TIGNUM BLOG

New Jobs

It seems companies are always cutting jobs in order to cut spending. At the same time, inadvertently they end up cutting jobs and programs that help those remaining perform their best. We were just brainstorming some new jobs that companies should create to really increase the energy and resiliency of their workforce and to attract and retain the best talent.

Here is our list:
 

.01  Chief Sustainable Performance Officer - a person to oversee the entire organization from the perspective of creating, rewarding, and maintaining high performance at all levels.

.02  Head of Recovery - a person to make sure that key individuals and teams get the recovery they need to be their best when it matters most. This person could also help teams rotate members to keep top performers fresh (similar to the Tour de France teams pulling for their lead rider).

.03  Human Innovation Director - a person who doesn't focus on R&D outside the company but instead constantly looks for innovation within the company. This includes constantly challenging and capturing the ideas of everyone within the company.

.04  High Performance Meeting Enabler - a person to help meeting leaders make their meetings high performance. This could include everything from honing agendas to making sure the length and environment of the meeting supports high performance. It would also include being sure the snacks and drinks are high performance oriented and the breaks are designed to improve brain performance and energy.

.05  Peak Season Manager - a person who helps the entire organization for the upcoming peak seasons. This includes energizing, focusing, and preparing everyone to maximize their impact during the times when high performance matters most (i.e. retail/holiday season, accounting/tax season, etc.). This also includes helping everyone recharge after the peak season and capturing the best practices so they are ready for the next big push.

.06  Director of High Energy - a person to focus on the plethora of energy drains that exist within organizations and then to take the steps to eliminate them. This person would also maximize efforts within the organization to create more energy and to focus that energy.

.07  Chief Nutritionist - a person to educate the leaders and the workforce on the benefits of high performance nutrition. This person could select the foods for the canteen, the vending machines, meetings, celebrations, and for conferences and key events. This doesn't mean take away the pleasure foods it just means put them in the proper context.

.08  Director of High Performance Travel - a person to organize business travel to reduce the negative impact that travel can have a person's attitude, energy, resilience, and brain performance. This includes flight selection, airline selection, hotel selection, travel support, travel tools, etc.

.09  Chief Laughter Officer - a person who looks for and creates opportunities to make work fun and create laughter. Research is showing the huge value of laughing on creativity, resilience, and job satisfaction.

We filled in the first nine so tell us what position you may want to see as number 10. Imagine you had a couple of these jobs in your organization. Do you think it would make a difference? As always, we'd love to hear what you think.

Jogi Rippel & Scott Peltin
Chief Sustainable Performance Officers

Revisiting What Being a High Performer Means

Recently I have had several great discussions about the definition of what a high performer is. One comment that I’ve heard several times is some version of, “I’m not sure I want to be high performer all the time. Sometimes I just want to chill out, relax, and take my foot off the gas pedal.”  When they make this comment they cringe because they assume that I will attack this logic and call them a “floater”. But I don’t do this. Instead, I smile and cheer because consciously and strategically taking time to chill out, relax and take your foot off of the gas pedal is a vital part of being a “swimmer”.

When my clients have been traveling all week, attending all day meetings, preparing critical briefs, and burning the candle on both ends, I recommend that they schedule time to put the candle out. This may mean sleeping in a little longer, taking a 90 minute nap, going to a movie, taking a short get away in the mountains, doing some light movement, or just planning some quiet time with someone who is important to them. This is high performance in its highest form. The alternative is burning the candle out and this, unfortunately, is all too common.

This is called working smart rather than working hard and this is, by our definition, sustainable high performance. Let me know what you think and what you do to regenerate.

by Scott Peltin, Founder & Chief Performance Officer
TIGNUM // Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Pilots’ Eating Habits may affect their flight performance

(Study by US Army)

Recently I came across a study by Dr. Glenda Lindseth that looked at how diet may affect a pilot’s job performance. Her review of different diet compositions and the effect on decision-making abilities is compelling and worthy of discussion. In her background, she states that aircrew human factors account for approximately 80% of the accidents in the aviation industry. She acknowledges that while the positive effects of a balanced diet and healthy foods have been shown to make significant contributions to improve safety, the effects of diet on cognitive performance are often overlooked. The objective of this study was to test the effects of dietary intake on cognition and flight performance while controlling for all other related factors.

