Many agencies who are at their optimal performance are striving to achieve peak performance thinking that is what is needed to win.
So we asked former Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts how to maintain peak performance in your team and as an individual. In this video, he also shares how he has been able to put this into action to get to where he is now.
Below is an edited transcript of the video.
Kevin believes everything comes down to achieving flow. When we’re working together in a team, there’s a terrific potential for flow. But too much of our days are spent on noise — from dealing with emails, client meetings, etc.
Only about 40% of our time is focused on achieving flow while the other 60% is all noise. One way to achieve peak performance is to first get rid of all the noise at work, so you can focus on flow.
Having a personal purpose is vital. It’s important to be guided by a personal purpose and share this with your team.
Flow comes when you can bring together two things — passion and harmony. As an individual, you may be really passionate about what you do, why you’re here, and what you’re working for. While working in a team, you’ll encounter various levels of what your team is passionate about.
To achieve flow, you’ve got to find a way to use all of that passion and make it come together. The only way to achieve this is to be open and communicate with your team. You need to talk together and share deeper insights into what you want to accomplish together.
Another critical factor to achieving flow is harmony. In your team, harmony is achieved when everybody has signed on to the same dream, the same spirit, the same set of beliefs, and fully understands it. A peak-performing organisation’s true potency lies in achieving harmony within.
Peak-performing organisations have flow and perform 50 percent more than good companies. They envision the future they desire and work for it. They share their dreams within their teams and get the support they need to sustain their performance.
Peak-performing companies have achieved flow at 60 percent while good companies are only at 40 percent. To become a peak-performing organisation, you’ve got to find a way to eliminate all the distractions in your team that takes you out of flow.
“To become a peak-performing organisation, you’ve got to find a way to eliminate all the distractions in your team that takes you out of flow,” says Kevin Roberts.
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One way to achieve flow is to keep 40 percent of your diaries and calendars completely free. It sounds simple enough, but many struggle in implementing this.
In fact, many of us would find this almost impossible to do as our days are completely full with meetings and conferences, commitments, reviews, and client meet-ups. We associate full calendars with productivity and think we have control of our lives. But it is all unreal because in the crazy world we live in, we just don’t have that certainty. You have no idea what’s coming down the pike to you on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, in the morning, or in the afternoon.
To achieve clarity of purpose, you need to find a way to clear out 40 percent of your day.
It’s easier said than done, however. We feel lost through the day without a structure to follow through. Most of us like having activities and meetings plotted on our calendars.
“To achieve clarity of purpose, you need to find a way to clear out 40 percent of your day,” says Kevin Roberts.
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But to get some more time in your day, you can choose not to show up in meetings. Most people won't even know you’re not there. You can choose not to attend everything.
Don’t get on the terrible email trail. Stop texting. Just put your phone away for three hours a day.
Do what you like on your personal time, but when you’re at work, find some time to get clarity and let those worries go. You’ll be amazed to find that it can be so refreshing.
Keen to learn more from Kevin Roberts? Click the link to one of his interviews below: