[00:00] Katie: Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:36] Katie: Hello, Claudia, it's fantastic to have you on the show today. How are you?
[00:41] Clotilde: Yes, very good. Very happy to be able to share a little bit of high performance with you as well today.
[00:45] Katie: Amazing. I absolutely love the topic of high performance as I also work as a high performance coach and transformative leadership coach. And I remember reading Brendan bashard book on high performance habit and being absolutely blown away. So let's dive straight into this topic. I know that you actually trained and studied with Brendan bashard on this exact topic, so why don't you share with the audience what are some of the top high performing habits?
[01:16] Clotilde: Yeah, so maybe let me just start with what is high performance, because people have different definition of that. So high performance in the way Brandon Bersha covered it and in the way I've been trained on, is really about how you can create a life that is super successful, where you are really like achieving what you want. To achieve, but to do it in a way that is also sustainable, that is also holistic, so that you don't burn yourself out or you don't lose all your relationships on the way. Basically, we want you to be a high achiever, but a happy, confident, engaged, fully alive high achiever. That's a bit of the mindset behind high performance. And the work that has been done on high performance was redone scientifically. So it has been tested, validated through talking to the highest performers in the world, really going into what they are doing on a daily basis that is actually deliberate. So something that they are really intentionally doing and something that could also be done by anybody else who also want to be at this level. And what came out of this research is that there are only six things you have to do or six habits that you have to focus on consistently in your life every day to actually be able to maintain yourself at a high level of performance and be happy and everything. So just to give you the six habits very quickly. So the first one is seeking clarity. So it's always being willing to understand yourself more who you are, what are your values, how you want to show up, what skill you want to learn. Also what project you should be working on. Having all this mindset of asking yourself as much question as possible, to be as intentional as possible, as aware as possible of what's going on through your life as well. And just make sure that you basically keep on track with yourself and with whatever is happening. So this is one of the major ones and I think if you're in business or leadership clarity, it's always something that you get asked to do as a coach. That's also what we are asking people to do is go dive a little bit deeper there. So this is the number one. The number two is generating energy. So this is really about when you want to perform, when you want to show up at your best and do your best work. You need to work with your highest level of energy possible. And sometimes we see that when you are very busy with work, with your goals, you forget about your energy and you burn out. This is one of the key struggles I see with clients as well. So generating energy is really thinking about how you can manage your energy on a daily basis to make sure that you have a good baseline of health, but also that you're able to pump yourself up a little bit. And also very important, recharge regularly so that you don't burn out progressively. So it's really generating it. It's not just passive and my energy is going to be okay. It's voluntarily thinking every day, how can I make sure I'm as energetic as I need to be so that I can show up for others for my goals? The third habit we have is raising necessity. Raising necessity is kind of the way to say if you want to be able to keep yourself motivated and disciplined, you need to kind of put some pressure on yourself. You need a little bit of ambition and pressure there, but not too much, otherwise you will get stressed and you will get frustrated. So raising necessity is just finding what works for you to actually make sure that you stay motivated, make sure that there is a real reason for you to show up and do the work. So that can be thinking about the people you are serving, just knowing why you are doing what you are doing, these type of things and just every single day connecting with that emotionally. Then we have the habits number four, which is about increasing productivity. This is an obvious one. If you want to achieve something, you have to be productive. You have to deliver good quality work, I mean excellent quality work on time as often as you need. And so high performers are super sharp on their productivity. They say no all the time. They are very specific about what their time is used for. They are planning far in advance. They really control their agenda and decide what they want to spend their time on, what will be their best impact as well. This is a very important one for performance to always seek, okay, how can I be even more productive next week? Even if you already are. And then we have habit number five, which is about developing influence. This is one area I see with people as well. Number one, frustration relationship. It can be with the team member, it can be with a client, it can be that you don't get the support from people around you, influence people skills, persuasions, it's really something that you need to constantly be looking at, how can I do better there? How can I be a better role model? How can I persuade this person better? How can I get these people to move with me and also obviously help me to achieve my own dreams if I need to? So this is an area where I always challenge people to, okay, how can you do it even better? What could be something to challenge yourself on and just finding new solutions, new tools, new strategy to feel that you are more influential. And the last habit is demonstrating courage. This is a very important one as well because I think we forget that as human beings, we are courageous. Sometimes we just diminish that or we don't even notice that we are. And courage is very important to just build in. Notice that you are courageous, that you can build your own confidence, your own resilience, and that can show up in many different ways, that can show up on helping somebody else, that can show up on just being vulnerable and sharing what's going on in your life. That can be just deciding, I'm going to be a role model of leadership and I'm going to take the bold decisions. There many different way where you can find courage in all actions on a daily basis, but it's also something to think about and think, okay, what is going to be my bold action today? What is going to be an area where I'm going to show up a little bit and push myself? Yes, that's the six habits. So we are seeking clarity, generating energy, raising necessity, increasing productivity, developing influence, and demonstrating courage. And so these six habits, they can work with everything in life. They don't just work for work or career or whatever, they work with everything and they also help each other. So the clearer you can be on your vision, the easier it's going to be to be productive or to be courageous, to do the bold actions. Et. Really? Yeah. It's a full package of habits that if you are paying attention to them every single day, you can raise your performance and build yourself in a more intentional way as well. So that's in a nutshell, what high.