Dr. Lindseth and colleagues enrolled 45 pilots in this study and evaluated their decision making abilities and number of errors following different diets depending on their balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats.  At the end of a session with each diet, the pilots underwent cognitive testing with the standard tests for memory and mental alertness.  The pilots performed significantly better on the short-term memory test and had fewer errors after eating the diets high in fats and complex carbohydrates vs. just high protein. Lindseth suspects the performance edge with the complex carbohydrate and high-fat diets was related to availability and metabolism of B complex vitamins that occurs with carbohydrate intake.

She speculated that the fats supported brain cell communication and  allowed B vitamins to be available for better cognition.  Deficiency of B vitamins has been shown to lead to irritability and poor cognition. In conclusion, Dr. Lindseth indicated that this had a direct impact for the military, especially the pilots who are flying, but also for anybody who needs to be alert and have high cognitive performance. She will be conducting a three-year study to further study the short term and long term effects.

So the question you might ask? How much do you believe your diet affects your job performance? It would be interesting to see how strategic business decisions and negotiations fare with these different diets. I suspect we would see similar results.

by Patti Milligan, Director of Nutrition

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Great High Performance Drink

Recently some interesting research came out in the July 2009 Journal of Applied Physiology on the benefits of Beetroot juice in improving exercise performance. This juice, which is high in nitrates, minerals, and Vitamin C, may boost stamina and allow people to exercise up to 16% longer.
 
Professor Andy Jones, from University of Exeter, reported that Beetroot juice may help the body utilize less oxygen while performing more work, thus increasing stamina. He states that the exact mechanism behind these benefits is unclear but still the results are very significant. The researchers commented that the findings could be relevant in those that have compromised cardiovascular, respiratory, or metabolic conditions. Given the fact that 40-55% of the western population are susceptible to these conditions, drinking beetroot juice could be a functional food with great therapeutic benefits.
 
So when you’re preparing for your next must-win meeting you may want to include Beetroot juice on the table. Although you may not be exercising in your meeting, the benefits of this juice’s nutrient density may be just what you need to keep your brain sharp and full of energy.
 
Patti Milligan, Director of Nutrition

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

Got Me Again

Even though I know better, every once in a while the universe gives me a reminder of how important it is to properly prepare for my key meetings. You know the meetings I'm talking about, the strategy meeting with the CEO, the business plan meeting with the investors, the team meeting to get everyone on the same page. In this case, I was meeting with a well known CEO. The briefing from his assistant was that we would meet in his office at 12:30 and then walk over for lunch at his favorite restaurant.

Usually, even with a nice early lunch meeting I would pack some high performance snacks. But this morning I was running a little late so I decided to roll the dice. As I walked into his office I was greeted by his assistant,  "Hello Mr. Rippel, I apologize but he's running a little late. He should be off the phone with his conference call in a few minutes." Sixty minutes later, with no offer of water or anything, the door opens and I am rushed into the CEO's office. He just finished polishing off a sandwich and here I am hungry, thirsty and on the spot to deliver my message concisely and powerfully.

Two hours later I withered out. There was nothing to drink or snack on in the meeting. Definitely not the way to conduct a high performance meeting. But I'm not writing this blog to slam this CEO or his staff. I'm sharing with you an embarrassing but revealing example of my own low performance preparation for a meeting. It just goes to show that the one time that you don't properly prepare yourself you leave yourself vulnerable for low performance. Sustainable high performance is always a work in progress and proper preparation based on good habits is the first step.

Has this ever happened to you? I'd love to hear your experiences.

