The Performance Curve

Maximize Your Potential at Work while Strengthening Your Well-being

Laura Watkins, Vanessa Dietzel

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Business
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781472985521
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Persönliche Entwicklung
• Subtopic: Karriere

Shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2022 Many of us are striving to reach our full potential at work and beyond - to achieve our goals, rise to challenges and connect well with others. But how can we actively develop our performance, while also taking care of our well-being and life satisfaction? The Performance Curve is a ground-breaking guide to success and happiness in both work and life. Rather than telling you what to do, this book allows you to come up with a roadmap for evolving your inner operating system (your mindsets, emotions and habits) for your unique circumstances. Crucially, this book explores both how you can improve individual performance and how to build relationships and cultures that bring out the best others. By interweaving individual and collective development, this approach is transformational for building leadership and organizational performance. The Performance Curve is a powerful combination of neuroscience, psychological research and practical guidance. These concepts are then brought to life through the stories of remarkable individuals from different sectors, including business, the arts, academia and not-for-profits. Laura Watkins and Vanessa Dietzel draw upon their vast experience and research as consultants and leadership coaches to deliver a ground-breaking guide to enhancing your performance in your life and career.

CHAPTER ONE

Which curve are you on?

It is no wonder that many of us try to adapt to an increasingly fast-paced and complex world by running faster, working longer hours or being on red alert most of the time. This is the fight for survival in the jungle of modern times: we are trying to secure our income, attain status or prove our worth. In doing so, we often engage with the world in the reactive, fear-fuelled way our brains developed to respond to a tiger suddenly showing up outside our cave (often called a fight-flight-or-freeze response)¹. In the face of danger, when we need to act quickly for survival, there is no time to think. This threat- or crisis-triggered response can lead to an uplift in performance as shown following Crisis 1 on the boom-and-bust curve in Figure 1.1. But we call it the boom-and-bust curve because we have observed that there is an upper ceiling to this kind of performance and that it is time-limited, leading to the oscillation of performance over time. By contrast, when we are on the performance curve, we more steadily grow our performance by increasing both effectiveness and well-being (as shown by the upper curve in Figure 1.1). These two curves are the two performance trajectories we typically see in our clients, ourselves and those around us. Let’s look at them in more detail.

The boom-and-bust curve

Figure 1.1 Which curve are you on?

Many of the automatic, survival-based coping mechanisms we bring to modern-day challenges do not actually use our brain’s full potential. When we feel under threat, what we call protect mode, there is reduced activity in parts of the executive centre of the brain, located in the prefrontal cortex (PFC)². That means our brain’s capacity to carry out higher-level executive functions involving creativity, problem solving and self-regulation is reduced. As a result, we become more reactive, less able to make plans, and at risk of being less collaborative. This caps our performance and limits the results we can achieve, individually and collectively, in tackling the more complex challenges we face.

Putting in extra hours to resolve a true crisis might work in the short-term, but any uplift in performance will not be sustainable. When the tiger is gone (for example, we hit our quarterly sales target), the crisis-fuelled performance boost will disappear with it. In caveman days, this would have been a time for our bodies and brains to recover from the exertion. But, in a VUCA world, the next tiger is already in front of us or just around the corner (or, if it is not, we may be so addicted to the adrenaline that we seek it out). If we do not feel, or we ignore, the signals that we need rest, we might think we are high performing because we are constantly busy and reacting.

It is also likely that we are compromising our effectiveness and our ability to reach our potential longer-term. Consistently pushing beyond our reserves will likely reduce our executive functioning². We will then further compound the problem by allocating our attention and energy less effectively³. Many successful people we come across operate in this way, unaware of the toll this is taking or at a loss as to how to break out of this cycle. Unfortunately, missing out on recovery time comes back to bite us: the underlying damage that causes burnout and other stress-related diseases will likely be accumulating over time before we experience the symptoms we associate with these illnesses. Brain scans show that chronic stress weakens not only the functioning but also the structure of our brains, particularly in areas that are important for memory, emotional regulation and self-control^2,4.

