Lessons From a Lion Tracker, A Breakthrough Coaching Question, Sleep and Performance, and More
Bring Ambition Newsletter - February 24, 2022
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The Bring Ambition Newsletter is like having a personal executive coach in your inbox every other Thursday. You’ll receive 3-5 quick bulletpoints (~3 min. read) related to professional development, peak performance psychology, leadership, productivity, and much more.
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1.) Life-changing book of the month
I‘m nearly finished with The Lion Tracker's Guide To Life by Boyd Varty and I’m blown away. Varty is a lion tracker, wildlife activist, coach, and one of the best storytellers I’ve ever come across. In this book he uses observations from lion tracking in the African wilderness to teach incredible lessons on finding - or “tracking” - our own unique purpose, gifts, and aspirations.
If you’re interested in rediscovering your more primal, “wild” self and achieving deeper fulfilment, this book provides some fascinating insights along with breathtaking stories and amazing descriptions of the African bushlands and wildlife.
Here’s one of my favorite excerpts (which sums up the book quite nicely):
Inside you is the wild part of you that knows what your gift, purpose, and mission are. That part of you is wild and elusive. It cannot be captured, and it is always evolving. To live on its trail, you must become a tracker. In some ways, this book is a mythology. It is the story of the day I found my track.
2.) Breakthrough coaching question of the day
If there’s an area in your professional life where you’re struggling to make progress, or you’ve received tough feedback but you’re not sure how to take action, this can be an interesting thought experiment. Set aside 5+ minutes to think through or journal your response to this self-coaching question:
“What if, as an experiment, you did the opposite of what you’re doing now until someone asked you to stop?
I used this with a coaching client this week, let’s call him Scott (not his real name). Scott says he has tons of work on his plate, he crushes it behind the scenes for his team, and he is deeply passionate about his role. But out of respect for his busy manager’s time and workload, Scott doesn’t openly communicate about what he’s working on and doesn’t bring his manager many questions or ideas. Unfortunately, because of the communication gap, Scott’s manager perceives the situation differently. Without visibility into Scott’s day-to-day and thought process, this manager thinks Scott doesn’t have much on his plate and might even be disengaged. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. Regardless, it’s a frustrating but common scenario.
As an experiment, we agreed that Scott should start overcommunicating - i.e. proactively share what he’s working on working on, promote his weekly wins (both large and small), and come prepared to meetings with thoughts and questions to discuss with his manager. Worst case, his manager eventually asks him to tone it down, but that’s much better than the current challenge.
In similar situations, I’ve seen that clients are surprised to find that this doesn’t annoy their manager nearly as much as they feared, and in fact can lead to great improvements and outcomes.
3.) The link between sleep and job performance
Here's a good meta-review of research around sleep and job performance. The article is short and worth the read, but here are my key takeaways to whet your appetite…
Here's how poor sleep habits impact your performance:
Impaired focus, attention, and vigilance
Decrease in mental energy (it consumes cognitive resources attempting to stay awake when drowsy)
Increase in errors, omissions, and reactivity
More irritability, stress, and negative affect
Chronic sleep loss increases the risk of mental health conditions
Sleep tips to enhance job performance:
Psychologically detach from work before bed - For example by scheduling a butter period between work and bedtime to detach from work-related concerns.
Prioritize - Don't sacrifice sleep to watch excessive TV, socialize, or finish work. They’re usually not worth the sleep deprivation and resultant impact to your ability to perform.
Improve sleep hygiene - There are countless options here, but some examples include optimizing your bedroom environment for sleep, going to bed and waking at consistent times, and eliminating daytime habits that impair sleep.
And of course, talk to your doctor for more help
That’s it for this week! I’d love to hear your feedback — What did you enjoy? What stunk and needs to be fixed ASAP? You can reply here or reach me via any of the links below.
Have a great weekend!
Jon D'Alessandro
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