By Jogi Rippel, Founder, CEO
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Be a Mentor

This past week we volunteered to help raise money for a great charity 
– Youth at Risk. The power of this charity is that it teams up an 
adult mentor with a teenager who is struggling to stay on track. At 
the fundraiser, a woman stood up and shared her story about how 19 
years ago she was a struggling young teenager. She was into drugs, 
hanging with the wrong crowd, failing out of school and she saw no 
hope for her own future.

Luckily someone knew of Youth at Risk and they convinced her to get 
into the program. There she met a mentor that helped change her life. 
Her mentor shared her own experiences, gave her the support and
love that was so badly needed, and showed her that there was hope
and there was a way to achieve her goals.

Today, 19 years later she is still in touch with her mentor and she is 
still touched by the experience. She is a successful woman.

This whole experience made me think. Why don’t we all reach out to 
someone at work, in our neighborhood, in our family, or anywhere and 
provide some mentoring? In a changing world, where we are often 
working alone and just trying to survive, it’s too easy to forget to 
reach out and help someone else.

In my many years in the fire service if there’s one thing I learned 
its that helping others is a great way to re-energize ourselves.

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

The Workplace of the Future

This month in Time magazine there was a great piece on the workplace 
of the future. No briefcases, no bosses, no office (except maybe at 
your house or your local Starbucks), and no career ladder. Wow, this 
sounds great – where do I sign up? On the flipside there will be no 
benefits, no job security, no company retirement, and no place to 
hide. I knew it sounded too good to be true.

Will these trends be bad or good? Will they create constant change 
pressures or endless opportunities? Will they provide you with more 
freedom or will you be a prisoner to your own workaholic ways?

The answers to these questions depend on whether you’re currently 
sinking, floating or swimming. Do you have the habits and strategies 
to be energized? Is your gas tank full, ½ full, or empty? Have you 
trained your resilience and expanded your capacity? Is your brain 
functioning at full potential? If you have the right Sustainable High 
Performance habits the world will be your new workplace and you will 
enjoy as much success as you want. If you don’t – you better get 
started.

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

The Joys and the Pains of the Journey

For those of you who know me, you know that I couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk about this year’s French Open and the achievements of Roger Federer.  What I love about Roger’s journey to becoming the best player ever to play men’s tennis, is that it’s full of lessons that you and I and everyone in business can learn from.
1.    Just because some things come easy, it doesn’t mean that you can take them for granted. Roger is a gifted player but he works very hard on his mindset, his game, his strategy, his image, and his self-development.
2.    Just because you suffer some losses doesn’t mean that you give up on what got you there. It doesn’t mean you have to panic or that you need to quit. Roger has had a few dips along the way to capturing the French Open. The biggest one was the emphatic loss last year to Rafael Nadal. But Roger never quit, he never panicked, he never lost his commitment to good habits, and on Sunday this paid off.
3.    Sometimes the greatest competition you face is between your ears. Being able to focus on what you can control, to commit to your “to be” goals, and to trust in your preparation and hard work is the key to overcoming your fears and in achieving your potential.
When Roger Federer was unbeatable he was fascinating to watch. But when he started losing, the press started pressuring him, and fans began questioning him – he became the greatest ever.
What if this current economy, the restructuring of your organization, or the growing pressures from the competition is just what you need to become the greatest ever? Do you have the habits, the hard work, the focus and the trusting mindset to make it happen?

