Core Strength
I’d started my early career as a sports coach and knew how to get people into the winners’ circle.
I’d trained and developed corporate people for over 20 years. I had worked in some of the best professional education centres in the world. I’d moved people from the status quo to something grander and more expansive.
But I wanted to take them even further. I wanted them to be extraordinarily fulfilled and successful at work but I also wanted to help them to carve out the most extraordinary personal life by not separating the two worlds, by offering a holistic inside-out approach. (Out-of-the-box Peak Performance).
When high performers came to me wanting that final 20% tweaking and polishing that would take them into that wonderful peak performance zone, I noticed more often than not that they were shaky high performers. In the beginning, I assumed they were ready for that ‘finishing school’ style development and we would push forward. But then more and more I was having to slow them down and we would go back to basics. The basics ended up being very deep and personal work that sat at the very core of their being.
ME + BE first. DO second. PERFORM last.
Rather than pouring time and resources into doing and performing we stripped back and focused on ME and BE. From there we radiated out to DO and PERFORM.
The key to success is to get your core strong, protect it and keep it healthy. Just like the earth. If the core is not on fire and protected then the planet dies.
More and more we are inundated with programs, tools and resources that promise to lift our game and help us to earn mega bucks, but investing here (in DO and PERFORM) is a waste of time if our core is shaky. How many of you know people who have invested buckets of money and time in entrepreneurship or business school programs but who are horrible bosses? Do you remember Katharine Parker in Working Girl who shamelessly steals ideas from the movie’s hero? She was not purposefully horrible but she had a shaky core.
A Forbes study reports that spending on leadership development remains very high. It is the #1 area of corporate training spends but all research on corporate talent shows that global leadership gaps continue to be the most pressing issues on the minds of business and HR Leaders. (Shaky cores).
More than ever we are feeling powerless and our trust is low in politicians and humanity. Not only is working at the core level good for peak performance then, it is also the answer to feeling flat, lost, disheartened or not being able to make sense of this modern busyness. This model gives us a framework and a wisdom for cutting through the noise and the stuff that isn’t working to a calm and logical approach for developing ourselves and attaining that prosperity that we all want.
To conclude, I invite you to adopt (if you haven’t already) the attributes of high performing small business owners and talented modern professionals who have adopted this model:
They believe there is serious work to be done. They want to tackle problems ranging from quality of life in the workplace through to eradicating dishonesty in politics. They know that this work involves working with humans at the core level.
They believe the first step in changing the world is to change themselves. They understand that external change cannot take place until internal change has occurred.
They periodically disconnect from the mania of modernity so they can reconnect with themselves and their personal vision.
They know that errors and problems that occur in the workplace (including such places as aeroplanes and surgery units) are very rarely problems of knowledge, skill or mechanics. The kinds of errors that cause problems are usually errors of leadership, teamwork and communication. (Domains that radiate out from ME + BE).
Work with Wendy
Since 2010 Wendy Grenfell has been successfully helping exceptional professionals and small business owners to go beyond where most people stop, beyond the pain, the drama and the mediocrity. Wendy’s clients scale an invisible wall they did not even know existed and move into the peaceful, peak performance zone, carving out careers, businesses and lives they love. (Finally).
Let’s Talk: https://www.wgrenfell.com/contact