John Amaechi on mistaking activity for advancement, the wrong type of pressure, and his inspirational mother

I loved talking to Professor John Amaechi OBE , Psychologist. Consultant and Founder of APS Intelligence (and former Professional Basketball Player). His book, The Promises of Giants, was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and he cares deeply about organisations building authentic and ethical cultures.

I also loved the fact that he was hugely influenced by his mother. In fact, when I? first heard him talk, I remember him saying how she had the ability to scoop up a room in her presence. He lives his life inspired by her belief that “the most unlikely of people, in the most improbable of circumstances, can become extraordinary.”?

We both work with leaders and so our conversation centred mostly on how pressure shows up in a corporate environment—both for individuals and for teams—and just how important it is to make sure leaders are intentional about the way they choose to lead because everything they do creates an impact. Both good and bad.

Here are a few key points that stood out for me:

1) Our expansion needs tracking

John calls this introspection, while I often say to my clients, ‘Become a scientist on your own behaviour’. Whichever way you look at it, it's important to know yourself and own your growth and expansion. We can't improve anything if we're not tracking it. And if we don’t track it, we can't distinguish if the pressure or the deviation, as John describes it, is expansive or harmful.?

Ask yourself: What do I want to improve, and how can I track it?

2) Take depletion out of the picture

John has a favourite ‘irritating mosquito’ analogy he uses to test his focus when working. He intentionally pauses to ask himself, ‘I'm aware now that I’ve distracted my mind for 15 mins on this. Is it something that deserves my attention right now? If not, like that buzzing mosquito - I'm going to swat it. I'm not giving it any more of my energy.’

Ask yourself: What needs swatting as it's distracting my energy from what really matters?

3) Notice the first signs of unhealthy pressure

We all have them. For me, it's my tonsils and fatigue. When we habitually override our warning signals, that’s when we run into the danger of teaching our bodies not to take them seriously, either. I make this distinction because sometimes we can deliberately override them, staying up all night with a sick child, for example, or working to hit a hard deadline.? These moments of pressure, or sprints, can usefully build and grow our capacity for what we can handle. But when it's a long-term habit, ignoring the signs can tip us into dis-stress, which over time can become unhealthy. As John says, being really serious about performance is not the same as a ‘libido-like drive for work’.? It has to be sustainable, and that does require looking after the basics.?

Ask yourself: What are my first signs? What do I need to pay attention to?

4) Too many people mistake activity for advancement

This comment from John really hit me. As humans, we crave progress. As a consequence, many of us try to achieve progress by doing more and more.?It requires us to be bold. To slow down enough to identify what actually matters most, which counter-intuitively often results in us making faster progress.

Ask yourself: Where am I mistaking activity for advancement?

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