedented challenges and responsibilities.

As business environments continue to evolve, leaders must adopt a more versatile approach to leading teams. The pace of change continues to increase. So, lot’s of pressures, demands, different contexts and paradoxes need to be handled and led.

In their 2021 white paper The Future of Work & Wellbeing, Hintsa Performance (a world-leading performance coaching company) projected that the evolving role of leaders will be to lead optimal performance^[2].

Let’s pause for a moment and say those words to ourselves as we read them.

Leaders have a continuously evolving role of leading optimal performance.

In my opinion this is an increasingly critical aspect of leadership, which connects well with the emerging trend since the COVID-19 pandemic of more humanistic leadership.

So, let’s now explore how leaders can actively influence the well-being of their teams.

Firstly, well-being is something very personal, subjective and holistic^[2]. To some it may be about 100% relaxation, to another person it can be to engage in intellectually stimulating activities^[2].

Yet it is important to discuss what well-being means to your organization, your team, for your individual team members.

Research shows people feel better and perform better, more sustainably if four well-being needs are met^[4,11]:

• Physical → renewal (rest, recovery, fewer inflammations, exercise, feeling energized)
• Mental → focus (learning, creativity, complex problem solving)
• Emotional & Social → value (feeling appreciated and valued, emotional balance, resilience)
• Spiritual → purpose (meaningful work, aligned with personal and company values and objectives)

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz already wrote about these well-being needs as an ideal performance state in their excellent Harvard Business Review article The Making of a Corporate Athlete from 2001.

Below, I’ve created an adapted version of their High-Performance Pyramid (see Figure 3).

Physical well-being is the foundation of the pyramid and above that rests emotional and mental well-being, and at the top spiritual well-being, a sense of purpose^[9].

The ideal performance state can be achieved if all of the levels of the pyramid are working together according to Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz^[9]. So, to reach better long-term performance, you’ll need to tap into the positive energy at all levels of the pyramid^[9].

What I like about their holistic perspective on ideal performance, is that to perform well, you need to build a rhythmic movement (oscillation) between energy expenditure (stress) as shown in Figure 2 and energy renewal (recovery)^[9].

And to build that ideal cycle, you have to build rituals, routines and habits that promote this oscillation—the rhythmic expenditure and recovery of energy—linking the levels of the pyramid (see Figure 3)^[9].

So, leaders have to lead in ways that meet these four needs to increase personal well-being and thereby elevating performance.

This is what leading well-being is about, and that is a critical role for leaders.

Hintsa Performance gives their view on what that important role entails^[2,12]:

• Setting direction by creating and communicating clarity: Clearly communicating expectations on WHAT to achieve (goal-setting) and WHY we are to achieve that and connecting it to the organizational objectives and purpose. Clearly outlining when and why we are in temporary survival mode and when we are resting, optimizing our energy levels etc.
  
  This relates to creating meaningfulness.
  
• Acting as a role-model: Role modeling your own working style and well-being, so others feel safe to create their own. You have a great influence as a leader, so your approach to when you are sending e-mails, if you are ever off work etc. affect what your team does.
  
  This relates to meaningfulness and to some extent creating a space where people feel valued.
  
• Leading the fundamentals of intrinsic motivation: Leading the long-term drivers of well-being, which are the fundamentals of intrinsic motivation:
  
  – Meaningfulness (connecting everyday work to personal meaning and the subscribed mission)
  – Autonomy (giving team members freedom to do their work in the best possible way)
  – Competence (the feeling of skill, accomplishment and mastery related to a feeling of doing well)
  – Relatedness (the relationships, atmosphere and support of working with trustworthy colleagues)
  
  These all connects well to the before-mentioned four well-being needs.

I couldn’t agree more with these aspects of leading well-being.

If you as a leader communicate clarity of the direction, connecting it to what that means to your team members’ day-to-day work tasks and how they each contribute to the objectives, then you create more meaningfulness.

Delegating work to the best of your team members’ strengths, ensuring they move between comfort and stretch, so they can flourish, learn, grow and master skills, while having the freedom to do their best work, will positively affect their motivation and well-being.

Creating an atmosphere, relationships and a space where the team members feel valued, appreciated, safe, supported and trusted will also make them trust you.

Leading well-being is the foundation to leading optimal performance!

P.S. How are you using well-being as a catalyst for high performance in your team? Share your thoughts below.

References.
^[1]McKeown, G. (2023) To Build a Top Perming Team, Ask for 85% Effort, Harvard Business Review. Available at: Organizational Decision Making (hbr.org). (Accessed 15 June 2023).
^[2]Pohjakallio, P. (2021) The Future of Wellbeing, Hintsa Performance White paper: The Future of Work & Wellbeing: Trends to get right for sustainable and healthy high-performance work, pp. 20-28. Available at: The Future of Work & Wellbeing (hintsa.com). (Accessed 27 December 2024).
^[3]Le Pertel, N. (2023) Sustainable competitive advantage, Hintsa Performance White paper: Wellbeing Strategy, pp. 4-12. Available at: Wellbeing Strategy (hintsa.com). (Accessed 27 December 2024).
^[4]Schwartz, T. and Porath, C. (2014) The Power of Meeting Your Employees’ Needs. Available at Harvard Business Review (hbr.org). (Accessed 29 December 2024).
^[5]De Neve, J-E., Kaats, M. and Ward, G. (2023) Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, Working Paper Series (2304): pp. 1-42. Available at: Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford (ora.ox.ac.uk). (Accessed 27 December 2024).
^[6]Wellbeing Research Center (2024) Top employers revealed by new Work Wellbeing 100. Available at: Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford (wellbeing.hmc.ox.ac.uk). (Accessed 29 December 2024).
^[7]Yerkes, R. M. and Dodson, J. D. (1908) The Relation of Strenght of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit Formation, Journal of Comparative Neurology & Psychology 18(5): pp. 459-482. Available at: Wiley Online Library (onlinelibrary.wiley.com). (Accessed 30 December 2024).
^[8]McKeown, G. (2021) Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most, Penguin Random House, Dublin, pp. 95-98.
^[9]Loehr, J. and Schwartz, T. (2001) The Making of a Corporate Athlete, Harvard Business Review. Available at: Psychology (hbr.org). (Accessed 1 January 2025).
^[10]Harter, J. and Adkins, A. (2015) What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees, Harvard Business Review. Available at: Emotional Intelligence (hbr.org). (Accessed 30 December 2024).
^[11]Rosendahl, N. (2022) Quantifying Wellbeing, Hintsa Performance White paper: Quantifying Wellbeing: 5 Perspectives for Leaders, pp. 3-10. Available at: Quantifying Wellbeing (hintsa.com). (Accessed 27 December 2024).
^[12]Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. Available at: American Psychological Association (psycnet.apa.org). (Accessed 30 December 2024).

The post Leading well-being: How to achieve better, sustainable performance appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

And on the verge of the New Year, I’m looking ahead for new ways to continue honing my coaching and development skillset to be able to help transitioning leaders, groups, teams and high-potential professionals reach their full potential, healthy high performance, and well-being.

For years, I’ve admired the world-leading coaching company Hintsa Performance and their CEO Annastiina Hintsa, known for helping athletes and corporate leaders achieve sustainable high performance.

Therefore, I am thrilled to share the wonderful news, that I’ve been accepted to the Hintsa Coach Certification programme starting in January 2025.

