It’s a simple truth; expectations are hard to meet if you don’t know what they are. Too often small businesses skip the important practice of providing specific goals and competency expectations for their teams. This leads to inconsistent performance and worse, undefined expectations. On a weekly basis I meet business owners and members of leadership teams, and all too often they share that they have no HR department and no formal performance management in place. Many claim they are too busy, or don’t have the funds to invest to make it happen, and I say this is a huge mistake.

I say it all the time, typically when someone is expressing surprise over behavior,when that behavior is seen over and over again. How can you be surprised when thesame behavior shows up time and time again? Without support most people and businesses are just a series of Groundhog Days that tend to repeat past behaviors over and over again.Do you want this year to be different? Do you want to actually stick to your goals and make a difference? Cool.

There are a couple questions I’m asked all the time, like:

“What are the secrets to having a successful business?”

“How do I take my team or business to the next level?”

The question comes in all shapes and sizes, but essentially they’re all getting at the same need.

How to raise your game with meditation?

Let’s first address the elephant in the room. Yes, you can raise your performance by bringing calm and clarity to work. This doesn’t mean that you bring your handheld zen garden to the office and meditate in the lunchroom everyday, or that you eschew a high-energy environment and the desire to create and move forward. What it does mean is that it’s time to stop wasting time by engaging in or creating drama and leaving unsolved items on the shelf. It’s time to approach your days with a new level of intention and focus. It’s time to find a new you.

Want to be a high performer? It all starts with a daily practice.

So what’d you do this morning? It’s a very important question. If you’ve listened to Tim Ferriss’ podcast before, you know that he’s all about interviewing accomplished individuals and deconstructing their high performance so others can adopt practices that will boost their own power and potential.

Go with your gut - we’ve heard the expression a thousand times, but do we truly understand what it means.

One of the most frequent topics in coaching discussions is whether or not someone is tuned in to their instincts, or whether there is a sea of reactive habits that fight the natural pull of the tide. Our instinct can be stifled with piles of unimportant tasks, when we choose to ignore it. We know we can routinely “show up” and let the day dictate everything we do. However, we can rely on our mission and intuition and let that be the guide. (See previous posts: Passengers and Drivers part I and II)

It feels like you’re a super-fast point guard running the court - jab stepping here and there to confuse the defense, but in your situation the only one confused is you. Your perception of how much there is to do and how much time it will take leaves you unproductive, highly distracted and pretty damn frustrated. I get it. I’ve been there hundreds of times. What matters in situations like this is that you identify your lack of traction and proceed to do the following:

Here’s the thing about roadblocks, they often seem to be more familiar than not.

If there’s a bad winter storm, we tend to know where the roughest patches are going to be on our drive home. In business, this is equally the case, and like driving, a little focus, courage and prowess behind the wheel won’t just get us through it, but begin to clear the road for the future.

In my career I’ve reviewed thousands of resumes while hiring and managing hundreds of people, and to this day there are essentially 4 basic traits that make the difference between a solid resource and a next level, ass-kicking achiever that delivers consistent awesome. Of course, this assumes experience is a relatively level field. Even so, these characteristics can assure they’re capable of adapting, and probably rather quickly. So, do you have these traits? Do you hire for them? (The list is not in a specific order – all carry good weight.)

If you didn’t pass the driver’s test with flying colors, don’t despair. Most people don’t. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the workforce, leaders and entrepreneurs are perennially “busy” without getting much done aside from managing the constant fires that steal away each and every day.

This question and your ability to have an accurate answer is critical to your short and long-term business success. When the question comes up, the typical answer, almost by default, is that you are a driver. Like it’s truly the only answer you can give.