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

The Missing Link

Recently Tom Peters wrote a blog titled, “Dealing with Recessionary Times”. In it he gave some great advice on what it takes during these tough times to succeed. He stated that he is inundated with questions on insights or advice he has for leaders during the current recession. Tom started with work harder and work longer. Then he went on to list 34 items that all emphasized the need for more passion, more attention to detail, more action, and more optimism.
As always, Tom Peters was very inspiring and insightful, but in this case there definitely was something missing. For those of you who know me, and know the passion we have Tignum for high performance, you can understand why I had to speak up. I commented that in my opinion he had given the perfect recipe for burnout. This type of work harder not smarter thinking is exactly what we are addressing in our book Sink, Float or Swim.
I went on to respectively add several Tignum mantra’s like, take better care of yourself than ever. Work smart rather than just work hard. Take time for a breathing break. Go for a walk. Eat for high performance. Aggressively challenge your thoughts, self talk and stories to make sure they are high performance and you’re not just being a victim.
The sad thing is that too many leaders also miss the very important habits necessary for sustainable high performance. Without these habits there will be no energy, resilience, brain performance, or capacity to achieve Tom’s 34 recommendations. These habits aren’t just nice to do, they are a strategic must.
Although, it is very common to forget about sustainability during tough times, it’s short sighted and self-defeating. Tom agreed with me and commented back that he couldn’t believe he made the oversight. As he said, it should have been at the top of his list. The question is: Where is sustainable high performance on your list?

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Just Reframe it!

There is no doubt that times are tough. Clients are losing their jobs, getting reassigned to other positions (not by choice) and many are taking pay cuts. During these times there are so many reasons to lose confidence, get angry, or even worse give up hope. I have been scanning the blog world for great reframes and today I found a really good one. It had to do with a buy out where the blogger, Polly Pearson, was giving her perspective about the worst job she ever had. As she reflected she realized that each "worst job" actually turned out to be full of great lessons. I can bet that we have all had this same or similar experience.

The kicker was when a fellow blogger commented on this blog, saying how unhappy s/he was with Polly's company, EMC,  for purchasing them. Due to the acquisition there were pay cuts and subsequently some bad feelings. But Polly's response was an amazing reframe. First, she clearly set her intentions of sharing some empathy and offering some great thoughts as a friend and not as an official of EMC.

Next she calmly and kindly shared some powerful advice that started with "Do something good for yourself or your family". At Tignum we think this is always a great place to start. Then she shared several of the positive aspects of the acquisition which included saving 2,000 employees from losing their jobs. If you get a chance I recommend you read the entire blog (here) , comments and reply because it shows a great example of a High Performance Mindset in action.

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

You Are Fired!

Yesterday I had a sales presentation with a senior vice president of a huge software company. I introduced him to our approach on Sustainable High Performance and shared some of our tools and strategies with him. He was extremely excited about our work and totally understood how the performance of his team and his own could be significantly improved. After discussing some more details he came up with one big BUT. He said, "I am certain that if I invest in my team to improve their sustainable performance, I might get fired."  He was very serious about it and told me about the perception in times of cost cutting and how the corporate culture doesn't support it. Only investments that are at the core of the business can be made. That statement cracked me up because what is more at the core of business than high performing people? As you can imagine, I went home without a new exciting deal - but instead, with a new perspective on how poisoned many corporate cultures are, how trapped many senior leaders are and how little knowledge there is about what it takes to deliver high performance. I guess the great news is that there is plenty of room for improvement and tons of work to do  :-)

By Jogi Rippel, CEO and Founder
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Compartmentalize like Nadal

Today Rafael Nadal won his 5th straight Monte Carlo Masters on Clay. It was an incredible match where once again he was too tough, too focused, too smart and too prepared. In order to pull this super human feat off though he had to win 4 matches in 3 days against 2 other top 4 players.
Rafa’s play reminded me of what today’s business leaders must do. They have to play their best against the best competition even when they're tired. They have to bring their A game to work everyday and they have quickly adapt to the many challenges they see daily and weekly. So as I watched this match (and the post match ceremony) I wondered if there were any Rafa lesson’s that you apply to your performance (at work and away from it).
1.    Before every point Rafa makes sure that his mind is focused and that he has a plan. He never steps up to serve without laser like focus. You can do the same. Before every meeting, every presentation, every must-win event (and most events today are must-win) you can set your intentions and set your energy level and your focus where it needs to be (see previous blog What you focus on grows.)
2.    Rafa comes to every tournament exceptionally well prepared. He is meticulous in the way he manages his Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery. He understands that in tough competition in tough times you can’t leave anything to chance. You can do the same. Pay attention to the details. Do simple things savagely well. Take care of your most important asset – YOU.
3.    Rafa does a fantastic job of compartmentalizing. That is, he never lets a previous point or shot influence his current point or shot. He doesn’t let an outside element that he can’t control leak into his mindset to poison his game. He takes each thing and puts it into its box and deals with it appropriately (actually he deals with it exceptionally). You can do this too. You finish one meeting, its done. Go back to your office, review what went well, fix what didn’t go well and move on. You have an argument with one customer, one co-worker, or your spouse – compartmentalize it and don’t let it leak into your next conversation. You received some bad news from the market or an internal report, put it into perspective, identify what you need to do (solutions), and move on.
I love watching Rafael Nadal because for a young guy he is a master in his Mindset. I learn so much watching him and you can too. Let me know what you think. Who do you love to watch (doesn’t need to be an athlete) and what do you learn?