[07:37] Katie: Performance can I'm sure Brenda Bashan would be proud to see how fluidly you speak and how passionately you speak about this topic. And it was also wonderful for me to sort of go through them again mentally and check myself, how am I doing on each and every one of them. And I think having maybe a post it or having maybe vision board somewhere where we write these down and then we can check with ourselves. How am I doing on courage? Am I staying too much in the comfort zone here? How am I doing with clarity? Do I really know where I'm going? I know that of all the habits, probably the two that I embrace the most are seeking clarity and energy. So as soon as my energy is low, I think so I stop. I sleep loads, I meditate. And as soon as I'm not clear what I'm doing, I also stop and reflect and journal. So I think it's important. Yeah, all six, and I can really see them with all high performers. If we look at the things that make them successful, they fit in these boxes. I'd love to dive into maybe a few of these a bit more sort of specifically or into some aspects that are related. So for instance, I know you work and I also work with many business owners. So I'm wondering how can business owners sort of stay sane? And by that I mean, how can they manage their energy and productivity in a way that's sustainable? What sort of steps do you have that can help them to stay sane in their business and stay on top of things?
[09:08] Clotilde: So if I look at energy, the thing that I see the most is recharge. The main component that is missing from people is recharging. So usually people do a bit of exercise, drinking water, sleeping, that type of things. It's quite clear, not always consistent. So I always challenge people there. But what I see is missing is really the recharging part. Sometimes we just kind of use all energy and we go until it's too late and we're like, oh, now I need to stop. And this is something that with NY performance, we always encourage of finding recharge moments daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, so that you have at multiple points, you are able to kind of bring back some emotional energy, particularly some mental energy as well. So this is always one thing I challenge my clients and the people around me to say, okay, how are you going to recharge today? What is going to be one thing that you do for yourself, one activity that you feel? If I do that, I'm refreshed, I'm ready to go again. And it's not just watching Netflix. It's not just sitting on the couch and doing nothing because your brain is so tired, it cannot handle anything. It's not recharging. This is just stopping. Recharging is something where you feel like I have more energy than before I started the activity. So for some people it will be. I'm going to spend an hour on the phone with one of my business friend or business partner, somebody who's going to pump me up. For me, for instance, it's going for a walk every afternoon, 1 hour I'm outside. No matter the weather, I just go outside. For some other people, it can just be doing personal development and thinking, oh, I'm actually learning myself, I'm growing myself. It makes me feel good. It's like, yeah, it's just bringing some emotional strength here. No matter if the day was crappy, at least I've learned something today. So I feel proud of myself. So it can be many different things for different business owners or leader. Just to think about kind of integrating that in your day already in advance, that's the key. It's thinking about it, planning it so that nothing else can take the time for that and really sticking to it and defending it courageously. That's where the demonstrating courage sometimes comes up is that sometimes you have to be strong and say, no, sorry, I'm not taking a meeting at this time because this is my time for recharge. And that's where it can come in as well, influence as well. And you might have to put boundaries with people as well to protect that time. One thing to stay sane in terms of energy would be always think about how you are recharging daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and really schedule that very strongly. It should be a non negotiable. Basically I'm passionate about it because I also got burnout when I was in corporate and this is something in my business I'm like, no, I'm not going to do the same thing, I'm going to be thinking about it strategically. So that would be the best advice I would give for the energy part. For productivity, one thing I've seen very helpful for people is really thinking about what is productivity for me, what makes you feel productive in a day that you can say, okay, a productive day is going to look like this. Because sometimes we are like okay, I need to have this new app or I need to color code my Outlook calendar, or I need to put structures and system and that will work, but only if that's aligned with what you wanted to achieve in terms of productivity first. So you need to think in terms of productivity, how you can make the day manageable for yourself, where you're going to be able to enjoy yourself. Because productivity is a lot about how we experience time. It's about when we feel engaged, when we feel that the efforts are there, but we engage into them. We are really enjoying it. So think first about what does it look like for you? For me, a productive day is it's 10:00 in the morning and I'm done with all the biggest chunk of work, the deep work, the thing that needs to be executed that day they are completed. The rest of the day is more social things. It's my 1 hour break in the afternoon, but it's architected in this way that I know I'm going to be performing every day because I've created my productivity best conditions, let's say. And one thing that really helps you, so if you do this work, of productivity, of thinking in advance about how you want to