After the thorough application process—including a 10-minute video motivation and an engaging online conversation—I’m excited to begin this new journey.

This comprehensive 9-month programme focuses on mastering Hintsa’s unique holistic methods of human performance, well-being, and development—proven to help Formula 1 drivers, Fortune 500 executives, and top talent perform at the top of their game.

I’m grateful for this opportunity (as it is an application-only programme), which aligns perfectly with my passion for unlocking human potential, enabling healthy high performance, and our work to coach and develop high-impact leaders and teams.

Here’s to a new year of learning.

I look forward to sharing insights and learnings as the programme unfolds!

If you need my help on your transformational journey in 2025, drop me a message and I’m here to partner with you in unfolding your true potential.

Happy New Year!

P.S. What exciting projects or goals are you setting for 2025? 

I’d love to hear what’s on your horizon!

The post Becoming a Hintsa Performance Certified Coach in 2025 appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

This blog article, therefore, will shortly reflect on how to be a more coaching leader.

In his great book Coaching for Performance from 1992, Sir John Whitmore, introduced the world to performance coaching and the GROW model of coaching: Goal, Reality, Options and Will or Way Forward^[1].

He introduces coaching as a key enabler of high performance, and highlights that building a coaching culture lays the foundation for success^[1].

Adopting a coaching leadership style, therefore, drives better performance and results.

In fact, he mentions how the greatest influencers of an organization’s culture are its leaders, referencing research from the Hay Group and others that show how leadership behavior affects bottom-line performance by up to 30%^[1].

So, leaders are the gatekeepers to performance^[1] and shifting the mindset towards coaching style leadership is critical to continued development, growth and high performance.

However, coachability, an individual’s willingness and ability to proactively seek, be receptive to, and act on constructive feedback to drive individual development and elevate performance, is a key part of the equation to building a coaching culture^[2,3].

Research shows that highly coachable individuals perform at a 9% higher level, are 28% more adaptable, and are 30% more promotable when they receive the same feedback and coaching as individuals, with lower coachability^[2].

So, not only the coaching, also how coachable you are, matters when it comes to elevating performance.

I couldn’t agree more.

You see this not only in organizations but also in sports—where coaching and being coachable help unfold potential, growth and achievement.

However, in organizations, leaders often fall into a more directive style, usually driven by the pressures of leadership transitions; transitioning into new roles, a desire for control, or the fear of looking bad, because they want to do well (ego).

When leaders revert to this directive style, it can lead to frustration and finger-pointing.

This often causes teams to fall into what Peter Hawkins calls BMWing^[4]:

→ Blame
→ Moan
→ Whine

We’ve all seen it, right? When things go wrong, it’s easy to fall into the trap of finding someone or something to blame.

It often happens in teams and organizations where pressures, challenges and complex problems mount up, then we may begin feeling like victims, looking for someone to blame^[4].

And it shapes the energy of teamwork.

That can lead to a “culture of blame”, which organizations need to get rid off^[1].

Because this mindset can derail learning, harm relationships, and lower performance.

Curiosity is the antidote according to Sir John Whitmore^[1]. As he notes, the coaching skill of curiosity shifts the focus from blame and judgment to opportunities for improvement^[1].

I personally see so much hidden potential being unlocked from being curious; intently listening with curiosity and empathy, asking open and curious questions, and fostering peer learning (social learning).

“Just as great athletes seek out great coaches, the best people want to work for leaders who coach them to reach their full potential and who will help them become better coaches themselves”
Bill George and Zach Clayton

In their brilliant Harvard Business Review article from 2022: Successful Leaders Are Great Coaches, Bill George and Zach Clayton argues that as new emerging leaders from Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z generations take charge, it creates changing leadership styles, from leaders as capable managers to leaders as great coaches of people^[5].

We have over the last decade, and even in the few years since this HBR article, witnessed a change towards more humanistic leadership; empowering, empathetic, compassionate, coaching-like, and more authentic leadership.

This article touches on many of these key aspects of coaching style leadership, involving better listening, being present and genuinely interested while being authentic.

Bill George and Zach Clayton developed the acronym COACH for how leaders should work with people^[5]:

• C → Care for team members: Building understanding and trust by being open with more depth
• O → Organize work in their sweet spot: Know their strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and aspirations
• A → Align around purpose, values and direction: Uniting the team on WHAT to achieve and WHY
• C → Challenge your team to reach their full potential: Stretching people outside their comfort zone
• H → Help your team reach individual/team objectives (goals): engage with team and celebrate success

You may have noticed it already, but this acronym requires for leaders to be curious about their team members; who they are as human beings (their wants and needs, where they thrive and can bring their strengths to the team) and how they can best support and contribute (in their role and beyond).

It entails curiosity about where the team can be stretched (individually and as a team) by utilizing their strengths, empowering them for such opportunities and moving out of their way to excel, find their own solutions and way together with others (and offering your support if needed).

Furthermore, being curious about what can help make them become even better.

In his book The inner Game of Tennis from 1974, Timothy Gallwey, who was a Tennis coach, described exactly this approach about removing interference to unlock athletes’ potential and performance through reducing their inner obstacles^[1]:

Performance = Potential - Interference
(P = p - i)

Coaching to improve performance (P) by growing potential (p) and by decreasing interference (i)^[1].

So, coaching is about helping others to think and learn. Coaching style leadership is to help your team learn and grow, and from that become better and better.

How have you used curiosity to shift your own or your team’s mindset?

…to be a more coaching leader and fostering a coaching culture…

Drop a comment or send me a message—I’d love to hear your stories

P.S. In leadership, like in sports, adapting your mindset is key to success—something I’ve experienced in both organizations and extreme endurance challenges in the desert.

By staying curious about my own mindset and emotional states, as well as those of others, I’ve been able to adapt more effectively.

References.
^[1]Whitmore, S. J. (2017) Coaching for Performance, 5th ed., London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing: pp. 11-36.
^[2]Weiss, J. (2022) What is Coachability? Available at: Coachability Consultants, Inc (coachabilityconsultants.com). (Accessed 26 October 2024).
^[3]Hewes, J. (2024) The Missing 1/2 to Building a Feedback + Coaching Culture: (Coachability). Available at: Linkedin (linkedin.com). (Accessed 26 October 2024).
^[4]Hawkins, P. (2023) From Grumble to Gratitude – four steps to align with life’s agenda. Available at: Renewal Associates (renewalassociates.co.uk). (Accessed 26 October 2024).
^[5]George, B. and Clayton Z. (2022) Successful Leaders Are Great Coaches. Available at: Harvard Business Review (hbr.org). Accessed 26 October 2024).

The post Reflections on high performance and leadership: How to be a coaching leader appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

Simply because better talents are up to eight times more productive than average employees at very high complexity work^[1]. That means that the quality of talents directly impact the organizational performance^[1].

Therefore, it is critical for organizations anno 2024 to be able to identify, attract, develop and retain high-performing talents as a means of achieving their organizational and strategic targets.

You can even argue that instilling a shared organization talent mindset — a shared belief that diverse, better talent elevates organizational performance and is a great source of competitive advantage^[2] — has become even more crucial in times of change, uncertainty and ambiguity for leaders in all leadership roles.

Talent is all leaders’ responsibility.

