Chemotherapy Risk Assessment Scale for High Age Patients (CRASH) . 62

1. What do you want to achieve in the future, and when? (e.g. senior leadership role in the next three years).

2. What are the performance goals that will ensure progress towards your outcome goal? Make sure that they are things that you can totally control (e.g. being visionary, an influencer, decisive, a team builder, credible, having presence, being confident and achieving a good work-life balance).

Time-Out 6.3

Over to Adrian . . .

The use of different goal types has been one of the biggest revelations of my life! It is one of the most useful pieces of knowledge that I have ever been aware of and I use it to this day. The use of outcome, performance and process goals gives a structure to achieving performance, whether it be winning swimming races, learning a new language or winning a business deal. The idea is that it’s ok to set an outcome goal, something you really want, that will motivate you if you get it. But then it’s vital that you break it down into measurable performance and most importantly the processes that you will use to get there; eventually these processes become part of your daily routine. I have already described how I used this in swimming, but right now this goal structure drives our business’ strategy. We have a series of outcome statements for the business, and all the performance goals that most companies have around revenues, profitability, etc. But it’s the process goals that sit with the different departments and individuals in the business and this is where we take control of our performance and have more chance of achieving.

For me, the crucial aspect of this tool is not just the hard framework, but the emotional link to motivation. It gives you the opportunity to stretch yourself and others in a variety of different areas that can play to the motivations of the individual. Also, when we review progress, we don’t have just one numerical goal that can be a success or failure. We have more richness in the type of achievements we might have made, particularly in the process area.

Chris

Chris had reached a point where he was seriously considering handing in his resignation following another painful defeat. Nothing he tried was making a difference; he felt helpless and had lost his strong sense of competence and autonomy. Chris had become acquiescent to media calls for a different game strategy and player selections. He also felt worn down by a constant political power struggle amongst influential stakeholders that made his job even harder. Both he and the team now seemed devoid of purpose and direction.

Chris was horrified at his subsequent realisation that he was showing some classic signs of the beginnings of learned helplessness. He began the task of clawing back greater self-determination by setting short-term goals around dealing with the constraints he had identified in the demands/ supports/constraints exercise described in Chapter 4. He also focused on maximising his supports and set goals around those too. In the context of the team, Chris worked with them on establishing an outcome goal in the form of a vision for the next three years. This was accompanied by setting initial performance goals around games scheduled over the next few months. Finally, a series of process goals was established and agreed around the attitudes and behaviours of all concerned, including the support staff. This provided a clear sense of purpose as well as a day-to- day focus that became valuable for restoring a sense of self-determined motivation and behaviour.

Andy

Andy’s motivation was underpinned by the pressure and ensuing stress resulting from the huge expectations on him, as well as his perception that his colleagues did not respect or value his leadership capability. He was not enjoying the situation at all and he reached a point where most of his time was devoted to avoiding failure; and his performance suffered because he had become fearful of assuming the leadership role the business required. His colleagues had become enemies in his eyes, and he was suspicious of

Chris Andy Scott Emma Studies

3. What are the process goals that will underpin the delivery of each performance goal? These process goals should provide a day-to-day focus (e.g. being a team builder might be underpinned by coaching and mentoring, setting goals and being people-orientated).

4. How will you measure and review your progress?

Ensure that your goals are INSPIRED goals – I(nternalised), N(urturing), S(pecific), P(lanned), I(n your control), R(eviewed regularly), E(nergising), D(ocumented).

Andy worked on dealing with his avoidance motivation by first of all recognising the need to assume some level of self-determination rather than merely letting the situation and circumstances continue. He identified short-term process goals that would improve working relationships and restore a sense of relatedness and belonging to his direct report team. These goals focused around literally ‘approaching’ his colleagues so that he could get to know them at a personal level, as well as learning to value their comments and opinions in personal interactions. Andy’s goals also focused on ‘how to be’ as a leader, in terms of his presence, his chairing of meetings, etc. These goals gave a meaning to his behaviour that he was able to internalise and gain a much stronger sense of self-determination.

