Human Performance Institute Canada - Performance Pulse eJournal


	Issue 9 : April 2009

Featured Article: Is Your Identity Holding You Back?
Audio Minute: Purpose, Engagement, and Resilience
Featured Resource: The Age of Speed
Laugh of the Month: Facing the Truth

Is Your Identity Holding You Back?
By Russell Hunter

Although much of our work at the Human Performance Institute began by coaching elite and professional athletes, most of our current work focuses on helping "corporate athletes" and public servants achieve positive change in their leadership behavior.

During times of rapid change and uncertainty, clarifying your identity is especially important.

If you want to see and respond to opportunities in a turbulent economy, it starts by getting clear on who you are. Sustainable behavioral change is triggered when a fundamental shift in identity is made.

From Burnout to Top of Mount in Five Months

One of the best examples of this is illustrated in our work with Gabriela Sabatini during a critical point in her tennis career.

On September 9, 1990 Gabriela Sabatini defeated Steffi Graf in the U.S. Open Championships final. But five months before that day, Gabriela could not have dreamed this would happen. She was ready to quit professional tennis for good - disheartened by a series of early-round losses. She was burned out, paralyzed by routines that no longer served her well, and detached from why she was playing tennis. In short she was no longer clear on her identity as an athlete.

Read the rest of this article...

Purpose, Engagement, and Resilience - NEW!
By Dr. Jim Loehr

Thanks to your feedback, we're delighted to be starting this new audio segment in each issue of Performance Pulse. Each audio minute will focus on one key aspect of cultivating full engagement, and topics covered in our popular 2-day Corporate Athelte™ programs.

Dr Loehr's message this month: The most powerful driving force in engagement is our answer to the question, "survival for what?". Listen as Dr. Jim Loehr shares his thoughts on how sustainable passion, persistence, and determination flow directly from our sense of purpose.

Listen to this audio message (1:04)...

Facing the Truth
© Randy Glasbergen

The Age of Speed:
Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World
By Vince Poscente

Vince Poscente is a former Olympic speed skier who wrote this book to explore the counterintuitive notion that when we harness the power of speed our lives actually become less stressful, less busy, and more balanced.

He introduces four behavioral profiles - Jets, Bottle Rockets, Zeppelins, and Balloons - to characterize how we relate to speed. The later half of the book explores ways to turn the speed phenomenon to your advantage and deal with the side effects of the Age of Speed, such as work-home interference and information overload. It includes stories and case studies that illustrate the many dimensions of speed's impact on our lives and businesses.

Arguably the pivotal aspect of Pocente's discussion focuses on the difference between the traditional routes people take to find work/balance by focusing on time or role management - what we do and who we are. He concludes that the more fundamental solution is focusing on balancing our values instead. If we are focused on fully living out the core values that drive us, this can radically alter the way we invest time and the roles we play at work and at home.

View video introduction by the author (2:18)

Preview book or order your copy


	Recess Good for Grown Ups Too? New research published in the journal Pediatrics suggests that play and down time are as important to a child's development as time in the classroom. Dr. Stuart Brown calls it "a fundamental biological process." When do we outgrow the need for recess? We don't. We just change our belief about its value. But in the midst of the current recession, how can anyone think seriously, and without guilt, about undertaking anything that isn't directly reducing costs or increasing revenues? It often requires examining the deep belief many of us have that down time is not productive time. Or, the belief that taking breaks will communicate a lack of urgency or committment to our colleagues or boss. Sadly, until we examine and challenge these beliefs internally, full engagement will remain elusive. What could a grownup recess look like for you? Perhaps simply turning off your blackberry for 10 minutes would be a great start. Cheers, Russell Hunter National Director, Canada P.S. Stuck for practical recess ideas? Click here to read more from the Harvard Business Review on this topic.


	Join us at a Managing Energy vs. Time briefing at the following public events in May: May 20, 2009 Calgary, AB SCN: Leadership Breakfast Find out more... May 26, 2009 Vancouver, BC CMA BC Conference Find out more... You'll learn how to maintain your energy all day, improve mental focus, recover faster from stress, and more.


	It Was Life Changing "The Corporate Athlete Program enabled our Sales Training team to increase their engagement in their professional and personal life by managing their energy more effectively, and creating positive rituals to sustain performance. The feedback from the participants in the program is that it is life changing." Anne Whitaker VP, Sales Training GlaxoSmithKline View more stories...


	HPI Canada helps individuals, teams, and organizations to sustain high performance in the face of ever increasing pressure and rapid change. Being competent is no longer enough to ensure success - you also need the capacity and resilience to execute your skills and talent on demand. We first studied the importance of energy in the living laboratory of professional sports. Today, we also work with business leaders, public servants, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, health care workers, and independent professionals in a wide variety of industries. Learn more...