So, it’s key for all leaders in organizations to become passionate about and accountable for strengthening their own and peers’ talent pools. If you are a leader it is critical for long-term organizational success to be able to spot (and have engaged development conversations to understand) where each human being can bring the most value to the organization while having meaningful and fulfilling careers.

Too often, the silo-thinking mentality occurs, not out of bad intentions, but because you as a leader want to do well.

You want to excel in your role and deliver great results together with your team as an effective leader.
Hence, you may become reluctant to let your high-performing talents go, so you are able to continue delivering great results.
Even if your talented employees might bring more value to the organization in another role and contribution.

They may even have passions, talents and potential that are better realized elsewhere. Maybe even outside your organization.

In this blog article, I will discuss talent and potential and how leaders and organizations can consider it.

Over the holiday season, I had the pleasure of finishing Adam Grant’s brand new book “Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things”.

Adam Grant is a well-known organizational psychologists at The Wharton School and a best-selling author. I also recommend his other books “Give and Take” and “Originals”.

I enjoyed reading his new book about hidden potential because it rethinks ways to elevate ourselves as well as others. Adam Grant tells inspiring stories about discovering and nurturing potential in amazing chess teams, mountaineering, school systems to astronauts.

In the book Adam Grant provides insights into how to build the character skills and motivational structures needed to realize your own hidden potential. Furthermore, how to design foundational systems that create opportunities for people who have been underrated and overlooked.

In my opinion, the book offers a fresh perspective on potential and talent that can inspire organizations and yourself. Let’s dive more in!

Human Talent and Potential.

Most organizations have an annual process for reviewing, challenging and future-proofing their needed capabilities (supply and quality of talent; often focused at leadership talent) long-term to achieve the strategy.

Often, it is referred to as an Organizational Review, Talent Review or People Review.

It is a subjective evaluation by every leader of their team’s capabilities as well as succession. It is then often calibrated and challenged between members of the management team.

Potential and Performance are typically reviewed using the so-called 9-box grid. The grid scales from low-high performance and low-high potential to advance as shown below in figure 1.

In an organizational context, in essence, Talent is characterized as the intersection between Performance and Potential, meaning high performance over time and high potential to advance in the organization.

When organizations establish their standard for talent and potential, it’s ideal to consider:

• What does great talent and potential look like?
• What is talent and potential for leaders?
• What is talent and potential for specialists?
• Potential for what? (meaning in what context, e.g. to advance organizationally as a leader etc.)

In his book “Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things”, Adam Grant uses a great metaphor to destinguish Talent and Potential.

Talent is the “floor”, the starting point, whereas Potential is the “ceiling”, people’s upper development range as illustrated in Figure 2 below.

I like this metaphor for three reasons (see Figure 2):

1. It highlights the importance of considering the “distance travelled”, i.e. performance over time and adversity faced
2. Character skills are key: Proactivity, drive, determination, conscientiousness help push through adversity
3. The “ceiling” captures context well (what is the potential to advance in the role, the organization etc.?)

It is great to see how Adam Grant highlights adversity as an element to consider when it comes to potential^[3]. He writes that people also need structures, so-called temporary support structures (termed scaffolding) to sustain motivation and resistance amid struggles and challenges to overcome obstacles that threaten to overwhelm us and limit our growth^[3].

Noun: Adversity
a difficult or unpleasant situation.
Ex. “Resilience in the face of adversity”.

The Oxford English Dictionary

These “scaffolding” mechanisms can help in productively overcoming adversity faced but the mechanisms put in place by individual employees for themselves also tells a lot about their character and potential^[3].

Adam Grant suggests using deliberate play (making practice more fun, varied and playful) as one scaffolding option to sustain motivation (temporary support)^[3]. Another kind of scaffolding is teaching others in a subject matter to thereby increase own learning^[3].

Organizations can focus on the same points.

What temporary support interventions can we offer to employees to help them build the resistance needed to overcome adversity.

Consider how people react to adversity; Do they give up? Do they change direction? Or do they push through it, learn from it and improve their performance over time (distance travelled)?

It is refreshing to see that focusing on strenghts and people that are already performing at a high level can cloud our vision, so we overlook the great potential of the people that are facing challenges, are struggling, overcoming and pushing through adversity over time.

However, how people react when facing adversity can be difficult to measure.

So, looking into people’s journey of overcoming difficult challenges, handling discomfort and learning is definitely worthwhile when we talk about potential.

In the next part, I’ll connect it with some data-driven measures as inspiration.

Data-driven identification of Talent.

In their excellent Harvard Business Review article called What Science Says About Identifying High-Potential Employees, the authors argue that scientific studies have for long suggested that investing in the right people will maximize organization’s returns^[4].

Therefore, it’s key to be able to identify high potentials and talents well to be able to predict who is likely to become the key drivers of organizational performance^[4].

In his great book “The Talent Delusion: Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential”, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic offers an excellent simplified and science-based model to identifying Talent and Potential, rightly called the RAW Ingredients of Talent outlined in Figure 3 below.

It’s a valuable model, so let me break it down for you.

The RAW model focuses on what you can measure and it consists of the following parts (Figure 3):

Rewarding — a person’s likeability and how rewarding someone is to deal with. It’s a function of personality and concerns intrapersonal skills (managing yourself) and interpersonal skills, the ability to manage others (relationships), which are both the core elements of emotional intelligence (EQ)^[4,5].

This can be captured as social skills or prosocial skills as Adam Grant terms it in his book Hidden Potential^[3]. So, emotional intelligence can be seen as an early indicator of potential, which can be assessed in psychometric tests^[4].

Able — A person’s ability to do the job^[5]. It’s about demonstrating the knowledge and skills required to perform the key tasks of a job^[4]. The sub-components of ability are expertise; domain or job-related knowledge, experience and skills and intelligence, which includes learning ability and reasoning potential^[5].

The leading predictor of job performance is a job sample test and the best predictor of the ability to learn and master the skills is IQ or cognitive ability^[4]. Here, it is worthwhile to consider how people’s performance has developed over time across several challenging scenarios or roles (distance travelled as Adam Grant describes it in his book Hidden Potential). It is also key to consider specialist transition and leadership transition frameworks to clearly point out the performance standards of each role.

Willing — A person’s willingness and motivation to work hard to do the job^[4,5]. It relates to someone’s ambition, drive or conscientiousness and a person’s work ethics^[5]. It’s about having the willingness to push through some discomfort to build the skills or experience needed to do a job^[4].

If you are both rewarding to deal with and able, these two factors are a talent accelerator^[5]. The more you have of it, the more your talent will grow^[5]. A great way to measure willingness or drive is using standardized tests measuring conscientiousness, ambition and achievement motivation^[4].

In this connection Talent can be perceived as being able and rewarding to deal with (prosocial skills)^[4]. It can also be characterized as effortless performance^[5], while Potential can be perceived as talent plus effort or talent multiplied by will and drive as it determines how much your ability and prosocial skills get put to use^[4].

If we relate that to Adam Grant’s points in his book Hidden Potential, the determination, proactivity and character skills needed to push through, respond productively and overcome adversity^[3] fit well with willingness from the RAW model.

Drive can also be related to the drive for learning, so being hungry for learning something, making mistakes and improving. Adam Grant uses a great metaphor in his book of being like a human “sponge”, which is relevant to consider.

