I have recently read a book called Performance Intelligence at Work by Julie Bell and Robin Pou (McGraw Hill, 2009). It is a Performance Intelligence at Worksmall book, both , literally – since it is published in A5 size rather than the ‘standard’ book size – and because it comprises only 167 pages. Yet it contains some very valuable ideas, which I would like to share with you in the next couple postings.

Dr Julie Bell – she likes to be called Dr Julie – is a sports psychologist and coach turned business coach. She is not the first such, nor will she be the last, I am sure. Her case is rather interesting since she entered the world of business sort of by accident. One of her athletes was appointed as CEO of a recently-taken over company and suggested that she should join him and became a coach to his management team.  Both he and she felt that there was a lot of carry over between the world of sport and the world of business.

The idea I want to share today is one of the key ideas that runs right through the book. It is the importance of mind. In both sport and business.

New Zealand recently won a spot in the Football World Cup in South Africa 2010. Yippee! (I’m a kiwi remember!). NZ came out for the second half carrying a one goal lead. Imagine the dismay, then, when their opponents, Bahrain, were awarded a penalty early in the second half. The apprehension turned to relief when the penalty kick was saved by the NZ goalkeeper. Frankly it was not a well-taken penalty.

Dr Julie of course does not mention this in her book which was published well before the match, but her points can be applied to the situation. She would say that the penalty was first missed in the minds of both the penalty taker and the goalkeeper.

In the mind of the kicker, there was a whole lot of history. Bahrain had got to the playoff for a finals spot also four years previously, and had been beaten by a single goal. They had played many matches in this competition to get where they were and everything could hinge on this kick – victory (the match was played in NZ, so a goal for Bahrain would have been counted as two goals under the away-goal rule), South Africa – glory. But he missed it.

Why did he miss it? Dr Julie suggests that where there is only 2% doubt in your mind, you lack the 100% confidence needed to be sure of success. The kicker may have said to himself as he thought about the kick: “If I don’t get this, we are likely to be where we weird 4 years ago. So near yet so far”. So there may have been doubt when he actually kicked the ball. So the game could have been lost in the kicker’s mind.

The goalkeeper could have thought: “Oh no! Penalties are given to be scored from. We could miss out on South Africa because of this”. Had he thought like that, he would probably not have made the save. I suspect he said to himself: “Now it’s up to me. I have got to save this for us to get to South Africa.” And he did.

It is important to note that skill and technique of themselves are not the relevant factors in this situation. The kicker had scored many times from penalties before, otherwise he would no have been delegated to take the kick, and the goalkeeper was the best available to NZ, otherwise he would not have been playing. So skills and technique can be overwhelmed by your thoughts.

Translate this to the workplace. You have a problem staff member, whose performance or behavior – or both – is giving you and your department a problem. You need to discuss matters with him/her. What thoughts will you allow to go through your mind before you meet.

Note the word ‘allow’ in the previous sentence. Dr Julie proposes three Principles of Mind:

  • Your mind is powerful
  • You control your mind
  • You have a choice in every situation

The choices you make in your thinking directly influence your actions. In fact your thoughts lead to your actions. How can you replace your potential.

ally negative thoughts about your upcoming discussion with positive ones? Let’s talk about that in the next posting.

Also in the next posting will be our Book of the Month. Look out for it.

Please give me some feedback about the usefulness of this posting.

Contact me on bob@newbizideas4u.com