What is Elite Career Performance?
Just for a moment, recall when you were awed by an athlete in action. For me, superstars like Coco Gauff and Michael Jordan come to mind. As I remember them in action, they showed an incredible combination of competency, strength. discipline and resilience. These notable characteristics of elite athletes transfer to elite career performance.
Competency in sport is continuous improvement. Athletes strive to continuously build techniques; they watch to learn from the competition; they monitor the science and equipment that can provide an edge, etc. They are always seizing opportunities to grow their skills and improve. Likewise, elite career talent voraciously seeks improvement to keep up with change, outplay the competition, and bring the utmost value to each opportunity.
Strength in athletics is the foundation that allows athletes to excel. Beyond pure muscle tone, It includes endurance, mental toughness, etc. Strength at work is the personal infrastructure for excellent performance, including personal confidence, organizational savvy, interpersonal acuity, ambition, resilience, wellness, and balance.
Discipline is a hallmark of outstanding performance in elite athletics. The standard routines of training, recovery, nutrition, stress management, mental toughness keep athletes ready for performance. Mindsets, habits and routines provide a similar advantage in career performance, helping individual contributors and leaders contribute for optimal impact.
Resilience as a proactive routine can’t be underestimated. While “time heals all wounds”, athletes and elite professionals don’t have time to wait. Therefore, knowing how to recover from the inevitable highs and lows is critical. While athletes know that failure is part of the process, executives are often caught off guard by mistakes and failures. Learning to process the low and recover quickly is a game-changer.
Strengthening your Career Fitness® includes building competency, strength. discipline and resilience as it relates to productivity for excellence and fulfillment at work.