This then sets up a vicious circle, in which being less effective dampens our sense of well-being and increases time or resources needed to replenish ourselves. Furthermore, there is plenty of research to indicate the benefits of well-being to our effectiveness. For example, one study showed that people who report feeling happy are up to 30 per cent more productive and achieve 40 per cent better results⁵. When our well-being suffers, we will likely be less effective, especially in challenging situations. This also has a collective impact: not only does treating illness cost money, but society and the economy miss out on our full contribution of ideas, expertise and energy.

In summary, crisis-triggered effectiveness will not help us reach challenging goals over longer periods of time without paying a heavy price in terms of well-being. Making too many sacrifices then further undermines our effectiveness and well-being. Performance on the boom-and-bust curve declines after a crisis-fuelled high, either because we realize we have to take rest, or because our bodies and brains try to recover by taking energy away from our effectiveness. Then the next crisis fuels another uplift in performance and we repeat the boom-and-bust cycle, as with the large oscillations you see on the lower curve in Figure 1.1. As a result, we fail to maximize our potential.

Nick, the overwhelmed executive who had put his daughter in the crèche at his gym to catch up on his work, was on the boom-and-bust curve when he came to us. He realized he needed to break out of this vicious circle to advance his career and create a better life for himself and his family. He just did not know how.

Uncovering the workings of his inner operating system opened Nick’s mind to doing things differently to get different results. For example, he took an honest look at how he had contributed to his overload at work. He realized how important it was to him to be liked, and that had led him to say ‘yes’ to extra work and unnecessary meetings, or avoid tackling conflicting views head on. His automatic drive to feel liked by others had helped him get to where he was today, but it was also a major reason why his life was such a whirlwind and it was a barrier to advancing his career. Nick’s predicament as a victim of his own success resembles that of many clients we meet, and is often the starting point for greater change.

Nick realized that his fear of not being liked made him stressed and hampered his brain’s capacity for complex problem solving, creativity and collaboration. He started to rewire his inner operating system to respond differently to his boss and colleagues and get different results. He realized he could set and live by his own goals and rules, and still be liked by people who were important to him. He became more flexible in how he interpreted situations, and stopped taking on every one of his boss’s ideas. As he felt less in protect mode, his brain seemed to work better. He became more confident to express his points of view and able to bring clarity to complex situations. This helped him and his colleagues move forwards, and freed up time to spend with his daughter and look after his health.

Six months later, Nick had lost the extra weight he had been carrying, and he walked with a spring in his step. He talked excitedly about his work, which was benefiting from his new sense of clarity. He was smiling, evidently happy, and with an infectious lightness and sense of positivity.

Nick was able to use the adversity of his situation to make a developmental leap in his inner operating system and lift his performance to a new level, as shown by the incline after Crisis 2 in Figure 1.1. Had Nick left it at that, his higher level of both effectiveness and well-being would have become his ‘new normal’. His performance would still have fluctuated, but not as much, as shown by the continuation of the boom-and-bust curve after the developmental leap. However, after seeing the benefits he gained from developing as a result of this crisis, Nick chose to keep working on his inner operating system, so his future performance could follow the trajectory of the performance curve.

The performance curve

The performance curve, the upper curve in Figure 1.1, represents a different performance trajectory, in which we maximize our potential while strengthening our well-being. On the performance curve, well-being is not just the icing on the performance cake; it is a key ingredient of it. Therefore, the first core principle of the performance curve is: dissolving the trade-off between effectiveness and well-being is the key to unlocking the higher performance levels of a life well lived. On the performance curve, the rises in performance come from increasing our inner capacity to deal with challenges and complexity, so there is less strain on our brains and bodies compared to the crisis-fuelled uplifts of the boom-and-bust curve. Being able to take bigger steps on shorter routes to our goals demands fewer sacrifices and frees us up to take better care of our well-being.

In addition, the growth we pursue on the performance curve is fuelled by a deeper sense of purpose, passion to shape our life, and joy from spreading our wings and having more fulfilling connections with others, all of which also increase our well-being. That is why on the performance curve, we see plateaus rather than the bigger dips in performance of the boom-and-bust curve. Neither of the two curves is a continuously upward sloping line because, after each developmental shift into a new performance realm, our brains need to consolidate and embed the changes. But overall, the gradient of the performance curve will be steeper. The shaded area in Figure 1.1 shows how much cumulative performance we gain by proactively working to be on the performance curve. Regardless of our starting point, at any point we can choose to take this steeper trajectory.

