is effortless high performance possible?

Have you ever come across an organisation that was really vibrant? You just knew it from talking with the people who worked there. You found them to be brimming with passion about what they do. You discovered that they worked hard, but they so enjoyed what they do that it didn’t feel like work to them at all.

What is it that makes that difference? And how does your organisation fare?

Here’s the difference. The people in that vibrant organisation are pursuing their own personal dreams and visions. They know how achieving the company’s objectives will help them achieve their own personal objectives. They feel supported by the company, and in return provide the same level of support to the company. They love what they do – because they are doing what they enjoy and are naturally good at. The people they work with value them, as they value themselves.

We look at a company like that and say that they have great spirit – be it team spirit or personal.

They’ve tapped into the spirit of each person – what is important to them, what excites them, what motivates them, what inspires them. Everyone in the organisation is happy to be there and it shows.

And - their results are extraordinary.

You only have to look at companies like SAS Institute and Patagonia. Another example? Well, you only have to meet the people from Shine Communications (www.shineon-line.com) to really know that this works. They have a client retention rate of 90% and a staff retention level of 92%. Plus they've won everything that they've pitched for. What’s more, the MD, Rachel Bell is so confident about their ability to attract business that she has no anxieties about any potential effect of an economic downturn. How so?

Since the Industrial Age, we have forgotten about the power of tapping into one’s spirit. For generations, our jobs have been a means to an end. We turn up during work hours, put in a day’s work and we get paid in return. The "factory line" mentality. Whether we enjoyed it or not was not the point.

But times are changing. We’re now in the Information and Knowledge Age. Ideas, innovation and creativity are paramount to a company’s survival. People are beginning to want to live more fulfilled lives. They are wanting more for themselves. Fading out are the days of the baby-boomers in the workplace, and increasingly in are the next generations who are more independent, demanding and expressive of their own individuality.

You’ve probably heard, or perhaps read, that when employees are happy and well looked after, the company results improve. You’ve probably also heard or read that you ought to put people before results, and that if you do, the results will follow. Many people either remain sceptical of this or find it hard to make the change. We have been so well trained to focus on the result itself.

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? The result or the person? Not so easy to decide whether it was the chicken or the egg, but isn’t it obvious that without the person there is no result? Whether it’s your customer, or supplier, or member of staff, or you, the person must come before you can get a result.

In fact, if you think about it, you’re getting a result right now. Consistently. It may not be the result you want, but you are still getting a result.

So what’s so important about the people, when it’s the result that you want?

The Law of Attraction - what?

Here’s the thing that most people don’t realise. It’s something that has been known for generations, but has somehow been lost in latter times. It’s a Universal Law, a law that works even in our ignorance of it. And because it is a law, it works unceasingly – just like the Law of Gravity.

It’s known as the Law of Attraction, or the Law of Vibration.

The concept is simple, yet incredibly powerful. The challenge is that like soft skills, it's intangible until you begin to consciously work with it, plus, we haven't been taught this before. Also, as a logical and analytical type, anything that can't be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled - anything outside of our five senses - couldn’t possibly be real. But our inner feelings and emotions are real and we can’t touch them. Yet we don't question those for a moment.

So what is this concept? The Law of Attraction says that you attract to yourself people, events, information and circumstances which are harmony with your dominant thoughts.

Every thought that you think has with it its own vibration (or resonant frequency). Scientists are now beginning to be able to measure this.

Ever had a day when everything went wrong? And ever had a day when everything went right? Ever had a day when you just couldn’t come up with any ideas? And others when ideas just flowed?

Think back to each of those days and ponder on where you were, vibrationally.

Like vibrations attract like vibrations. In fact, you already know that instinctively. When you are feeling good, you feel on top of the world. When you’re feeling lousy, you say you’re feeling down. One is of a higher frequency than the other. Whatever frequency you give out, you attract back like things of similar frequency. When we get on well with someone, we talk about being on the same wavelength. When we get a great idea, we say we’ve had a brainwave.

What this means, in a nutshell, is that if you (and/or your company as a whole) feel lousy, you get lousy results. And if you feel great, you attract great results.

What's Your Vibe?

So back to the people in your business. When your people are feeling good, what kind of vibration are they broadcasting? And therefore what kind of results are they attracting back to themselves, and therefore to the company?

Is it any wonder then that companies where the staff feel great are getting extraordinary results? They may not know how this works, but they’ve cracked it. Others remain sceptical and continue to put results before the people. The choice is yours.

Start with yourself.

Allow yourself to fully express yourself, understand what really turns your switches on, help yourself to feel good – no great, create an environment where you love to come to work, understand how your thought creates and attracts your results (both bad and good!), think positively, think possibility, truly understand the power of your mind. Implement the action points below.

The first step is awareness. Watch out for the links between your thoughts and your results. We often don’t notice this because of the time-lag between thoughts and results.

And the bottom line? Trust it to look after itself. You already have the skills you need for this, but imagine the leap you can take by harnessing the added dimension that the Law of Attraction brings.

Consider this Principle

We attract events, people and circumstances that reflect our dominant thoughts.

Action Points

1. Think about how you can create an environment where you and your teams to feel great. It may be that the times when you are frustrated or annoyed that you are more able to get ideas on this!

2. Look for everything that is going right.

3. Celebrate and appreciate even the smallest things, and especially yourself.

4. How can you have more fun?

Quote

"We can be secure in knowing that Universal Principles are bigger than people or circumstances and thousands of years of history have seen them triumph time and time again. Even more important, we can be secure in the knowledge that we can validate them in our own lives by our own experience." - Stephen Covey, Author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Principle-Centered Leadership

"Truly, 'thoughts are things', and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects... we are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts… Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar, these 'magnets' attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts... Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." - Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

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