Strategic Discipline Blog

Overuse.  In the Power of Full Engagement the authors use an example of a sprinter versus a long distance runner.  The picture here suggests the contrast of someone who is constantly overusing their energy resources versus the person who recovers after short sprints.  Underuse could dramatically show someone who is obese, fails to exercise at all.  Yet the important thing to recognize is the critical balance we must make in using our energy and not using it.  

At this time of year it’s very common to find people exhibiting high stress levels.  A trip for groceries, or to the hardware store, takes a bit longer due to long lines and depending on where you live the weather.

Last blog, Tortoise or Hare, Which Discipline do you Follow, we discussed three fundamental principles for sustaining high performance.  Let’s look at the first principle, that we cannot expect growth or improvement in any dimension of our lives without intentionally and regularly challenging our current capacity.

It would hardly be Christmas and the holiday season if most of us weren’t feeling some stress.  It’s a little known fact what the real source of stress is.  What you are stressing about right now?  Most of us are hurrying to get our Christmas gifts purchased, and hoping we don’t forget anyone.  Some males even make it a habit to shop the very last day, Christmas Eve for their significant other.  Add this to your current to do list and it’s no wonder some of us border on insanity this time of year. 

In advance of the Fortune Fall Growth Summit, Gazelles coaches gather to sharpen our plowshares [so to speak] and learn new best practices and ideas from the thought leaders.  Today included a new tool from Verne Harnish to help identify the 4-9 critical processes that drive a success as well as Verne’s new concept on Strategy.  He specifically provided a best practice example from one of our Gazelles clients, Build Direct, that’s applying the Seven Strata of Strategy with great success.  More on these in future blogs and newsletters.

Employee Engagement is a critical factor in getting maximum performance.  I’ve pointed to this before and the work Gallup has down developing their Q12 [12 questions from the book First Break All the Rules that gauge engagement in the workforce] and how Best Buy uses these questions for their Core Score.  You can read more on how just a 2% increase in employee engagement at Best Buy resulted in an additional $70 million in profitability here. 

How much time during your business day are you truly concentrating on your work? During the day, the average person is interrupted once every 11 minutes. It’s been estimated that it takes the human mind approximately 25 minutes to get up to speed on anything.

Having just returned from two weeks of vacation and having read the book Stress for Success by Jim Loehr [he co-authored The Power of Full Engagement with Tony Schwartz, a book I highly recommend], I can tell you I learned first hand the value of having too much relaxation as opposed to too much stress.