Luke Bradley-Jones, the British executive who has overseen several high-pressure media launches for the BBC, Sky and Disney, told us about how he strives to have his effectiveness and well-being work in a virtuous (rather than vicious) cycle. ‘I love that feeling of having accountability and being at the outer level of my capability, where the challenge and my performance are perfectly matched. Feeling a bit outside my comfort zone brings out the best of me, but it can feel stressful, and I can’t do it all of the time, otherwise I start to feel anxious and I focus too much on myself. So, if I’m off track, I take time to reset, by reflecting, learning and getting perspective on what will really matter in five years. The drive for high performance can come from dissatisfaction and restlessness, so we have to take time to notice the good stuff. And happiness helps performance.’

As Luke implies, it is not to say that crises don’t happen on the performance curve or we won’t feel challenged or overwhelmed at times. We cannot develop our way out of being human. Given the ups and downs that life brings, we can’t expect to be perfectly effective, healthy and happy all the time. Sometimes we need to put our feet up and rest. But we can learn to face our limits and move beyond them, and to embrace light and shadow as inseparable and equally important aspects of life. When we are used to doing this, we succumb less to protect mode under pressure so the executive functions in our brain’s prefrontal cortex will work unimpeded. This gives us greater ability to make deliberate choices in how we act. We are more effective, so we can achieve results with greater ease and reach higher levels of potential.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma also knows how much his state of mind affects his performance, ‘it’s amazing how, in a few seconds, the physical self can go into emergency mode’. He therefore pays close attention to his state of mind in order to bring his best, which for him is about ‘conveying content [usually music, but could be words] so that it is not just received by the audience, but lives within them and they can recreate that state afterwards’. Yo-Yo’s deeper sense of purpose fuels the development of his inner operating system. He has cultivated ways to deal with adversity, and keep his attention on listening and the audience. For example, he has developed his inner operating system to focus on the opportunity of something going wrong, rather than the downside. ‘If a string breaks at the start of a concert, it’s perfect; because it is unexpected and then it’s a sure-fire thing the audience is on your side. The bad thing has happened and I become much more relaxed. I feel free.’

So how do we reach the higher trajectory of the performance curve? By deliberately developing our inner operating system and becoming masters at evolving how we think and feel, and what we do. Despite the many differences between computers and the living systems of our brains and bodies, we find it helpful to extend this analogy. Much like the operating system in a computer that connects hardware with software and allocates resources, our inner operating system is the central ‘software’ we run as humans. It contains the many rules that govern how we manage ourselves and interact with the world around us. These rules guide our default ways of interpreting situations (our mindsets, such as what we think about set-backs); how we respond emotionally in particular situations (such as the emotions we tend to feel when someone disagrees with us); when to go into protect mode and which behaviours to adopt in it. They also drive our habits: which may be routines (such as how we start our working day) or default responses in a given situation (such as whom we pay more attention to in a tense meeting). All these rules develop and embed in our brains from early childhood, as experience teaches us what is threatening or rewarding and how to behave to get the results we want. Sometimes we might be aware of the whole chain of rules, from mindsets to emotions and behaviours and hence results we create but, at other times, we may have little awareness of it.

The good news is that we can adapt our inner operating system. You heard examples of how Nick, Luke and Yo-Yo have developed their inner operating systems to serve them better. Neuroscientific research over the past 30 years has clearly indicated that the adult brain has the capacity to reorganize and remould itself⁶. This capacity enables us to evolve our inner operating system, i.e. to change our thought, emotional and behaviour patterns to better suit our current circumstances and help us deal more easily with greater complexity and change. This is particularly important given that so much of our inner operating system is laid down when we are young.

You might have already experienced a change in your inner operating system or seen it in others. Such changes are often set in motion by significant life events or experiences, such as a new role or promotion, having children, getting divorced, a major setback or a loss. Even i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise for The Performance Curve
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction Redefining performance: the virtuous circle of effectiveness and well-being
• CHAPTER ONE Which curve are you on?
• PART ONE: The Wisdom Catalyst How to Bring and Grow your Best
• PART TWO: The Fuel Catalyst How to Keep Moving on the Performance Curve
• PART THREE: The Connection Catalyst How to Build Developmental Relationships
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright