Developing a Peak Performance Mind Will Make Your Team Resilient

As a motivational speaker for companies and organizations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, I help my clients develop their peak-performance mind through a series of exercises and training techniques.

The goal is to be able to control your mental state in order to “perform” optimally, be it during a game, at the office, or elsewhere in your life.

While these training techniques tend to change, depending on my clients, one of the most successful approaches to developing a peak-performance mind is visualization

When you visualize, your body naturally reduces stress levels, and allows you to focus your attention on a specific aspect of your routine or performance, rather than get overwhelmed by the whole enchilada. But this doesn’t come naturally. You have to teach your team how to visualize when the going gets tough. But how?

Dry runs are a great example of how to prepare your troops for battle. In school, children endure fire alarms often, in an effort to make the process of exiting a building in an orderly fashion all but second nature. That way, if the “real thing” ever does happen, the children should know what to do without buckling under pressure.

That same concept comes into play as you develop the peak performance mindset of your team. You can’t really ever fully prepare for emergencies or stressful situations, but you can do your best to practice the what-ifs. Make it a part of your workday routine to gather your team for “drills.” These drills will vary based on your business or goals. A marketing agency might, for example, have a practice run on developing a marketing strategy for a high-profile client under a tight deadline.

Make this process as fun as possible, while ensuring good habits and lessons are taught. The goal is to help your team realize everyone is in the same boat, and that everyone is held accountable for the greater good. Assign each person a clear role, and ensure they’re held accountable to their duties.

Then practice this drill over and over again, following each drill with a discussion. This discussion will help your team members assess where they excelled, and where they can improve. When they’re cognitively aware of their faults, they are more likely to work harder to improve upon these.

The natural consequence of this is that your team members are actually developing their own peak-performance mind. No one wants to fail, thus by practicing these drills, you’re helping your team to work out the kinks and figure out “what works and what doesn’t.”

This, in turn gives them the confidence they need for when the real event happens. Confidence is a necessary part of ensuring you perform at your peak, no matter how stressful a given moment is.