Whether this is the first Friday you’re receiving this email, or you’ve lost count 😉 I wanted to share that this is my 21st consecutive weekly newsletter. I’ve had a mailing list for years but it was only ever a random consideration. For the first time in my career I’m taking this part of my job seriously. Engaging with, and building an audience, is probably the most important thing for a solopreneur like myself — and I have arrived at that realisation much later than I should have!
Anyway, better late than never. My regular open rate is around 50% which I think is ok, but could of course be better. I do think at least some of the other 50% is affected by corporate email protection and out-of-office but I’d love to know what I can do to make this newsletter more valuable for you.
Is there anything else I should focus on each week? Move to bi-weekly? I succeed in my mission when I can truly make an impact to the busy business lives of leaders. So, please let me know how I can help. And if you’re not sure but would like to chat, just drop me a line and we can schedule a brief call.
Right, to this week’s content. Today’s theme — of Flow — raises a view of the performance mindset. Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at how we spend our time, from the start and finish of our days, to meetings, and how we can carve out thinking time. Yet just doing isn’t enough. We need to stretch and grow. This is where flow comes in.
Have a great week everyone and see you next Friday.
Happiness and High-Performance
A term first coined by the Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow is the state of complete immersion in an activity, in which we are fully engaged and fulfilled.
Flow allows us to attain high performance, be the best version of ourselves, and allow us to maximise happiness and wellbeing. Often associated with artists and athletes, who do their best work when ‘in the zone’, flow has been identified by researchers to exist in a variety of activities around the world.
I think most people who know the term readily associate the high-performance state, but what many don’t know is that Csíkszentmihályi’s initial motivation was improving human happiness and wellbeing. I think this tells us that wellbeing and performance are inseparable, and still offer an as-yet-untapped source of massive potential for a company.
Flow is characterized by both the high skill level used and challenge level faced. If we are in flow, we are therefore stretched and using all our abilities to meet the challenge at hand. Flow may arise from practice, but it goes beyond practice in a demonstration of the thing we were perhaps born to master, it is our purpose.
So, how could this be used in practice? I think an interesting application could be in 1-2-1 meetings with direct reports. Part of your responsibility as a leader is to create the environment in which people thrive (you as a leader included). Sometimes the experience of work results in a state of anxiety where we don’t have the skills to meet the challenge (top-left corner of the Flow graphic above).
Yet I think that the bottom right-hand corner — where people are under-stimulated, happens more than we might realise. Asking employees to plot where they are on the graphic during a project or over the course of 2-3 weeks at work might uncover areas that can be improved. Is constant presence in the Flow channel the idea state? I’m not convinced, and will share some thoughts on that next week.
Csíkszentmihályi was a big advocate of work design, and talked of autotelic jobs — those that provide conditions for people to be highly engaged, regardless of external rewards such as money and power. He said,
“The more a job inherently resembles a game — with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback — the more enjoyable it will be, regardless of the worker’s level of development.”
And a final thought for this week. What about you? Have you found Flow? What does that look like in your life and work?
Finding Flow
Whether this is the first Friday you’re receiving this email, or you’ve lost count 😉 I wanted to share that this is my 21st consecutive weekly newsletter. I’ve had a mailing list for years but it was only ever a random consideration. For the first time in my career I’m taking this part of my job seriously. Engaging with, and building an audience, is probably the most important thing for a solopreneur like myself — and I have arrived at that realisation much later than I should have!
Anyway, better late than never. My regular open rate is around 50% which I think is ok, but could of course be better. I do think at least some of the other 50% is affected by corporate email protection and out-of-office but I’d love to know what I can do to make this newsletter more valuable for you.
Is there anything else I should focus on each week? Move to bi-weekly? I succeed in my mission when I can truly make an impact to the busy business lives of leaders. So, please let me know how I can help. And if you’re not sure but would like to chat, just drop me a line and we can schedule a brief call.
Right, to this week’s content. Today’s theme — of Flow — raises a view of the performance mindset. Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at how we spend our time, from the start and finish of our days, to meetings, and how we can carve out thinking time. Yet just doing isn’t enough. We need to stretch and grow. This is where flow comes in.
Have a great week everyone and see you next Friday.
Happiness and High-Performance
A term first coined by the Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow is the state of complete immersion in an activity, in which we are fully engaged and fulfilled.
Flow allows us to attain high performance, be the best version of ourselves, and allow us to maximise happiness and wellbeing. Often associated with artists and athletes, who do their best work when ‘in the zone’, flow has been identified by researchers to exist in a variety of activities around the world.
I think most people who know the term readily associate the high-performance state, but what many don’t know is that Csíkszentmihályi’s initial motivation was improving human happiness and wellbeing. I think this tells us that wellbeing and performance are inseparable, and still offer an as-yet-untapped source of massive potential for a company.
Flow is characterized by both the high skill level used and challenge level faced. If we are in flow, we are therefore stretched and using all our abilities to meet the challenge at hand. Flow may arise from practice, but it goes beyond practice in a demonstration of the thing we were perhaps born to master, it is our purpose.
So, how could this be used in practice? I think an interesting application could be in 1-2-1 meetings with direct reports. Part of your responsibility as a leader is to create the environment in which people thrive (you as a leader included). Sometimes the experience of work results in a state of anxiety where we don’t have the skills to meet the challenge (top-left corner of the Flow graphic above).
Yet I think that the bottom right-hand corner — where people are under-stimulated, happens more than we might realise. Asking employees to plot where they are on the graphic during a project or over the course of 2-3 weeks at work might uncover areas that can be improved. Is constant presence in the Flow channel the idea state? I’m not convinced, and will share some thoughts on that next week.
Csíkszentmihályi was a big advocate of work design, and talked of autotelic jobs — those that provide conditions for people to be highly engaged, regardless of external rewards such as money and power. He said,
“The more a job inherently resembles a game — with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback — the more enjoyable it will be, regardless of the worker’s level of development.”
And a final thought for this week. What about you? Have you found Flow? What does that look like in your life and work?
Archivos