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Peformance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Is it Size or Impact?

Recently I came across a great blog (read full blog here) that got me thinking.  More and more in business we are seeing downsizing. This is interesting because it seems everyone is always trying to make themselves look bigger and yet they are actively getting smaller. In the world of consulting, freelancing or even entrepreneuring the key is to always build your brand and to look bigger. No matter what your role is in your company you always want to be significant, to be big. So is it size that matters or is it impact? I say its impact and your impact is a direct result of your punching power, your energy, your brain performance and your capacity. So the question is, What did you do today to increase your impact?

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

What Can We Learn From Former Recessions?

For a keynote we researched and analyzed some performance data from former recessions, like the one in the 80s. We came across data showing how mental and physical fatigue increased and how the number of people resorting to drug and alcohol abuse also escalated significantly. Even now, talking to HR professionals we hear more and more stories on increasing burnout statistics, sick days and people who are fed up with all the changes, unrealistic targets, reduced resources etc.
What resonated the most with us was the fact, that one of the key reasons some companies outperform their competitors, even in down cycles is that they continually innovate. The interesting thing is that innovation must come from somewhere, or more accurately, from somebody. So what does your company do for "somebody" to make sure they can perform at their best in a sustainable way while also being able to innovate? What do you do to continually perform at your best?  What do you do to remind yourself  that high performance does happen by design? What about your team? It all comes back to having a clear understanding of what  YOU at your "best" would actually look and feel like. It's the constant reflection of high performance habits in the areas of performance mindset, performance nutrition, performance movement and performance recovery.
And especially in tough times where these things might drop on the priority list, they need to be on top. It's your core asset - your brain, your body - that navigates you through the daily challenges.  As Tom Peters mentioned in an article a couple of weeks ago: "Take care of yourself more than ever."

By Jogi Rippel, CEO and Founder

The Tignum answer to the Never Ending Meeting Problem

At Tignum we are all about high performance. Seems like every time we work with a client the topic of meetings and what a waste of time they are comes up. We have brain stormed this topic many times and Seth’s list is a great one (see his full article here) .  A great question that once came up was, Why are meetings scheduled for 1 hour? The answer, we decided, was because that’s how the calendars are broken up in our outlook. The suggestion was to make all meetings 45 minutes. This would create a sense of urgency and more important leave 15 minutes to debrief from one meeting and prepare for the next. This brings up a short list of things that we at Tignum would definitely add to Seth’s great list to make meetings more productive.
1.    Show up ready – this means not only preparing your content but preparing yourself.
This means doing some mental rehearsal, setting some intentions for outcomes, getting yourself into the right state, dialing in your focus, and mentally preparing for all the what ifs. It means doing some movement to energize yourself and to turn on your right brain so you can be innovative and not just another in the box participant. It also means feeding your brain with a high performance snack filled with protein, B vitamins, complex carbohydrates and omega-3 essential fats. This will prevent brain fog, improve your concentration, keep your blood glucose steady, avoid mood swings and make your brain fire on all cylinders (a minimal requirement for any high output meeting).
2.    Be a high performer in the meeting.
This means starting by sitting with good posture at all times. If you don’t think this matters just sit for 60 seconds slouched over like you usually do and see how you feel, how you think and how you concentrate. It means staying hydrated by drinking water instead of sugary drinks or coffee. The brain is made up of 80% water and if you want it to function properly you have to keep it hydrated. It also means keeping the right Mindset by reframing negative non-productive statements, challenging bullshit stories that are full of drama and feed hysteria, and creating solutions rather than excuses.
3.    Set up a meeting culture of high performance by managing the team mindset, providing high performance snacks, and energizing the group with movement.
This means planning and setting expectations, which Seth definitely touched on. But to expand it a little, fill the room with water for everyone, provide high performance snacks not sugar filled partially hydrogenated sleeping pills (doughnuts and cookies). Get the group up moving every chance you can – do walking meetings, take frequent breaks (water helps with this), or just have everyone stretch and do a posture check. This also means challenging the team mindset by keeping each other accountable to stay focused, creative, optimistic and solution oriented.
We could go on forever on this but then it would be just like your last meeting.

