High Performance Weekends provide a competitive advantage. Start by adding one of my suggested approaches from this week’s posts and build on them monthly to find a point of leverage.

The 2020 theme of identity continues. Recognizing we can’t live our lives in compartments we begin to see how one aspect deeply impacts another. This week it is about how the choices we make on a weekend play a role in walking toward the life we really want.

In the Kickass Koach podcast episode dropped on Monday May 4th, I offered the first approach to consider adding to make the weekend choices performance rich all week long.

For the newsletter, I added to the concept of preparing for the week ahead by integrating a joyful and peaceful activity. A colleague who read the newsletter described my activity as meditative. I think that’s correct. It took me out of my head but into my imagination.

Finally, in this post I recap the two approaches mentioned in the earlier posts and offer two new ways to turn the weekend into a competitive advange.

What’s a High Performance Weekend?

It may sound crazy to put more pressure on our weekend. We all need the time to unwind. Highly successful people choose not to compartmentalize their lives so they make the most of their weekends while maximizing the importance of this down time.

A high performance weekend is one that is designed to help us maximize the opportunity it provides. It isn’t about adding more to the schedule it is about reshaping how we build the schedule in the first place. We benefit from shifting the way we think about this time as much as from how we link it to the goals we have for our life and our career. It doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be fun and once we see the rewards, it will be hard to go back to the old way of living our weekends

Make the Weekend a Competitive Advantage

A competitive advantage, an edge, is something we all want. It is up to us to create that. Below are four strategies we can all inject into our weekends immediately. In fact during #COVID19 we have more time to give them a test run. Take the challenge, find a way to adapt them to fit, and see what happens.

Planning Time

We benefit from carving out a bit of time to organize the coming week. I talk about this one in the podcast – see link embedded above. Successful people put aside a brief, but well constructed, time to take stock of what priorities need their attention in the coming week. That will look different depending on where we are in our life and career. For executives, it may be about reflecting on a strategy and how a few meetings in the coming week may be considered as pivotal points in the week. For a senior manager it may be considering how to improve on a couple of metrics by inquiring differently about them and observing different indicators in the coming week. For a front line employee or individual contributor it may be about reflecting on something they can focus on improving in the coming week and who to ask for assistance to highlight their desire to grow in their career.

A few minutes spent reflecting on potential opportunities and what can be accomplished in the coming week will calm the brain for the weekend and make the coming week more manageable.

Inject a Peaceful and Pleasurable Task

This doesn’t need to be a chore but it might be. In the newsletter – link embedded above – I talk about how cutting the grass on the weekend became my meditative task. I enjoyed the very different kind of energy it required. It was rote and almost hypnotic in its repetitive nature. I was unlike my highly cognitive work during the week. This made the activity both peaceful and pleasurable. I do recall when living in Halifax on my 2 acres that I had to deal with June bugs and wear a full hood with built in face shield to protect my face, neck and throat. Yikes! It sometimes felt stifling but enjoyable, just the same.

When the task is also a household chore it leaves us with a sense of accomplishment that is very satisfying but it can be something completely mindless or pleasurable like going to the beach or reading a great book of fiction.

Add Something Highly Meaningful

Doing something meaningful on the weekend is incredibly helpful to shift our thinking and life experience. It could be meeting a friend or friends for dinner and engaging in a meaningful conversation. It could be working on a hobby that adds meaning and layers to our life purpose.

Incorporating something that adds meaning, whether it is volunteer work or life affirming in other ways, it will both shift our perspective and open up our perspective. The weekend is essentially a break, if put to good use, from what we typically do with our time and therefore it stimulates a broader capacity within us.

Focusing our time on what brings meaning to us, but is not directly related to our week day schedule, is essential if executing with excellence throughout our life is important. What is ultimately important is different for each of us but excellence is desired universally. How to get to excellence is also personal so we must all build our approach to fit our unique needs. Still, we can learn from each other.

Time with Loved Ones

Time with loved ones is a perfect way to gain perspective. Perspective is a significant ingredient to adding layers to our life and therefore a competitive advantage in our work. Those who are able to experience the depth and breadth of meaningful relationships bring that skill and peace of mind to their relationships at work during the week.

Specializing my practice with Millennial clients over the last two years has resulted in about 45% of my clients being single, without children. It is become more common for both men and women to remain single and without children. While my advice to spend time with loved ones, to build perspective and a balanced energy, seems to cater to only half of my client base, I argue it does not. A loved one may refer to the extended family, friends and even pets. Spending time on the weekend in safe and loving environments has never been limited to familial or eve immediate family connections. That is an old paradigm of family we are beginning to reject. Additionally, studies show the importance of children engaging regularly with a broader network of adult influences. As Hillary Clinton so famously said, “It takes a village.”

Regardless of whether it is engagement with friends, families or the pets we love, time with loved one’s softens our edges and in turn opens our hearts and minds to see more expansive solutions and options and opportunities. With that softened edge we gain a competitive advantage when we are at work and needing to maximize our own performance and leverage the high performance of others.

Life is one big Experiment

The underlying point, again this week, emphasizes the benefit of approaching life as an experiment. Moreover, when we choose to see our life as fully integrated and connected we see how a change in one area impacts another. This opens up more opportunities to experiment to make our life move to where we really want to be.

