Performance = Potential – Interference

I love this equation by Tim Gallway. It is one of the quotes that you will always find hanging up on the wall during our Leadership masterclasses.

Three words, yet so profound.

We tend to place a lot of attention on trying to enhance the performance of our leader’s, our teams and the performance of each individual within the team.  We talk about helping them to reach their potential or we offer them ‘valuable feedback’ when we believe they are not reaching their potential – all with very noble intentions.

Instead of starting at Performance – why not look at the Interference first?

It has become part of my life’s purpose to support leaders and their teams to reduce this interference, so that what they’re left with is just ‘pure potential’ – because I believe that when we are operating from ‘pure potential’, we’re talking about a very different level of performance.

I tend to interpret these interferences as both external and internal.

Externally, we are all constantly inundated with so much input: email, WhatsApp, voice-notes, slack, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Facebook, phone calls, Teams meetings and Zoom calls to name but a few. Add to that all the expectations piled on us every day, project stresses, shareholder expectations, customer expectations, resource challenges, profits and margins. And not to forget the constant ‘pinging’ on our phones & emails, all the meetings and meetings about meetings, not to mention the chaos of our external world.  The list goes on.. It’s relentless.

Internally, we are all constantly inundated with what’s going on in our own heads. How we engage with our thinking, fear, worry, anxiety, impostor syndrome, limiting beliefs, un-met needs and values, un-expressed feelings and frustrations. Add to this, our need to avoid discomfort, vulnerability and holding the conversations that we deem difficult. Conversations that, if they were to happen, would likely result in deeper clarity and enhanced trust levels.

We become enmeshed in our confusing inner-world, we listen intently to what we think, to the limiting voice (the in our heads I call the inner ‘gremlin’) and worse than that, we believe it all.

Back to those 3 words: Performance = Potential – Interference

For me, I see Potential and Interference on the same 0 – 10 continuum.

The more we reduce the interference, the more potential we are left with. If, for example, at any given time, we rate our interference at a 6 (out of 10), that leaves 4 for Potential. If the interference is at a 2, that leaves our potential at an 8. That, of course, would yield much more impactful, positive and empowering performance and performance conversations resulting in morecohesive, resilient, agile and robust teams, cultures and organisations.

But.

Sadly, yet understandably, we often choose to believe the thought that ALL of this is outside of our control. Outside of our sphere of influence. We convince ourselves that “It’s just the way it is”, “Nothing we can do about it”, “It’s just the way we are”, in fact, “We were always like that” and “Shur, aren’t we grand?”.

I don’t agree.

I do agree that we have all been catapulted into a world of constant uncertainty, chaos and upheaval. How our businesses are run has changed dramatically over the last number of years. You couldn’t have imagined it. Uncharted territory that sometimes feels like we have lost control over our world and how we live within it. It sure feels like that sometimes.

The good news is that we haven’t lost control over how we show up as a great leader, how we behave, how we interact with each other and react to what happens. We haven’t lost control over the cultures that we can create in our organisations by those reactions and behaviours and by some of the unhelpful behaviours that we also tolerate in others.  Finally, we haven’t lost control over how we engage with our inner world of thoughts, perceptions and emotions.

In order for us to effectively navigate this uncharted territory, we must focus on reducing the interferences that lie within these spheres of influence. In doing so, we will build these cohesive, resilient, agile and robust teams, cultures and organisations and truly, authentically raise the levels of Performance.

We are expected to, now more than ever, access qualities such as empathy, leadership presence, compassion, humility, courage and vulnerability and to drive greater cooperation across organisational boundaries and increasingly virtual and remote workforces.

Strengthening these internal systems builds our capacity for when we need it, and helps us to best prepare ourselves individually and collectively for the unknown.

Imagine if our interference was at zero (or near enough to it) – then, what we’re left with is pure un-contaminated potential.

Is that not what you want for each leader in your business, each person in your team?

Check out our game-changing leadership programmes that will support your senior leaders and their teams to transform their relationship with these interferences and just imagine what that could do for their performance.

Get in touch if you would like to chat through the transformational impact our programmes can have on you, your leaders and the culture of your organisation [insert link to contact page onhttps://azurite.ie/ ]