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

How Many Emails do you Receive?

The better question is actually, how many times per day do you check  your email and how often do you get interrupted by phone calls, text  messages, IMs and colleagues just coming by your office? Researchers at the University of California in Irvine found that the average  amount of time an employee can devote to a  project before being  interrupted is 11 minutes. You might be indifferent to this because you think you have mastered multi-tasking.  In actuality, researchers have found neurological evidence that the brain 
cannot do two things at the same time. Your brain basically switches  between tasks (the exception are automatic processes in your body like  breathing).
Dave Crenshaw talks in his book, The Myth of Multitasking about how switching impacts your performance and reduces your effectiveness. After a switch, you have to go back to your old task to review where you are - and the more complicated the task the greater the cost of this switch. Basex Research estimates an average of 2.1 hours of lost productivity per person per day due to interruptions. So here is my question to you again: How many times per day do you check your email?  Please share with us your email strategies and the email etiquette of your company.

By Jogi Rippel, Founder and CEO
TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Your Mindset is the Biggest Team Builder

Every TIGNUM program we run we have a discussion about what makes up a performance mindset and what destroys a performance mindset. This often leads to a comment that nothing destroys a performance mindset like the negative mindset of a colleague. This brings up a great discussion about whether a person’s mindset is contagious or not.

There is some interesting research that strongly suggests that your thoughts definitely impact those around you. Your attitude affects those around you. In a team, we are constantly impacting and influencing each other’s mindset.

Recently, a client shared with me, that taking her team through TIGNUM was the single best leadership and team building experience she has ever had. At first this really surprised me, since our program was never designed to achieve this. But when I reflected on how this could happen, it made perfect sense to me. When you get a team of Sustainable High Performers together, and they all desire to achieve excellence by building their own (and then virally their team’s) performance mindset, it’s no wonder they develop a team bond like they never had.

This is why one of the most important things a leader can do is to develop their own high performance mindset and then infect their team with it. 

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Stimulating the Economy

Every day I turn on the news and hear about the struggling economy. They talk about government loans to banks, incentive packages, lower interest rates, etc. It’s all about stimulating the economy.

Then I head to work, talk to prospective clients (many of them CEO’s or board members), and hear about how exhausted their leaders are because of their current work challenges and work loads. The thing that really perplexes me is to hear their frustration with their leadership fatigue as they explain to me that now is not the time to invest in their Sustainable High Performance.

Today, during a recovery walk, a thought hit me. Why don’t we stimulate the economy by stimulating the leadership of the Fortune 100 companies? This is what speculators, investors, and fund managers should be talking about. Let's help them realize the benefits of being Sustainable High Performers.

By Jogi Rippel, Founder and CEO

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

The Team Approach

So often people see TIGNUM as something they should do on their own, something they should do when there is enough “extra” time, something that will make them healthy. What they fail to recognize is that everything we talk about at TIGNUM is designed to help our clients perform their best during the most demanding times.