Scott

Scott’s motivation was founded on his desperation to obtain sufficient money to pay off his debts and earn a decent living. Only one thing, in his eyes, would satisfy this need – winning the next and every tournament he entered. His motivation had become purely external; he needed to win at any cost, and with it came intense stress. He clearly needed to regain some self-determination over his motivation and behaviour. Through what was quite a tough process of rationalising the situation he was in, Scott acknowledged that his goal of winning every tournament he entered was unrealistic and not within his control. What was within his control was his

own performance and the processes underpinning it. An important part of the goal setting process involved reminding himself that being a

professional golfer was something he once dreamed about and that golf was once a huge source of enjoyment for him.

Scott worked through setting goals based on outcomes, performances and processes. His outcome goal for the season was quite simply to keep his card so that he could play on the professional tour the following year. Performance goals were set around things within his control, such as average number of putts and number of fairways hit per round. Process goals focused on things like establishing a consistent pre-shot routine that would be robust under the most severe pressure, as well as remaining composed and confident. Thinking about his process and performance goals actually helped to alleviate the stress he was under because he was able to see how he could control his thoughts and behaviours through a sense of self-determination, rather than being controlled by the environment and circumstances he found himself in.

Emma

Emma’s motives to succeed were founded on a self-imposed pressure that she had to prove herself within a male-dominated environment. In essence, she had little self-determination over her behaviour; she was behaving in a manner that she thought she ought to, and not necessarily

G The very best performers are not driven by fear of failure (i.e. avoidance motivation); instead, they are driven by the desire for success (i.e. approach motivation).

G For performers who are externally-motivated over prolonged periods, their internal motivation subsides so that they become heavily dependent on material rewards to keep going.

G The further you are towards the external end of the external-internal motivation continuum, the more pressure and potential stress there is to perform to others’ high expectations.

G Mental toughness is about ensuring that you do not stray too far from the internal, complete self-determination end of the motivation continuum.

G Optimal motivation constitutes approach, active, self-focused, positive, internal and self-regulated motives.

G Identifying ‘effective’, INSPIRED goals is an important part of the process of developing mental toughness.

In a nutshell

how she wanted to. Her motivation was towards the external end of the motivation continuum and she needed to instil some internal motivation in the form of greater self-determination.

Emma needed to focus on things like her own pride, satisfaction and enjoyment as the motives to be a good performer and leader. She needed to do it for herself, not to prove herself to others. She found hearing about and reading some of the research literature on high-achieving female leaders really helpful in understanding the important attributes that females bring to the leader role. This all pointed towards the importance of being herself and not someone or something else that she thought was expected of her. Her subsequent new focus on the process of enjoying the role and personal growth reduced much of the stress she had been under and she became a much more ‘natural’ leader with a far greater sense of self-determination.

G Develop strategies for achieving a greater sense of self-determination in the environment you currently operate in.

G Find ways of feeling competent in what you do, exercising choice over your behaviour, and relating in some positive way to the people you are performing with and/or the cause you are contributing to.

G Set effective goals that will deliver sustained high motivation and per- formance via I(nternalised), N(urturing), S(pecific), P(lanned), I(n your control), R(eviewed regularly), E(nergising), D(ocumented) goals. G Plan your performances by setting aligned outcome, performance and

process goals.

What next?

I remember reading about baseball legend Babe Ruth when he was in a batting slump and his team was in danger of being knocked out of the World Series. He was two strikes down and received some abuse from a particularly loud spectator behind the batting plate. His response was to hit a home run off the next pitch. He was later asked what he was think- ing about as he stood on the plate with only one chance left. Was he thinking about the guy in the crowd who was giving him a hard time? Was he thinking about the pressure on him because he would be out if he missed the next pitch? Was he thinking about the crisis his team was in? Ruth told them that none of these things entered his head and that he was simply thinking about one thing only – hitting the ball!

Focus is a relatively straightforward requirement of high performance made complex by the fact that there are just so many things you could focus on. For Babe Ruth, there were a number of things he could have been focusing on as the pitcher was winding up to release the ball, and he could have fallen into the trap of focusing on things that were merely distractions. The simple focus required was on the ball and hitting it. People often over-complicate things by focusing on extraneous factors that threaten to intrude on their performance. This chapter shows you how to recognise what you should focus on and how to maintain your focus on the things that matter.

After reading this chapter you will know about: G What you should be focused on

G How to shut out distractions

G How to switch your focus