feel. And you've already thought, okay, this probably the way I'm going to organize my days. Once you've done that, then you can start planning the work. And the work needs to be done usually 90 days in advance. This is something that in high performance, we recommend looking at 90 days. It's a good time. It's not too short that you don't feel rushed. It's not too long so that you don't feel that it's completely unrealistic. And this 90 day, if you can already plan what are the big projects you want to achieve, you can already, again, schedule them in your agendas. Make sure that all the things that you want to achieve, not anybody else, not other people's priority, not last minute stuff, but what you want to achieve is already scheduled. This is going to be the best way to stay sane in your business because you can already say, okay, these activities are the one that are going to make my business successful, so I'm going to plan them, whatever else, second priority. And again, you need to stick to it and have the courage to say no and everything. So I would say, yeah, productivity would be think about what a productive day is for you and really start planning long time in advance, at least 90 days, to make sure that your calendar is matching what you want and not what the world want from you, being.
[14:22] Katie: Intentional and proactive ahead of time and having those boundaries. It's interesting how sometimes it's harder to be disciplined about the recharge time. And I know that especially if you're working with very high achievers, they will be more likely to maybe fit in that workout or do extra hours of work than a walk at lunchtime. It was incredible how I felt. I had to force one of my clients into walking every day and then she was addicted to it. Then she was like, oh, now I have to have a lunch walk. So it's interesting how at first it's discipline and a bit of pushing ourselves to do less work and fitting in that recharge time, but then it really pays off. So I definitely think those two aspects you were talking about in terms of energy and productivity are so correlated together. For sure. I want to move on to another topic that I feel, again, is very linked to us being productive and energized, which is having a higher purpose. So how do you help people and what is it through your training and through your experience that you've learned in terms of connecting to this higher purpose and still feeling engaged? Because I think we all know that entrepreneurship is a roller coaster and it might be periods where it goes great and then periods where it goes down. How can we stay as business owners, as entrepreneurs, how can we stay engaged in the process and connecting to a high purpose?
[15:46] Clotilde: That's a very good question. As you say, we need to do the work every day. So one thing that I often talk about is that, first of all, purpose is not something you have or you find. It's something that you have to create yourself. That's the switch in high performance. It's very intentional. There is a lot of action work. It's not things are happening, it's you are making things happening in a way. And in terms of purpose, it's really about really understanding in the simplest way, understanding how you want to show up in a specific day, what are you going to do and for who you're going to do to do that and what results you expect. So I always say to people, okay, how are you going to show up today? Okay, what are your big actions? And if you show up this way and your big actions, what is the result you want to create? And just helping them articulate in this way usually just create a simple purpose so it can be today I'm going to let me just give you a purpose for this specific recording. Today I'm going to show up energetic, passionate, and I'm going to do my best to share all I know about high performance so that people who are listening today will feel inspired. We feel ready to go look for better solutions to engage themselves and go find this high performance live that is super enjoyable. I'm just improvising right now. But it's a simple way to articulate because you know how to behave, you know what to do and you know what you want to create. And you can do that every day. You can do that for every activity you have in your calendar. You might say, oh, today I have to, I don't know, create social media, for instance, for a business owner. And you might say, I really don't want to do this thing. If you just think about how you want to show up, what you want to do and why every time you start the activity, that's really going to help you do it in a way that is very different. That's going to feel more purposeful and more connected. So there is really work to do on a daily basis to just connect emotionally. That's what it is. It's emotional commitment. It's not just logical commitment. It's emotional commitment to what you want to achieve and something I do as well. Weird exercise, but in the morning I talk to myself. In the morning I say to myself, I have a battleboard with my goals for the year and what I want to achieve. And I just reach for that out loud and I explain to myself why I want these things. And I go as deep as possible until I start feeling something. If I don't feel anything and it's just purelogical, I'm like, I'm not there yet. Committed emotionally. I need to go one step further. So someday is going to be, why do I love my clients, why are my clients so amazing? That type of thing. Just to get this level of emotional commitment. Because if you are going through the roller coaster, that's the only thing that is going to save you and really keep you grounded. So it's work to be done every day. It's basically clarity and raising necessity on just doing this work of connecting and articulating your purpose for every activity you are running through the day. I think that would be my best advice.