One of the most rewarding clients we have worked with have been the Unilever Audit teams. These teams travel all over the world and perform internal audits on business groups or small companies that make up the Global Unilever business. These audits are psychologically, physically, emotionally and professionally challenging. They require that a team travel to a location, spend 4 to 6 weeks of intense work, and live away from home in a hotel. It is very stressful and it challenges any routine of normalcy.

This year we completed taking every single member of the Unilever Global Audit team through the TIGNUM program. This gives us a rare opportunity because the team can implement their TIGNUM Sustainable High Performance strategies together. As I’ve always said in the fire service, “No one ever goes into a fire unhealthy and comes out healthier.” The truth is that every crisis or major challenge takes a little away from you. This is why you have to be at your best before it hits, take care of yourself during the event, and recover adequately after it’s over so you’re ready for the next challenge.

After a recent audit in Vietnam, one of our clients emailed me sharing the power of the TIGNUM Sustainable High Performance strategies on his team. This is his note to me.

“It's the first time I've experienced an Audit where the whole team fully embraced the TIGNUM mindset. At the outset the team members agreed to volunteer as Champions to lead the various TIGNUM Pillars (Mindset, Movement, Nutrition, Recovery). From amongst our activities we held daily movement sessions, set aside an area for Power naps, nutritious snacks, etc - all sustained throughout the Audit. It worked. It made for a positive and effective team. In my view, it had an impact on making this a less stressful and successful Audit.“

There is nothing new here, but its clear that sustaining this mindset has an impact on our abilities at an individual and social level....having one motivated person in a team is great, but when everyone is firing on all cylinders it sure does make a difference”

So often it’s difficult for people to see the power of integrating Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery strategies. They fall into the trap of just thinking it’s a health issue. Clearly this demonstrates this is about performance – yours and the teams. What more can you do to help your team become Sustainable High Performers?

By Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Think Better

I just finished reading an interesting book called Think Better by Tim Hurson. It's all about how to become more innovative by improving productive thinking. While I was reading this book it really made me think. I started thinking about what motivated me to think about TIGNUM. Sure there was the motivation of my father being sick but clearly, from the beginning, there was more. That "more" for me was the irony that so many people thought that "thinking differently' just happened. This amazed me and started me down the path to really look at how to help top executives learn to be more innovative, more creative, but most of all better thinkers so they could perform better for longer.

When I met Scott, and we talked about the importance for firefighters to do this under the most stressful situations, I knew we were onto something. Today I realized that the world, and most of our clients, are in one of these "stressful situations". There are huge global challenges, huge business challenges, and huge personal challenges and yet the need for clear, creative, innovative and better thinking has never been higher. Unfortunately, most of the CEO's and other top executives I meet, still think this happens by chance. They think you either have it or you don't.

My experience, through TIGNUM, has taught me that nothing can be further from the truth. Everything can be taught! The tipping point is that just because you Learn it doesn't mean you'll Do it. Doing it is really the key and that's what Scott showed me that firefighters do best. They practice their performance mindset on the small calls, doing the simple things, so that when they need them the most they will be second nature. This is the same approach we have taken with teaching our Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery habits. We ask our clients to practice them everyday so when the pressure really hits, on those really stressful days (which seem to be coming way more frequently), these habits that make them Sustainable High Performers, will be second nature.

When I hear a client say that they didn't have time to use our high performance strategies I immediately know that here is a client that is leaving their performance and their sustainability, and unfortunately their company's performance to chance. I can't remember who said that desperate times require desperate measures but at Tignum we believe that's a recipe for a disaster. Desperate times (e.g. tough markets, smaller margins, tight competition, high stress, high workloads, etc.) require good habits - Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery habits!

By Jogi Rippel, CEO

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Oscillation

A question I often get is: "How can I use some of the TIGNUM recovery strategies when I'm in the middle of a meeting and I feel the pressure growing?" . This is a great question because clearly you need to stay 100% present during these challenging moments. This may not seem like the appropriate time to put on your ipod, close your eyes, and break into some alternate nostril breathing.

