THE COMFORTABLE LEADER STEP TWO - UNDERSTANDING THE FUEL OF PERFORMANCE

Once you have established Coherence in your leadership, knowing who you are, how you want to lead and what you want to accomplish, the next step is coming to know and harness the “fuel” for performance.  This “fuel” is inherent in each of us and as leaders we can use it to drive our own performance and to foster a culture that allows our teams to do the same.
 
Challenge
 
That fuel is Challenge.  We are wired to rise to and overcome challenges.  Challenge is THE key ingredient for growth and innovation both personally and corporately.  One of my favorite sayings (okay I have a LOT of favorite sayings) is that “necessity is the mother of invention.”  This is really another way of saying that challenge leads to innovation.
 
We Are Hard Wired For It
 
It is not hard to find this in our DNA.  How many activities did we do as kids, whether they were actual challenges or not, that we turned into challenges.  The games we play, the sports we participate in and yes even the work we do.  How many things do we turn into challenges because it makes the “doing” of that thing more fun and rewarding?  We have corporate challenges, volunteer challenges, food bank challenges, read-a-thons, jump-a-thons and the list goes on and on.
 
Resilience
 
We don’t have to just compete against others either to create challenge. Personal performance or goals form a large part of how we grow.  Intrinsically we will measure our growth over time whether it is in our academics, our height, our weight, our skills and even our status.  Things like when we completed high school, got our license, got a car, started dating, started a family, bought a house, got that raise or promotion and well you get the picture.  Psychologists call this resilience, biologists call it adaptation but whatever the label Challenge is fundamental to growth and performance.
 
For those of us familiar with farm life or who have witnessed this at school as part of a project you know that when you are hatching chicks or ducklings you cannot help the chick or duckling out of its shell.  The struggle or challenge to free themselves is a necessary first step to survival. 
 
Discovering Our Strengths
 
It is through challenge that we come to understand our strengths and abilities.  It is the reason that a good education will expose us to a number of experiences so that through the process of experimenting with these things we find our natural abilities.  Our understanding of those abilities will ultimately (hopefully) lead us to professions that give us an environment to express and run in those strengths.  You have them as a leader and you must recognize and foster the strengths on your team as well.
 
Rage Against The Norm
 
All businesses and organizations are based on Challenge.  Yet in spite of that reality often that challenge is not translated down or out through its various components.  This results in teams of employees who are not challenged and as such not engaged.  In case you are wondering – this is actually the norm.  (See, we all want to know where we stand against the competition.)  Gallup gauges engagement in North America at around 33%.  And yes, this is not performance and leaders should rage against that norm. 
 
How Do I Create Challenge?
 
Now you may be a leader or are going to be a leader and I am sure at this point you are wondering; “how do I create challenge?”  This is what we are going to explore next.  Performance Leadership – Think About It!