[18:38] Katie: I love this coach. I actually haven't heard this before, of course, vision boards, yes. Reading goals every day.
[18:43] Clotilde: Yes.
[18:44] Katie: Maybe even reading them out loud, but actually articulating it so clearly the way you just did, reading through them and saying to yourself why it matters. Amazing. And it's so lovely to see your vulnerability around this and your passion also coming through. So I feel I'll be rewatching this part of the video to inspire myself and I think it's the sort of thing I've done before a couple of times maybe going on a walk and sort of saying things out loud. Okay, so what is it you want to achieve right now? How is it you feel about it? What are the next steps? Just to articulate my thoughts because we're more clear when we speak out loud. Same with writing or journaling. But I feel in my case it was more inconsistently for this particular habit, whereas I feel that the power of doing this every day, it will help you again to have that clarity and it will tie you emotionally to why you're doing what you're doing. So the energy with which you'll show up, like right now on the podcast or with your clients or any workshop you're doing will be so much greater if you've sort of taken a moment in the morning to reconnect with your purpose. So really, really love this. Kritiv thank you so much for sharing and moving on to one other extremely interesting topic and habit, which is courage. So how can leaders and business owners and people show up with more courage in their business and life so that they could thrive and live a high performing life?
[20:15] Clotilde: So anyway, this is always a tough one because courage can show up in many different ways. Like some days it's just going to be, I'm putting my clothes on. That's the courage that I'm doing today. If there is really a day where you feel really unmotivated, some days it's just going to be just, okay, I need to do something bold today. I have this thing I'm really feeling stressed about and I'm just going to prepare myself mentally and do it. Sometimes it's just going to be asking for help. That's something I've seen a lot of business owners don't do enough or leaders as well, that kind of isolate in a way and not asking help early enough. Because there is always this kind of fear that maybe they will be judged or they will be seen as weak or instead of being seen as work in progress. I would say so, yeah. For some people it will be that. For me, for instance, asking for help is something I've pushed myself to do even more because I feel like there is still room. There is still a room where I can even get more support and reach out to people faster. Some days it's just going to be okay. Today I want to show up for somebody and I'm just going to see, okay, there is maybe a person around me who is actually not doing well or somebody I want to defend or whatever it is, I'm going to show up for them. And that can push myself to have to take a leadership role that maybe I'm not feeling fully comfortable in. But I'm going to do it because there is a person who needs me there. What else can it be? So many things. Sometimes it can be, I'm going to do this video that I'm scared of doing and I'm going to post it on social media even though I feel it's not great. I'm just going to do one take and I'm going to post it kind of moments where you put yourself some challenges. And one thing that I found also helped a lot, partially for business owners and leaders is thinking about what type of role model you want to be and kind of connecting to that as well. I've seen when people think, okay, it's not just about me and my business. I'm role modeling something. I'm here because people need me and they need me to take a higher position, higher position, higher level, and be the person leading them through that. And that requires for you to think about role model. It's some way to elevate yourself with courage as well. So yeah, it's a couple of examples. There are many more taking a decision that you've been postponing for a while, maybe just stopping for sometimes taking a break as well. That's for business owners sometimes thinking, okay, my business is not going right and now I need to stop completely and slow down. Some people will say that is very courageous because they will keep continuing because they feel a bit of stress and stopping is like scary for people. So it can really depends about who you are as a person and what is going to be courage for you, I would say. But one thing very important is always to notice it. That is really something I always say to my clients. What have you done courageously today? What was challenging? You just recognizing even the little steps. Because the more you can recognize your own courage, the more you're going to build it, the more you're going to be able to push even further afterwards. So it's just about taking it in and using it as a fuel as well to build your resilience and your confidence. So yeah, different possibility. But you will probably know yourself what type of courage you need the most as well, or what is scary for you or why you feel you're not at your highest level yet.