Try using these components and look at what adversity people have faced and how they’ve handled it as well as their performance over time (distance travelled).

So, how do you as a leader encourage your team to discover their true potential?

One place to start is to get to know your team members really well and uncover their interests, where they struggle and their passions.

In my experience these conversations can become a bit superficial, so try to dig deeper. Discover and explore together.

Consider using these 5 guiding questions as a starting point:

1. What excites you most at work?
2. What do you really want to learn?
3. Which tasks have been challenging for you previously and now?
4. What superpowers have you noticed about yourself?
5. What do you truly enjoy doing outside work?

Remember.

Strengths are one thing → Try to explore what is challenging.

Your potentials may be elsewhere than where you are highly skilled right now.

Potentials may lie in how and where you face and overcome adversity.

P.S. What is talent and potential for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.

References.
^[1]Keller, S. (2017) Attracting and retaining the right talent. Available at McKinsey (mckinsey.com). (Accessed 14 December 2023).
^[2]Michaels, E., Handfield-Jones, H. and Axelrod, B. (2001) War for Talent. Available at: Harvard Business School (hbswk.hbs.edu). (Accessed 14 December 2023).
^[3]Grant, A. (2023) Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things, WH Allen, London: pp. 1-246.
^[4]Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Adler, S. and Kaiser, R. B. (2017) What Science Says About Identifying High-Potential Employees. Available at: Harvard Business Review (hbr.org). (Accessed 14 December 2023).
^[5]Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2017) The Talent Delusion: Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential, Piatkus, London: pp. 1-233.

The post Talent: How to realize your hidden potential appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

→ High performance is cyclical, not exponential

A high performance culture is a journey, not a destination.

In this blog article, I will discuss how you as a leader, team and professional can better create healthy high performance by balancing your own and your team’s effort to elevate your performance and well-being.

The Yerkes-Dodson law of human performance and stress.

Many leaders still believe that peak performance is all about “maximum effort = maximum results”, which is an outdated way of thinking that doesn’t work that way^[1]. Post-COVID-19 there has though been an increased focus on physical and mental well-being in many organizations, at least on the surface, due to increased stress-levels, digital and mental fatigue and burnout across the globe.

However, globally fatigue, burnout and unhealthy stress are still on the rise.

That means that we have got something wrong.

It may be that the organizational or corporate stories and beliefs about high performance are flawed.

From my military training, I remember how we were introduced to what is called battle fatigue or combat stress, when soldiers undergo battle or combat for extended periods of time leading to high stress levels and fatigue. Those high stress periods were replaced by periods of rest, recovery and replenishment of energy from something to eat. So, even in high-risk, high-pressure jobs with the example of soldiers in military services, mechanisms are in place to ensure rest and recovery.

I sense that many organizations, despite good and positive intentions about well-being, do struggle to get the optimal performance balance right. That is sometimes due to contradicting organizational dynamics, short-term focus, rewards systems, business contexts and the often difficult behavior changes and strong role modeling needed by leadership.

It is however possible, but challenging.

Research dating back to 1908, known as the “Yerkes-Dodson law”, suggests that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal (stress) to a certain level^[2]. When stress-levels or pressure become to high it impairs performance, so it decreases as shown in the human performance bell curve below^[2].

Research shows that the shape of the bell curve will vary depending on the complexity of the work task and familiarity with the task^[3]. Or put in different terms, different tasks will require different levels of arousal (stress) for optimal performance^[3].

So, to solve difficult, new and unfamiliar tasks you need lower stress levels to keep you concentrated and interested^[3]. In contrast, you may perform tasks better that are more complex and demanding with higher stress-levels to bring and increase motivation^[3].

We can see that from the above bell curve as the area of stretch tasks, where you are still able to stay focused and energized.

Too low arousal (stress) as shown in the bell curve will eventually lead to boredom, perhaps even frustration, because the tasks are not challenging enough leading to lower motivation levels.

Too high levels of arousal (stress) can lead to strain, fatigue, exhaustion or eventually burnout and that will be unhealthy to us and it will impair our performance.

So what is then the sweet spot for high performance and well-being?

Greg McKeown (2023) recently wrote a great Harvard Business Review article where he argues that leaders should change their mindset about what high performance really is about^[1]. It’s not about maximum effort to deliver maximum output and results, but rather about optimal effort^[1].

It is a different perception, which is counterintuitive, that less effort can lead to more success^[1].

Now, let’s explore what optimal effort is all about and how you can foster that.

How to set the optimal exertion level for high performance.

As we learned above from the bell curve about human performance and arousal (stress) a moderate stress-level seem to be right for creating higher performance^[2]. In the below bell curve adapted from McKeown (2021, 2023), there is a point when the effort spent working moves from exertion to overexertion and fatigue, which again leads to a turning point in performance^[1,4].

This is a point for when to rest.

Therefore we need to balance both too low effort and stress levels, that can affect well-being, engagement and motivation as well as too high effort and overexertion to reach the sweet spot of optimal effort and thereby optimal, healthy high performance.

Greg McKeown (2023) argues that research shows that what actually works to build that top performance is the 85% rule that to reach maximum performance you don’t need to operate at 100% effort all of the time, but rather operate at an 85% optimal effort level^[1,2,4].

And here we are talking about the perceived effort by the individual.

This is very counterintuitive for many people and I recognize from myself that when I become extremely (too) ambitious to achieve a goal or outcome, my own automatic reaction is to put in even more effort, more effort, more effort. For me it leads to becoming tired and fatigued.

So, when you have employees already performing at high or top level, sometimes the role of you as a leader is to help them navigate that bell curve of exertion and effort better. You can help them metaphorically “take their foot off the gas”, just a bit so they work a little below their perceived maximum capacity^[1].

As we can see from the two bell curves, the high performance comes from maintaining the 85% perceived effort level, so keeping the team at 85% capacity can lead to success.

If we look towards the “FLOW” theory by Csikszentmihalyi (1991), it complements well this balance for optimal experiences and performance. The flow theory suggests that when you are so focused and fully immersed in an activity or task where your skill levels are perfectly balanced to the challenge of the activity or task, you experience an optimal state of experience or performance called flow^[5]. It’s kind of like a feeling and state of focused energy where you effortlessly perform an activity successfully. Some characterize it similar to what we know from the so-called Runner’s High. That euforic state when you effortlessly run in a focused flow.

So, how can you foster this 85% effort mindset as a leader, team and professional?

Let’s look into that in the next part.

12 suggestions on how to foster an 85% optimal effort mindset.

