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 “Peak performance” is a term that most of us associate more with athletics than with work. Yet workplace excellence, what I call peak performance, has never been more important than it is today for individuals at all levels within an organization.
Peak Performance:The Key to Ongoing Employability
Employers’ expectations have never been higher for their staff. Yet many, many employees I have trained and coached over the last several years would also say that company loyalty has never been lower. Long gone are the days when finding a successful company, working hard, and doing what you’re told was a guarantee of lifetime employment. Today’s workplace is much more fluid, less predictable, and less secure for many individuals. Statistics Canada recently declared that the average permanent job in Canada now lasts approximately three and one half years. (It may give you some comfort to know that the average CEO today holds that position for about 2 years.) The situation is virtually identical in the United States.
One of the implications for today’s workers is the need to make sure they are always employable. Phrases like “lifelong learning,” “upgrading your skills,” and “continuous improvement” are now common in our workplaces and reflect the need for individuals to make sure that they never fall behind in having up-to-date skills. And the level of those skills is only going to increase as technology continues to evolve and organizations become less hierarchical in their structure.
The Conference Board of Canada recently published a document entitled “Employability 2000+” based on extensive consultation with dozens of leading Canadian organizations. The paper outlines current employers’ expectations regarding basic skills they require in their employees. (The document is subtitled “The skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress in the world of work.”) A small sample of the skills expected includes the following:
- Locate, gather, and organize information using appropriate technology and information systems.
- Plan, design or carry out a project or task from start to finish with well-defined objectives and outcomes.
- Plan and manage time, money and other resources to achieve goals.
- Understand and work with the dynamics of a group
- Work independently or as part of a team.
- Be creative and innovative in exploring possible solutions.
Such skills are now considered basic!
The point I am making is quite simple. Employers expect peak performance from their staff. And while excelling in the workplace is not a guarantee of employment, it certainly increases the odds that you will continue to be a valued member of your organization’s work force and that you will be considered for promotions should you want them.
And should you find yourself the unfortunate casualty of a downsizing, merger, or closure, being a peak performer will guarantee that you have good references, solid results, and current skills to market to potential employers.
The Quick Guide to the Four Temperaments and Peak Performance: How to Unlock Your Talents to Excel At Work will show you how to evaluate whether or not your knowledge, skills, and talents are functioning at a peak level and how to improve them if they are not.
Temperament-Based Talents (edited from original)
The Idealist
Diplomatic Intelligence
Diplomatic intelligence is the talent for dealing with people in a skillful, sensitive manner that enables bridges of mutual understanding, cooperation, and consensus to be built. They possess the requisite skills to realize these aspirations in their own relationships and in helping other parties work or live together more productively.
Idealists draw heavily on their natural gift for empathy in dealing diplomatically with others. Not only are they able to anticipate how others will feel, and often feel what others are feeling. This empathic connection enables them to see a situation from another person’s perspective and to communicate that perspective to others. Thus, conflict resolution, mediation, and consensus building are often tasks at which the Idealist excels. |
The Guardian
Logistical Intelligence
Logistical intelligence is the talent for planning and managing the flow of goods, materials, personnel, or information so that tasks are done accurately and on time. Guardians typically have an implicit awareness of the best way to structure or organize a project or task in order in which to accomplish it correctly. Planning the sequence of events, creating realistic timelines, determining and allocating resources, and checking the details are all aspects of this intelligence at work.
These capacities rely on the Guardian’s natural bent for sequential thinking, the tendency to look at things in sequence and determine the best order in which to accomplish something so that it works correctly and gets to the right person. Ordering, numbering, prioritizing, and systematizing are further components of this way of thinking.
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The Rational
Strategic Intelligence
Strategic intelligence is the talent for developing a plan of action to achieve an ultimate objective. As such, it requires the ability to think abstractly about desired outcomes, to analyze current resources and circumstances, to account for multiple variables in planning, to generate and evaluate multiple possible scenarios, and finally, to coordinate the allocation and deployment of the resources necessary to achieve the selected strategy.
These talents draw upon the Rational’s natural capacity for systems thinking. Rationals seek to understand the underlying principles of how a system works (be it a social, organizational, mechanical, or philosophical system). They are adept at understanding how the various parts/elements of the system interact and integrate with each other in producing the actual or intended results. |
The Artisan
Tactical Intelligence
Tactical intelligence is the talent for organizing and maneuvering people, objects, plans, or processes to achieve an immediate aim or desired result. As such, it requires a strong ability to quickly read the current situation and assess relevant information, details, and actions. Tactical intelligence also includes the ability to make decisions and respond with actions that will achieve the desired outcome or objective in light of the immediate circumstances.
This intelligence renders Artisans highly gifted at seeing and seizing current or near-future opportunities that others often overlook. Artisans are naturals at noticing what is immediately doable, what resources are available, and where they can leverage their actions for the greatest impact.
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