Who are you, when you’re at your BEST?

Are you more creative, more productive, or a better teammate when you are at your best? Imagine operating at your level best for the best part of this year.

Let’s start at the beginning of your day… are you at your most productive, best emotional state, happiest, and clearest thinking after some exercise? When you happen to miss this endorphin-producing treat, the whole day seems to just be out of kilter. Or is it simply that strong cup of coffee that springboards your day?

Now, let’s take it a little further… Are you at your best when your job allows use of your unique strengths? Can you rearrange your job to do more of what you are good at? What in your life energizes you in the role you are playing at work?

We all know that self-awareness is the key to success and being attentive to when you bring your A-game is key to achieving the next level of impact for you, your team, and your organization. Even your ordinary contributions at work are made more noticeable when you operate as your best self. This form of appreciative inquiry is said to have 4 benefits:

1. Your physiology, not only your psychology, changes for the better
2. Your creative problem solving improves
3. Your ability to perform under pressure increases
4. Your social interactions become more effective

What is the research behind this? Francesca Gino (Harvard Business School) and Bradley R. Staats (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) conducted a study with a company, Wipro BPO, a business-process outsourcing company in Bangalore, India. The company had a retention problem and had to replace almost all staff approximately every 18 months. In the study they introduced a new way of on-boarding to one group of employees. New employees were asked to reflect on and then discuss who they are when they are at their best, while they continued to emphasize the organizational values with the other group. The results, after six months, showed that the “personal best” group were 57 percent less likely to quit and had 11 percent higher customer satisfaction ratings.

As a manager in your organization, what stats could you rack up when you are at your best? I challenge you to build up your resources for thriving in 2019 and in your own private reflection to ask and answer, “I am at my best when…”

• I am at my best when…
• I meditate first thing in the morning.
• I focus on my most important task for the day.
• I practice gratitude every day.
• I notice other’s contributions, and thank them for it.

You can imagine this list could become an interactive process. Enjoy your journey of self-discovery and Happy New Year!

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