Sustaining Your Performance ‘Inside 80’ for Better Health
Alexandra Davids from Inside 80 wants you to stop feeling too tired for family, fun and business. That means that performing at ‘your best’ does not mean running around at 100 miles an hour. Her company helps people with work-life balance, and she was kind enough to talk to Stiglitz about peak performance and when to naturally speed up or slow down.
In this three-part series, Alexandra will explain the pitfalls of peak performance and give tips on how we can strike that magic balance.
Alexandra Davids of Inside 80 'The Performance Zone'
Many of our clients come to us looking for answers to the tough question: “How do we sustain performance in our business?”
Either/or approach
Most people know how to work at a high level of energy, commitment and effort. But we also know that we can’t do that consistently day in and day out. Today’s world is moving so fast, how do we sustain our performance?
Companies tend to take an “either/or” approach to this two-part question of “sustainability” and “performance” by focusing either on people’s performance or on their health. Some companies will redesign the organisation, its processes and procedures, and perhaps introduce better time management to improve work efficiency.
These tactics may succeed at lifting performance, but rarely deliver the combined goal of performance that is also sustainable. When companies realise the gain is only temporary, they often shift their focus to people’s health instead.
These companies share a common belief that if people become healthier, they’ll automatically become more efficient at work. This concept seems to make logical sense, which is why a whole new lifestyle industry has recently sprung up around the idea.
Try and keep up!
Many of these lifestyle firms employ ex-sports people to help promote personal health programmes. But trying to apply an athlete’s understanding of their body to the typical busy executive can be difficult. The difference between the super-fit sportsperson and average executive, with a packed business schedule and family commitments, is often far too great.
In spite of the difficulties, many executives try valiantly to become fitter because they know it makes sense to keep in shape. But this exertion can come with associated personal costs.
The executive eventually reaches burnout if they’re only improving their fitness to push themselves even more intensely at work. Getting healthier doesn’t fix their underlying problem of over-work.
The exercise feel-good factor creates a false sense of extra energy, which the individual uses to work even harder. At such an intense work level, they can’t sustain their performance in the long term.
Stiglitz 