Driving a results-driven performance culture through a powerful tool, Mindset.

Let me ask you a question.

How many hours throughout your day, do you create space for yourself to breathe?

How many minutes in the moment you catch your breath, are you actually not disrupted by any work-related thoughts, stressful things on your mind, phone not beeping, etc?

MINDSET. I feel that this is my ever-struggling piece of this giant puzzle set. The one that always doesn't seem quite right, so you leave it until the last. How you make it fit at the end of your journey, is entirely up to you.

For the last couple of months, a lot of us had to adjust our daily operating rhythm quickly but promptly, building a stable and consistent base for our team so that the business can continue to move forward during the conditions. Some have survived, some are barely keeping their heads above the water, and some, are thriving.

I knew one thing very clear from the start. I wanted to make sure that my impact on the organisation is to ensure we thrive. For the business, for my colleagues, for my team and most importantly, for me.

In order for me to create a space for my team where they continue their momentum and optimistic mindset with so many unknown disrupters around us, I had to activate my forethought. The so-called 'Neo-Cortex' thinking. Plan ahead. Create ways for the move forward.

My vision came true through a bit of trial and error. The mind map looked something like this :

Believe in my team's capabilities. Establish their strengths. Leading a team of richly diverse and experienced Salespeople, what are they good at? Acquiring new business, building and maintaining relationships with clients. Are laborious daily sales meetings, going through leads, measuring activities at a microscopic level and holding them accountable for the uncontrollable, such as measuring time when I can't see them physically, really going to get the result we need? Are they telling me anything different to what they're inputting in our Lead Management Systems, that I can't already see?

If the answer is no, then what role CAN I play to drive result and performance from my team? Mindset. I need to be the momentum builder and driver in the team's mindset. They already know what their job is and what needs to be done. Things I can control at the moment? is providing them support so that they maintain motivated, empowered and excited for the end-goal.

Mindset Workshop. This is the title of my daily meeting with my team. It started off with the concept of an ordinary sales meeting with a twist - where we started taking in turns of casually sharing motivational videos and discussing feedback. Then we started creating something really special. I eliminated the word 'meeting' - It took the rigid and somehow formal ring the term brings - from our mindset. After we set up our days to success, we will break into granular discussions about daily operations in 1:1 sessions, rather than addressing them as a team.

We all know how we start our day is going to play a key factor in how the rest of your day will pan out. This workshop has no leader, it created a space where we as individuals coming from all walks of life with different experiences, qualities and attributes, can challenge each other's way of thinking, share each other's opinions and disrupt our normal behavioural pattern.

Initially, I would have the team dial into the meeting and we would admire some of the great things that are shared in speeches and amazing things other people have achieved in their lives. Then we started to think, that's all good and well, but what can WE do to make a difference in our destiny?

As of today, we are spending our first half an hour of our day talking about the things we are doing to make a difference. Whether that be little things like ensuring going for a walk for a mental break in our day, playing tennis with your friend while maintaining social distancing rules, cooking to your heart's content as your form of therapy, little by little, we are doing what we can to impact the result, keeping ourselves motivated.

Almost two months in, we are seeing the results slowly come to our fruition. We are performing, inspiring and aligned with business' strategic goals and direction. My team is feeling motivated, onboard with the feeling that we are heading in the right direction and optimistic that we will get through this, together, stronger.

Ending the first week of May, on a Friday evening, with a glass of wine in hand - Cheers to you all. I am grateful for the team I have with me, believing in me, coming along the journey of my lead and I feel confident that we will be able to achieve the best result we can, together.

As always, I would love to hear your input, ideas, ways I can improve and hear how you are going, what you are doing to create a difference and an impact.