Here’s 12 suggestions from Greg McKeown’s article and further valuable add-ons:

• Align your leadership team on building a healthy high-performance culture by:
  – Prioritizing healthy high performance strategically
  – Establishing psychological safety and trust as a foundation
  – Ensuring alignment in role modeling, communication, and meeting structures
• As a leader, demonstrate the right ways of working by^[1]:
  – Setting your intensity level to 85% effort to show employees that excessive stress is not necessary
  – Avoiding late-night emails when you have communicated to the team not to work late
  – Recognizing that employees look to their leader for work expectations and behavior
• Establish designated “done for the day” time by^[1]:
  – Encouraging employees to avoid staying late to allow for rest and freshness the next day
  – Acknowledging that hybrid work needs clearer boundaries between personal and professional spheres
• Ask for a little less than perceived maximum capacity from employees (i.e. 85% optimal effort)^[1]
• Ask high performers of the team “how am I making work more stressful than it needs to be?”^[1]:
  – Gain clarity on areas for improvement in the work environment
• Encourage decisions that are approximately 85% right^[1]:
  – When making team decisions, aim for reasonably accurate choices to alleviate pressure
• Be mindful of your framing and language usage to avoid high-pressure situations^[1]:
  – Remove urgent terms like ASAP, NEED or URGENT to reduce pressure
  – Foster open communication about deadlines, reasons, benefits, and progress
• End meetings 10 minutes early to prevent exhaustion^[1]:
  – Incorporate short breaks between meetings and throughout the day
  – Ensure meetings have clear purposes and agendas
• Increase your circle of influence to proactively focus on what you can affect^[4]:
  – Focus on aspects of your work, where you can make choices (choose one task over another etc.)
  – Read more here about the Circle of Influence
• Find ways to be more authentic at work^[4]:
  – A strong foundation of psychological safety and trust is fundamental to be able to be authentic at work
  – If you cannot be yourself at work, it may negatively impact performance and stress levels
• Regulate and adapt your optimal emotional and mental states by^[6]:
  – Being aware of your physiology, including bodily reactions, sleep, rest, and nutrition
  – Being conscious of your language, both inner self-talk and how you communicate with others
  – Being aware of your beliefs and focus (what you believe to be true and where you direct your attention)
  – Read more about the 3-part triad to create optimal emotional and mental states
• Use pre-performance routines and rituals^[4]:
  – Known from sports to improve attention, execution and emotional stability and confidence

Now, I am curious to hear your stories on optimal effort and high performance – Please share in the comments.

Whenever you are ready, there are at least 3 ways, I can help you:

1. The Transition Coaching Programme:
   Transition to your most aspired future and better navigate your personal life or career transitions, e.g. to your new professional role, taking on a new leadership role, being part of a newly established team, so you achieve positive life-shifts, growth and development → (3 or 6-week programme).
2. The ELEVATE: High Performance Coaching Programme:
   Transform your life by achieving your most incredible dreams, goals or outcomes through enhancing your well-being and performance in your personal life, educational and work domains → (12-week programme).
3. The Leadership Coaching Programme:
   Realize your full leadership potential and become a much more impactful leader, who drives healthy high performance and well-being through others or your leaders → (3 or 6-month programme).

References.
^[1]McKeown, G. (2023) To Build a Top Perming Team, Ask for 85% Effort, Harvard Business Review. Available at: Organizational Decision Making (hbr.org). (Accessed 15 June 2023).
^[2]Yerkes, R. M. and Dodson, J. D. (1908) The Relation of Strenght of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit Formation, Journal of Comparative Neurology & Psychology 18(5): pp. 459-482.
^[3]Gould, D. and Krane, V. (1992). The arousal–athletic performance relationship: Current status and future directions. In T. S. Horn (Ed.), Advances in sport psychology: pp. 119–142. Available at: APA PsychNet (psychnet.apa.org). (Accessed 28 May 2023).
^[4]McKeown, G. (2021) Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most, Penguin Random House, Dublin, pp. 95-98.
^[5]Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, The Academy of Management Review 16(3): 636-640.
^[6]Manning, S. (2006) Coaching: Det handler om at stille de rigtige spørgsmål, Aschehoug Dansk Forlag, Copenhagen: pp. 59-86.

(Photo Credit: Paul Pastourmatzis).

The post How to Build Better High-Performing Teams With 85% Optimal Effort appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

When we as humans face challenges from different directions in our lives and professional careers, we often react and interact based on subconscious and old, tried and automatic reaction patterns.

In today’s blog, I will ‘zoom in’ on mindset and how we can take better control over our own lives and become responsible for our actions and what we can influence.

Our individual mindset is important for how we can impact others, groups and team performance as well as our individual performance. It has for years been an integrated part of elite sports to optimise also the mindset through mental training. I have been really privileged to Coach several endurance athletes over the years, where we have been working on their peak mental and emotional state as a basis for their high performance. So, mindset definitely matter be it in endurance sports as well as in the organisational workspace for team coherence and focus.

In 1958 Dr. Eric Berne introduced Transactional Analysis, a method for studying interactions between individuals^[1]. One of his models described people and relationships based on their interactions. The model consisted of three parts or ego-states to our personality that converse or exchange with each other in different transactions^[1].

According to this model, we each have three ego-states^[1]: Parent, Adult and Child.

The Parent ego-state is the nurturing (caring and concerned) and controlling (critical) state often influenced by our own parents or primary caregivers. The Child ego-state is the more natural (playing and open) and adaptive state either changing to the world or rebelling. That is influenced from our own childhood.

Both the Parent and Child ego-states happen or are triggered subconsciously.

The Adult ego-state is however the self-aware and rational state where we respond to the here and now and can control our responses and behavior so we make conscious choices.

We can all react from these 3 different perspectives or states with different impact.

I think we can all recognize the situations, where we take on the Parent perspective. We recognize those patterns of reactions from our own parents, at least I do We might then become too controlling, directive and judgmental and blame others. When that happens in our interactions with others, it may be in our relationships with a co-worker, our partner or someone else, it might automatically, subconsciously trigger them to go into the Child state where they become rebellious or go into a defensive mode and say things like “you always blame me for everything!”^[1].

It is really interesting how we are all affected by our subconscious mental states and this model shows how we can work with our mindset to more consciously choose how we respond, react and behave. We can chose a more Adult perspective, where we take a more conscious choice.

Remember these different ego-states for later, when we go deeper into mindset.

When it comes to teams and high performance, the mindset of the individual team members has a huge impact on the team atmosphere, well-being and how the team performs overall.

In the next, we will consider another model relating to our mindset that can help you navigate your focus to create a proactive mindset as a foundation for the the team atmosphere and focus.

Living above the line: The OARBED model.

A great model to consider relating to mindset when facing challenges in life is the OARBED model also known as the ‘above and below the line model’^[2]. When you explore this model, both Robert Kiyosaki, Bobbi DePorter and Marshall Thurber have been associated with the development of it. However, it has not been possible to find the main source of the model’s creation. Hence, I have adapted it from Bobbi DePorter’s framework^[2].

What the OARBED model entails is that when challenges arise, we have different choices for how to approach them.

To visualize it a horizontal line can represent our choices as below. We all have choices for how to proactively react, which affect our mindset. The choices can then come from either above or below the line. So, choosing to be ‘above the line’ is a choice of taking ownership for living and working with responsibility and accountability.

Taking ownership is about owning what you say, do and think and for all the choices you make. Even if things go wrong, you own it and thereby you are accountable.

Living ‘above the line’ is a place where you have more of an opportunity mindset like that of a victor. That can bring you more freedom, trust, power and success where you are not a victim of all the external circumstances, but you accept responsibility for your life and actions. When living and working ‘below the line’ you tend to blame others for your mistakes, make excuses for mistakes or even try to justify your actions or deny them.

If you remember the 3 Ego-states, then the Parent and Child ego-states can also automatically divert to ‘below the line’ behaviors. When we fall into the trap of having a Child ego-state, we may become a victim blaming or denying in our interactions as an example.