If you really think of the essence of this very common question it is: How do I prevent feeling overwhelmed in the moment that I need to really be a Sustainable High Performer? My answer to this is: "Preparation is everything!".  As Scott often says, he's never seen a firefighter who went into a fire unhealthy and unprepared come out of the fire healthy and prepared. The fact is that the challenges we face chip away at us, unless we are prepared to handle them.

So how do you prepare yourself to be a high performer when you really need it? You practice your Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery strategies even when you don't think you need them. Everyday you get several often unnoticed opportunities to practice your high performance strategies such as mental imagery, oscillation, eating for brain performance, or moving to increase your creativity and focus. These strategies, and the many others you learned in the TIGNUM program, are cumulative and they strengthen your resolve and resilience for when you need it. Even more important they ensure you will be a high performer even when you find yourself in that pressure cooker.

By André Hartwich, Performance Coach

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Building the Right Foundation for Success: Sustainability

Every once in a while I hear a CEO or team leader make a comment that sounds something like this: “My team is really burned out, they are pushing hard trying to do more with less. I really wish I could take them through the TIGNUM program so they could learn new strategies for sustainable high performance. I wish I could stop their speed train for the 2 days so they could recharge and see how important they are to me and the business. Unfortunately, I have to make my numbers this quarter or else, so I can’t take the time or spend the money on the team and their Sustainable High Performance right now. Maybe next quarter.”

I can totally appreciate the pressures of business, especially in these tough times. But I have to be brutally honest (a quality I’m not good at hiding). Does it make sense to drive your car and then put oil in it? Does it make sense to play all your soccer games and then go back and have preseason practice? Does it make sense to race a top Formula One race car on old bald warn out tires? Can you imagine if Tiger Woods would not have invested in reinventing his swing 5 times over his career? We wouldn’t have been blessed with his 14th Masters at the US Open – a win that will forever live in the record books as one of the best. In fact, he may have never won a second masters. In Good to Great, Jim Collins, talked about getting the right people on the bus (a morphism for team). I think that’s only half the battle. You have to get the right people on the bus and then you need to make sure they have the energy, vitality, capacity, and health to get you to where you need to go.

At TIGNUM we say over and over again that our client’s performance (and their company’s performance) is built on the foundation of personal energy and performance. And this is held together by each member’s mindset, nutrition, movement and recovery habits. Can you imagine building a house on soft dirt and then saying you will come back later and put in the foundation when you have more time and maybe  more money? In my opinion you can wait till next quarter, or next year, or in your next job, to get your team the necessary mindset, nutrition, movement and recovery strategies they need – but you would have paid many times over for waiting.

by Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance

Strategies that pay off - an IBM case

Today I had a great coaching call with one of my clients from IBM, Michelle Unger (Vice President of Information Management IOT). She just came off of a killer week and a great example of high performance. Michelle just organized the largest ever IBM Information on Demand conference in Europe. As usual, she was probably met with skepticism and doubt about the investment of time and money from IBM. Great accomplishments are often met with great resistance. This was a conference to share the passion of IBM their information on demand platform and products.

Michelle was gleaming about how well the event went. (You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5cJYn1GHeY). Most of all she was gleaming about how she used the TIGNUM Mindset, Nutrition, Movement and Recovery strategies to make her peak performance a choice rather than leaving it to chance. She stayed hydrated, focused on her thoughts and controlled the controllable. She saw every challenge as a great opportunity to excel and as we always discuss she saw that Champions take Chances, and Pressure is a Privilege (one of my favorite Billy Jean King sayings). Michelle did some breathing techniques and as you can imagine, sprinted to put out lots of event fires. Even better, at the end – she took a few moments to celebrate her accomplishment and replay all the things she (and her team) did well.

We often use athletic experiences to make our strategies more tangible, but this is a great business example. Most important it will certainly lead to IBM profitability, happy customers, and a greater likelihood of other Sustainable High Performers emerging, after the great example Michelle gave.

by Scott Peltin, Founder, Director of Performance

TIGNUM - Institute for Sustainable High Performance