How to boost your performance from the perspective of an athlete and a recruiter.

By setting team goals and holding yourself to a higher level of accountability, your organization will build trust with all stakeholders.

We’re all busy — yes busy-busy. We have bills to pay, family to take care of, workouts to be done, and of course, work deadlines to meet. All of these commitments leave us with little meaningful time for ourselves, and for cultivating meaningful relationships with others. But the good news is: When we say we’re time-poor, what we really mean is that we’re decision-poor. And that’s something we can change.

Most of us are incredibly careful about how we spend our money. But when it comes to our time especially during the work from home period, we hardly give it a second thought. We say YES to all non-essential requests for our time, we treat everything as urgent, we forgot our lunch or dinner break, we refuse to delegate work for fear that quality will be compromised, we spent our days threatened to our inbox and social media, and we stubbornly continue to say yes to all of that! (because sometimes me too!)

There was a time that I knew I can do it, but I don’t listen to my body. My body was asking me to rest and working out is a priority too. My back pain starts coming because we all know when we sit for more than 8 hours a day, our back might be stiff.

As a field hockey player who happens to be an expert in recruiter and employer branding (wait, what? — no, you are reading it right!) that used to train a couple of times a week and then global pandemic hit, I need to re-adjust my work out and my professional work and still can make sure both are on the top prime. Here are the tips and tricks from the perspective of a hockey player and a recruiter:

Appreciate yourself!

1st semester 2021 might not be easy for some of you, whatever you have done in the past 6-months, your work, your inner journey, thank yourself for making it this far, also don’t forget to thank your team for making it happen together!

Communicate The Essential Goals

Developing ambitious but realizable representation goals can be challenging and maintain performance during this pandemic is not an easy task! Analyze locally the 2nd semester goals as goals need to reflect the communities where you and your teamwork and live. I have my own target and I talk to my team on what is our expectations and goals as a team then we embody ourselves to the goals and impact that we will be created.

Building the pipeline

Looking back in the past 6-months, yup it is great! But looking forward to the next 6-months wreck my nerves sometimes and it scares me a little. Can I achieve the goals? Will I be able to complete all the tasks? Instead of thinking it too much, I build my own short-term goal and strategy (I usually make it quarterly). When I practice with my hockey team, I was a defender who has 1 goal, that is to not let the striker passed the 25 yards, then throughout my 1–2 months, I need to re-learn to stop the ball and passing it to the right person. Then the next month my goal is to learn the strategy of the team. Build a pipeline do some work progress.

Ask Help from the Expert

Hiring a team member(s) for your team is not to get your work done, is to complete and combine your strengths and your flaws together to achieve things. I have two-person in my team and each of them is expert in what they are doing. I’m not always right as a leader, I seek my team members' advice and feedback most of the time. And if my small team gets stuck, I seek a new perspective from my colleague or my team leader. Ask for help doesn’t lower your standard and makes you weak, it makes you stronger with new feedbacks.

Try task bundling.

Multi-tasking is a myth, and task-switching leaves us unproductive and exhausted, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t bundle tasks.

I once tried interviewing while doing a 1-min plank, no, don’t try! You really can’t focus on balancing your body and focus on the talent itself. But I do sourcing candidates while listening to TED-Talk or YouTube. Task bundling is something your brain can do at one time.

Celebrate together!

Who doesn’t love a celebration? Everybody does!

My team and I love to celebrate small things. I believe celebration can be turned into bigger spirits and motivation and appreciate the hard work!

By setting team goals and holding yourself to a higher level of accountability, your organization will build trust with all stakeholders. And by combining these goals with an investment in a culture of equality, you can help accelerate sustainable change and, ultimately, create value while leading with values!