Furthermore, we learn by monitoring how our choices, decisions and ability to adjust our actions impact the outcomes we generate. Ultimately, we influence how things unfold. There’s a difference between wanting something and making something happen. With the mindset necessary to perform under pressure we’re able to influence results more deeply. This mindset that relies on clarity, curiosity and a resilient spirit we accept no excuses, only results. Furthermore, it’s essential we have a system to evaluate the risk of any action, removing the very human emotions that cloud our judgment. Walk with me. Together let’s examine options consciously and authentically to make choices that move us strategically toward where we want to be. Strategy is a about choices. Execution on these choices requires masterful performance. Furthermore, a well developed process allows us to enjoy the journey far more fully.

Be part of the journey in 2020.

Start by subscribing to my mailing list . Subscribers receive:

My interactive exercise to begin reducing the impacts of stress and feelings of overwhelm will be sent.
My newsletter with the related podcast episode will be sent weekly.
Special offers will be available to subscribers monthly including: a random offer of a complimentary one hour coaching conversation, access to roundtable engagements and group coaching on identity and related subjects, as well as information on an initiative on which I’m collaborating: #FeMasCon.

Bank Your Impact (BYI) on the Weekends!

Perspective is gained when we are able to see both the trees and the forest. While our particular role in our career may call for one or the other, our weekends are a time to gain perspective.

The BYI system helps participants build an approach by identifying options, making wise choices and committing to influencing desired outcomes. This starts and ends with relationships. Furthermore, we benefit from maximizing the advantage gained by leveraging our weekends more effectively. Moreover, we will enjoy our success more fully as well.

Ultimately, creating the life we want starts with the actions we choose to take. Furthermore, to get what we truly want in life, we need to be willing to persist, seek help, and continually look for transferable learning opportunities. Additionally, we need to be willing to question our choices and expand our options through healthy curiosity and a search for unique perspectives. Moreover, identifying and nurturing our identity is the place to start. A healthy meaningful and full life is made possible with clarity about our values, beliefs, patterns and habits. Additionally, our quality of life is influenced and shaped by our unique blend of strengths and inclinations. Undoubtedly, a growth mindset and open-minded approach are foundations to sustaining this healthy sense of self.

The System

The Bank Your Impact (BYI) System is about both developing and embedding self-awareness. Furthermore, the benefits of expanded resilience, connections built on understanding the impact of belonging and an ability to bolster a professional and authentic presence are foundational. Perhaps more than the other two, developing a foundational resilience is critical to with standing that which moves us into burnout.

The current system incorporates 1:1 coaching, roundtable conversations; eventually I’ll add a neuro-social learning experience (currently only available in organizational contracts but will be added to the system for individual engagement in 2021). My approach is based on the ICF (International Coaching Federation) standards. I’m meeting you (my clients) where you are, both as the coaching agreement begins, and in the moment that exists at the time of each conversation. Progress or growth is not a straight line. The ICA model is the framework for every conversation: Issue/Insight, Choice/Commitment, Action/Accountability. Over the past year I’ve been tightening the model to meet the needs of my clients.

Holding space to support my clients in:

Developing meaningful insights
Expanding/deepening perspective on those insights
Building/designing a practice to try on new ways of being/seeing OR experiment for discovery
Assessing progress, becoming agile in transfer of learning and application before developing additional insights

An organic experience

The experience is tailored around what you bring to each conversation, in my experience, there are common themes that arise including: self-awareness, mindfulness, mindset, communication, connections, and attitude. Self-awareness stands alone but is also a foundational theme. I have registered upwards of 40 sub-concepts that fit under each of these categories. Furthermore, I bring tools, skills and techniques to respond and guide our work together, informed by positive psychology, neuroscience, and management/leadership research.

Walk With Me, to Where You Want to Be

In all my blog posts in 2019, you will find this section outlines what brought me to this area of focus: supporting people in the early to middle part of their career as a #performance #coach.

You can read more about my work and my in the About Me section of the website and below is a recording of my #bigwhystory:

Feel like you’re living someone else’s destiny?

If that’s working for you, great. If it isn’t or it starts to be a problem, reach out. I welcome a conversation.

Willing to do the work to find more meaning?

With the skills to unpack the emotions and barriers and triggers and mindset challenges with the skills in my BYI system, participants begin to see the impact in their career and finally begin to discover what matters most to them. The bonus: they begin to see a path to get there. Join me… My system is intended to be meaningful, relevant, accessible and affordable. With that in mind, there are many ways to engage with me. Below are TWO ways to start, without spending a dime.

Walk with Me!

BOOK a complimentary exploratory 1:1 conversation 20-30 minutes.
SUBSCRIBE to my mailing list. You’ll receive an interactive exercise that you may use to reduce and manage stress or feelings of overwhelm. PLUS each week you’ll receive my podcast and reflections in your inbox AND you’ll be invited to monthly webinars and roundtable conversations.

In closing, I love bringing learning experiences to workplaces that are interested in raising their performance and encouraging their people.

Book me to speak at your conference or to a group in your organization. My workshops on building resilience, improving workplace outcomes through relationships, and increasing performance are big hits! In 2020 I’ve added a few workshops on gender engagement – how, by knocking off the boxes that limit us by gender we all find our capacity expands.

Weekends Can Be a Competitive Advantage