Often when living ‘below the line’ people will use language like you, them, they statements, e.g. “it is your fault, not mine”, “those Finance colleagues they are always bothering me with my budget”, “it is them, not me being responsible for this task” to mention a few

On the other hand, living ‘above the line’ often entails using language like I, Us, We, Ours. It can be statements like “it is my fault”, “I did this mistake and will correct it”, “we can do this and will take this task to succeed in the team” or “I didn’t get the intended promotion, but I will use it as a great starting point to develop my skills”.

It is amazing how much our mindset and focus means for our well-being, performance and learning.

And some of the greatest mental shifts simply happen when we begin taking responsibility for our own actions and attitude and own what we do or choose.

In the next section, I will relate mindset to conflicts as conflicts have so much to do with our interactions with others. One of the great team development and learning concepts for working with conflict is Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team® or The Five Behaviors® based on his renowned book ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’.

The Conflict Continuum: Constructive Conflict.

When we consider interactions in the workplace they typically have a professional nature to them. So, when we interact with others in organizations, conflicts are often thought of as something we should avoid, as something threatening. And even something unprofessional to some extend.

Our primal brains experience conflicts as a threat to our stable, harmonic and social connections.

However, contrary to popular belief conflicts are actually a prerequisite for building high-performing teams.

Constructive and healthy conflict are an integrated part of teams that perform at their peak. It requires trust and psychological safety in the teamwork.

The simple ‘Conflict Continuum’ from Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors® model illustrates how conflict in teams varies. As you can see from the model shown below, no or little conflict in a team can indicate artificial harmony, whereas destructive personal attacks indicate a hostile environment lacking trust.

The sweet spot, the ideal conflict point, is in the PUD (passionate unfiltered debate) as indicated, which is achieved through creating a trusting team atmosphere.

It is about creating vulnerability-based trust, about knowing others’ preferences of communication. Here the leader is the role model, the climate setter.

If we relate ‘The Conflict Continuum’ with the three ego-states and the OARBED model, then often times when we interact with others in conflict from a Child vs. Parent ego-state then we risk having more destructive conflicts. Whereas, if we chose an Adult ego-state we can easier and consciously chose our reactions to be more constructive.

The same applies if we begin to live ‘above the line’ with more of an opportunity mindset that will lead to more constructive conflicts if there is a strong foundation of trust.

Now I am curious to hear how you have experienced that mindset affect teamwork and team performance?

If you are curious to experience how we integrate and explore these aspects of mindset in Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching or Transition Coaching, please feel free to contact me or schedule a free coaching discovery call.

References.
^[1]Calcaterra, N. B. (2004) Transactional Analysis. Available at Transactional Analysis (Ericberne.com). (Accessed 20 March 2023).
^[2]DePorter, B. (2023) Above the Line: Where are you living? Available at Above the Line (SuperCamp.com). (Accessed 27 March 2023).
^[3]Milani, P. (2023) Defined by helplessness or defined by determination. Available at @milanicreative (Twitter).
^[4]Willey & Sons, Inc. (2023) The Conflict Continuum. Available at The Five Behaviors®: A Wiley Brand (Fivebehaviors.com). (Accessed 29 March 2023).

The post OARBED: How to build high-performing Teams through an ‘above the line’ peak mindset appeared first on Christian Madsen Academy.

People pursue all kinds of goals throughout their lives.

It might be a goal to complete a certain diet program or loosing those extra 10 pounds around the waist. You may want to begin to exercise or pursue a specific academic degree or achieve a certain career.

Goal-setting has been considerably researched and the term GOAL richly defined in literature. Some useful definitions from research of goals can be connected to coaching “a source of motivation, an incentive to action” and as being “internal representations of desired states or outcomes”.

One of my dreams stems back to the early 1990s, where I became fascinated by the Sahara desert. Then, a dream emerged of running in a rugged desert someday to really live a great adventure.

I think it all started, when I began watching some exciting television documentaries about a long-distance runner (Ultrarunner), who ran in the desert. I saw those awe-inspiring photos of desert landscapes and terrain in Magazines, which made me dream about sandy deserts.

When I first came across the 250 km multi-day race Marathon Des Sables in the Moroccan Sahara, I was simply hooked. So, that race quickly became a real stretch goal of mine.

A seed was planted in my mind or perhaps it was in fact a grain of sand.

Erg Chebbi is among the highest and largest so-called Ergs in Morocco. An Erg, also called Sand Sea or Sea of Dunes, is a large desert area that is covered by sand dunes without much vegetation.

Erg Chebbi is formed by the wind and located at Merzouga. The reddish brown sand dunes rise up to 150 meters from the surrounding moon-like rocky desert floor. It is around 28 kilometers long and 5-7 kilometers wide and it spreads around 200 square kilometers (km²) of the Sahara desert.

The valleys or “slack” between the sand dunes can be very deep and extremely warm. Temperatures often reaches a roasting 50° Celsius and the heat comes from the dry air and glaring sun.

So, in the sand dunes, you can actually find different kinds of sand: soft, crisp, deep. Some of the sand has a stable crust making it possible to walk or run without sinking into it like quicksand.

The astounding Erg Chebbi with its enormous seas of sand just absorbs you with its beauty.

However beautiful and challenging, it would take 15-17 years before my dream and goal came true.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” 

Tony Robbins

Research shows that conscious goals and goal-setting seem to regulate and affect human action^[1,2], which means that goals of different kinds affect your ability to act on something, on the goals set.

From literature, we find that dozens and dozens of studies show that setting goals increases performance and productivity by 11-25%⁽³⁾. Feedback on our actions, behaviors, techniques, ways of working etc. are therefore equally crucial for learning and to improve your performance.

In that way goal-setting can be transformational for your life and well-being on the one hand, but goals and that clear-cut focus on achieving them can also have such side-effects as perfectionism, stress or even burnout.

In the next part, I will therefore walk you through 6 useful goal-setting steps with examples to help you better realize your dreams and achieve your goals in a balanced way.

1. Write down your goals and achieve 42% more of them.

In 2007 psychology professor Gail Matthews concluded an intriguing research among others about how writing down your goals can affect goal achievement. The study involved 267 international participants from organizations, businesses and business networks and of those 149 completed the study.

The participants of the study were divided into 5 groups⁽⁴⁾:

1. Group 1: were asked to think about their goals and rate it on different dimensions such as:
   commitment, motivation, difficulty, importance etc.
2. Group 2-5: were asked to write their goals and rate them on the same dimensions
3. Group 3: was also asked to write commitments about actions
4. Group 4: was asked to write action commitments and to send them to a supportive friend
5. Group 5: was asked to do as Group 4 and to send weekly progress reports to a supportive friend

What was fascinating about the study was that it found empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools, i.e. accountability, commitment and writing down your goals.

“Goals determine what you’re going to be.”

Julius Erving

Actually the study showed that writing down your goals has a positive effect and can increase your goal achievement by 42%⁽⁴⁾. Let me share a few examples of where I have written down dreams or goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

20 years ago or so, I made a kind of bucket list for myself. It was a list of things that I wanted to accomplish in my life, such as dreams or goals. When I look at my crumbled piece of paper with the list today it mentions “I want to learn to speak French”, “I want to study a MSc in International Business” and even that “I aim to become an Officer in the Danish Navy”.

Many of the things on the list, which I wrote down years ago, I have accomplished even though they weren’t very concrete and time-bound. Some of the goals, I have not yet achieved and that is ok. So, for me it has been a funny overview of goals that I once in a while look at. The goals list has helped me accomplish more of my goals, I am sure. Simply by priming my subconscious by writing down goals.

What are the examples from your life, where you wrote down and accomplished your goals?

2. Aim for setting difficult goals to perform better.

For more than four decades Edwin E. Locke has been pioneering the research on goal-setting. His research from 1968 and sports research from 1985 show consistent findings that setting goals improves performance^(5,6):

• Goals affect performance by positively affecting:
  • Your effort
  • Your persistence
  • How you direct your attention
  • Your motivation for strategy development (i.e. your strategies for how to do a task)
• Specific, difficult goals lead to better performance than vague, easy goals

What that means is, that having specific and challenging goals will lead to better performance than for example being asked “to do your best” or “having no goals” conditions^(1,5). We might already know that, but what is interesting is that people actually don’t do their best, when their goal is to do just that⁽⁶⁾.

It requires more specificity, commitment and harder goals. Not to the verge of not being achievable, but something that is believably possible.

Some research actually interestingly shows that to use goals to optimize performance they should be set at the 80-90th percentile of difficulty or performance if you have the ability^(2,7). That means if you reach such percentiles of performance, you are actually doing better than 80-90% of those who attempted to do the task or activity.

“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise – it makes you stretch.”

Mary Kay Ash

Importantly, however a larger group of people might not achieve these challenging goals and that can lead to stress, burnout (in trying to achieve them), lower self-esteem and even demotivation⁽⁷⁾. In the end that can all negatively affect well-being, so goal-setting needs to be well balanced.

Below, I share some common real life examples of setting challenging and concrete goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

An example from my life was that of pursuing an academic degree, a MSc in International Business, next to my full-time job. That goal was really challenging since it was achieving a goal, but doing so, while putting pressure on my family’s lives and myself. It was a relevant and realistic goal, because I had full support from my family. It was measurable and time-bound, because I knew this could be done in 3-3,5 years and I believed that I would have the ability and could break down the whole education into smaller chunks consisting of each specific coursework and curriculum such as “International Strategy” or “International Marketing”. With a consistent focus and effort, I was able to achieve my goal even with a degree at Distinction level because of the team effort, which such a pursuit is, together with my family.

What are the examples from your life of setting really challenging goals?

3. Set micro-goals to reach your short- and long-term goals.

Many of us know the metaphorical saying of “eating an elephant one bite at a time”, i.e. to break down goals into smaller pieces easier to grasp and perceive. Research shows that taking small steps toward a larger goal, i.e. toward big progress, increases your happiness⁽⁸⁾.

That is what micro-goals are all about. They can help create a frequent sense of progress toward a short- or long-term goal, so you feel you approach your end goal by taking small progressive steps towards it. If you frequently experience such sense of progress, you will likely become creatively productive in the long run⁽⁸⁾.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Chinese proverb

So, micro-goals make us feel great, and we can actually trick our brain to increase dopamine levels by setting and achieving micro-goals because we achieve smaller strides towards our goals. That gives us a sense of accomplishment.

They make us able to consistently be reminded about the progress toward our goals. It is important that you know WHY you want to achieve certain goals because it makes the goals more relevant. What the micro-goals can then do is constantly remind you about WHY you want to achieve this particular goal.

Micro-goals also become particularly helpful if you want to minimize procrastination when completing challenging tasks or achieving challenging goals.

Now, let me share some beneficial examples of using micro-goals.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

Micro-goals can be useful when you are perhaps overwhelmed by your goals, e.g. writing a book. Instead you can create micro-goals focused on your daily actions: write 2 pages on Monday, then focus on 2 pages on Tuesday. That will make the small sub-tasks easier to oversee and achieve and it creates behavioral change that help you progress toward your goal of writing a book.

An example from endurance sports — back in 2014, I was running the desert race Marathon Des Sables.

I was fortunate to drive with Steve in his jeep. He is an amazing and very experienced race official. We drove from the desert camp to our hotel after finishing the race. He explained that he had spoken to many of the runners, who had decided to abandon the very demanding race. They had trained for between 6 to 12 months to be ready for the rigors of the race in the desert.

It was really interesting to learn more about those human mechanisms.

Often runners would end their race, because they had simply lost the sight of their goal. They would forget WHY they had set out to achieve their goal of running the race. They had lost their motivation.

Steve would speak to the runners to see if he could change their mind. Most times he could not.

Many runners would compare days and efforts, so If they experienced an extremely tough day of running 40 km in the desert heat one day, they would naturally compare with the coming days that would be much longer. They would think “if I felt so bad already today, how will I ever be able to run the longer distances in the coming days”. It made them doubt themselves.

Micro-goals, such as only focusing on the next aid station in the race, the next 10-15 minutes or the next 20 steps to progress toward finishing the whole race worked really well for me. I remember during one of the stages of the race that I felt so nauseous due to the heat and lack of carbs. So, I sat down in the shade at the next water station. I set the small micro-goal of taking one bite of my energy bar with a big sip of water every 10-15 minutes and just walk one step in front of the other until I felt a little better.

What are some examples of micro-goals that you have used to achieve your goals?

4. Work with outcome, performance and process goals.

At least three different kinds of goals, which affect performance, have been identified in research literature⁽¹⁾:

• Outcome goals: based on outcomes of particular events usually based on social comparison to others — these goals are affected by others
• Performance goals: specific end products of performance, i.e. success is viewed as achieving the absolute or self-referenced performance standards
• Process goals: specific behaviours, which the one performing something will engage during performance

Often organizations and corporations tend to focus more on performance and outcome goals, i.e. results-focused goals in their annual performance management cycles, whereas process goals, i.e. behavioral goals or goals based on effort are less prevalent.

These different kinds of goals can be combined.

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”

Seneca the Younger

In my experience, it is useful to have a holistic view on goal-setting and have certain mental flexibility around goal-setting. Thereby goals become less rigid and thereby you avoid negatively affecting your mindset, physical and mental well-being. An approach to creating that flexible mindset around goals is to set holistic intentional direction for your goals.

So, what does that mean? Well, it means to become less obsessed with and focused on precisely quantitatively reaching your goal metrics every week. As long as your intention and direction is right. Whether you ran 4 days of the week instead of all the 5 days that were your plan is ok once in a while as long as you incrementally progress to achieve your goal.

Next, I will further relate the three kinds of goals to examples from sports and corporate organizations.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

In sports outcome goals can be if you win that gold medal or not or that you aim to be among the top ten in a triathlon, i.e. it is affected by the other participants of your sport. In business outcome goals can relate to your career and whether you make that promotion compared to your colleagues. All of these examples are not only affected by yourself, but also by others.

When it comes to performance goals in sports they can involve running a certain time in a trail running event, e.g. aiming to run a 5k in below 20 minutes or a certain gross score improvement in golf. It could also be short-term targets in your job, to increase sales calls by 5% or aiming for a specific timeline for a project or task at work.

Examples of process goals are to learn a new skill at work, e.g. agile methods, and the ways you work (ways of working). A focus on sub-elements of processes to improve, e.g. sprint planning or something similar. In sports these kinds of goals can relate to keeping a certain composure while running, the technique of javelin trow in athletics or focusing on smaller process parts of a complex process such as in pole vault or high jump in athletics.

From soccer practice with my teenage son, I have also noticed how the kids often tend to focus very much on the performance goals, i.e. if they win or not. Then, I try to remind them of process goals of having fun, remind them of their role on the soccer field, technique etc.

How have you used process goals to improve your performance and achieve your goals?

5. How using trigger words will help you refocus as part of self-talk.

Trigger words are well-known from sports psychology research as a tool to help athletes refocus, build positive emotions, motivation and resilience. Trigger words are phrases or words, typically positively framed, that can take the shape of action words, i.e. relating to a certain action.

Often trigger words are words or phrases that you say to yourself, e.g. inner self-talk.

Some interesting research shows how trigger words have shown a significant positive effect on the overall expressive performance of junior high age singers, when they did a pre-performance routine of silently repeating the trigger words bold, confident and free⁽⁹⁾.

“Success is the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile, personal goals.”

Paul J. Meyer

Research from endurance sports also shows that motivational trigger words and self-talk can significantly reduce the perceived exhaustion by athletes and enhance their endurance performance⁽¹⁰⁾. The study introduced what motivational self-talk is in a first session. Then athletes could select among several motivational self-talk statements that they could use in the exercise sessions⁽¹⁰⁾.

Among the self-talk statements were phrases like “drive forward”, “you are doing well”, “feeling good” or “push through this”.

Really interesting how self-talk used in different contexts and in mental training can elevate your performance.

Systematic literature reviews also show that self-talk divided into positive (making you feel good), instructional (to drive correct attention of focus, techniques, action-based and behavioral), and motivational categories (to increase confidence, effort, energy by creating positive mood) of self-talk have shown performance benefits⁽¹¹⁾.

Examples of using self-talk in life are various. Let us dive into it in the next.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

Self-talk and included in that trigger words are commonly used by people in life. I also use it in different situations. I know that self-talk can also begin to emerge unwillingly when you get older, but that is not the kind of self-talk we discuss here

At work, examples of self-talk can be situations where you have to make a very important presentation of a new business case for a project. You might feel those sweaty palms, your exaggerated heart-beat and catching your breath. Here positive self-talk of saying “I can do this”, “You are doing great” or instructional self-talk such as “speak slowly”, “keep your composure” “focus on these 3 points” are useful examples.

It could also be before a difficult exam, where you are nervous and wants to better steer that tension or nervousness, here can self-talk and trigger words also help provide the right state of mind.

In sports, I have used trigger words to really refocus and ensure the right state of mind, e.g. in endurance running of running 90 km in extreme conditions, where I had routines of saying to myself “I want to do this”, “I can do this”, “I am doing this” to positively re-focus it I got tired or challenged.

What are some of the challenging situations, where you have used self-talk in sports or organizations?

6. It is about the journey, not the destination.

From what we have already seen, setting challenging goals that are believably possible to achieve is useful to perform better and achieve more. But it is not only about achieving that final end goal, if you really want to reach your full potential.

I recently came across a brilliant article about goal-setting and how our thinking about goals can affect behavior more continuosly also after we have reached a goal.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

C. S. Lewis

Research conducted by behavioral scientists Szu-chi Huang and Jennifer Aaker at Stanford Graduate School of Business included six studies of 1,600 people across cultures (executives in Africa, people following seven-day diet programs to people following a 14-week exercise program to college students).

Amazingly, the studies shows that if we think of a goal as one step in a longer journey and not as the final destination, we are more likely to keep up the behaviors and practices that led to reaching the goal^(12,13).

These findings demonstrate that by creating metaphors of your goal by shifting from focusing on the destination as part of a completed path to focusing on the journey it can lead to significant changes to perceptions and behaviors⁽¹³⁾. All of that can affect positively your performance.

It also relates well to the previously explored micro-goals, step-by-step thinking as part of a journey. In addition, it combines well with the so-called process goals that are typically behavioral goals.

Here below is an example from military training.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES.

In the 2000s, I pursued my Tactical Officer’s training at the Danish Naval Academy. The first years aimed at making us shipmasters with a maritime understanding with several courses and practice in navigation and leading and steering warships.

I flunked a written exam in navigation, which is quite crucial when you want to become a navigator

After an evaluation of me and two other cadets, the consequences were that we had to re-do the entire year again. It was a defeat, emotionally challenging and then my first thought was, let’s think about how I can positively learn from this, grow and see it as a part of the journey to become a Naval Officer. During that time, I used framing a lot to see each step as a part of the journey.

In the end, I made it and became successful with the help and support of my peers, friends and family.

What are your experiences with achieving goals and then returning again to old habits and behaviors?

So, all of the 6 goal-setting steps, I have now walked you through can help you become better, achieve your goals and realize more of your incredible dreams in life.

Are you open to having any help with that, then I am 100% confident that I can help you.

Please contact me to experience Coaching.

When we work together, we will work in a partnership to..

* Set clear, exciting goals that will motivate you to take action and realize your wildest dreams.
* Create new perspectives and patterns to stop procrastination and give you confidence to achieve your goals.
* Become aware of where you need to be accountable to create action and get things done, so your performance increases.

Resources.
⁽¹⁾Kingston, K. M. and Hardy, L. (1997) Effects of Different Types of Goals on Processes That Support Performance, The Sport Psychologist 11: pp. 277-293.
⁽²⁾Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2002) Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35Year Odyssey, American Psychologist 57(09): pp. 705-717.
⁽³⁾Diamandis, P. H. and Kotler S. (2015) BOLD: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, Simon & Schuster’s Paperbacks, New York: p. 74.
⁽⁴⁾Matthews, G. (2007) The Impact of Commitment, Accountability, and Written Goals on Goal Achievement, Department of Psychology, Dominican University of California, Psychology | Faculty Presentations. 3.
⁽⁵⁾Locke, E. A. (1968) Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 3(2): pp. 157-189.
⁽⁶⁾Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (1985) The Application of Goal Setting to Sports, Journal of Sport Psychology 7: pp. 205-222.
⁽⁷⁾Welsh, D. T. and Ordóñez, L. D. (2014) The dark side of consecutive high performance goals: Linking goal setting, depletion, and unethical behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 123(2): pp. 79-89.
⁽⁸⁾Amabile, T. M. and Kramer, S. J. (2011) The Power of Small Wins, Harvard Business Review 89(5) May 2011.
⁽⁹⁾Broomhead, P., Skidmore, J. B., Eggett, D. L., and Mills, M. M. (2012) The effects of a positive mindset trigger word pre-performance routine on the expressive performance of junior high age singers., Journal of Research in Music Education 60(1): pp. 62-80.
⁽¹⁰⁾Blanchfield, A. W., Hardy, J., De Merree, H. M., Staiano, W. and Marcora, S. M. (2014) Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 46(5): pp. 998-1007.
⁽¹¹⁾Tod D., Hardy, J. and Oliver, E. (2011) Effects of self-talk: a systematic review, Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 33(5): pp. 666-687.
⁽¹²⁾Aaker, J. (2022) Step by Step: Think of Goals as part of the journey, not the destination. Available at: https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/step-by-step/ (Accessed: 1 August 2022).
⁽¹³⁾Aaker, J. and Huang, S-C. (2019) It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: How Metaphor Drives Growth After Goal Attainment, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117(4): pp. 697-720.

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