[23:37] Katie: For sure. I think it's interesting because when we think of courage, we always imagine something that's huge, right? We always think, oh, someone that's very courageous is he ran into the building that was on fire and saved someone. For sure. That is extremely brave. But the thing is, we can be courageous every single day and sometimes just that one decision or like you said, to slow down when things aren't going well, to actually turn off the computer and spend 2 hours reflecting instead of just being in autopilot mode and answering a bunch of emails. That's brave. Sometimes one conversation, just one email. And you know when it's brave, I think because you feel all the symptoms in your body, you feel the heart rate goes up, your throat tightens, your stomach can hurt a bit. You. So I have to take a deep breath and breathe and said, that's when you're being brave, because that's when you're challenging yourself to take action for whatever reason, whether it's emotional, whether there's some sort of fear involved generally, fear of rejection, fear of being judged, fear of what others will think, fear of what you will think of yourself, fear of anything and everything. When that is involved and you still manage to take action, I think that really is a huge proof of courage. So I think we've touched on a lot of different topics here in terms of productivity and energy and purpose and courage. What do you feel the audience will benefit from understanding by tying these concepts together? So, in other words, formulated more clearly, clarity is so important. How do you feel the audience can best implement high performance habits in their life? What sort of mindset twist and change can they put in place that will help them to embrace these habits?
[25:26] Clotilde: So I would recommend to read the book first. If you've not read it, definitely this is the book. This is the read, yes. You can also find it in audio as well on Spotify. So I think I would say the biggest one just to start with is just asking yourself every single day have I been looking for clarity? Have I been creating some energy there? Have I been feeling that I was motivated and able to keep that? Was my productivity high enough or can I increase it? How did I do with people today in terms of relationships? And was I courageous and just kind of trying to think basically every single day through these six lenses and ask yourself how did I do that? Just to measure yourself to start with, because I think it's always around. That. I had a client who went through me with coaching and at some point she started telling me, okay, I had this problem this week and actually I thought, okay, was it clarity, energy, productivity, motivation, courage or influence that I was missing? And then I was able to find a solution and you don't need me anymore. Cool. You started thinking through these six lenses because it's always one of this thing that is creating the issue or the tension you are feeling at some point. So just ask yourself clarity, energy, productivity, influence, courage and necessity, how have you been doing through the day? And keep doing that for a couple of weeks and you will already see that you will have just more awareness in general about where maybe your main area of development can be and then go read the book so you will get more ideas about what you can implement there as well.
[27:03] Katie: Amazing. And these types of questions and reflections and having these four words or six words or six concepts very clearly mapped or engaged in your mind is very useful to help you have those types of realizations. So I think that's a fantastic piece of advice. Awareness is really sort of the key, right, to unlocking everything. Because as soon as you're aware, as soon as you notice, then you can start to reframe and you can start to take action and that's when the magic happens, right?
[27:35] Clotilde: Yeah. Clarity is always the basis, so it's going to elevate everything else. So, yeah, that should be the starting point of being aware. Yeah, absolutely. Amazing.
[27:44] Katie: Well, I've loved all of this. Kratil, I feel you've packed so much information in Hoffman now that I think all the people listening to this right now, you should go right back to the beginning and listen to it again. I think it's the type of episode you need to listen to twice to really absorb all the information and then once you've listened to this twice, start to implement it, right?
[28:05] Clotilde: Yes. That's what we want. High performers enjoying themselves and helping others to do the same. So yes, exactly.
[28:14] Katie: And implementation is really when all the magic takes place and this is really how you can start living a balanced, more fulfilled type of life thanks to these amazing high performing habits.
[28:26] Clotilde: Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Amazing.
[28:29] Katie: Well, thank you so much, Clautil. I've loved this. It's just absolutely flown by. Amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show today and sharing all of your insight. Thank you.
[28:39] Clotilde: Thank you very much. Yes, thank you.
[28:42] Katie: Bye.
[28:46] Katie: Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Be Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.