What if feeling is a prerequisite for performance?
By Chantelle Botha
I met a man on my morning run who said he wished he had time to do something that so clearly brought life into my face.
“You have time,” I said. “You have just chosen to believe you don’t.”
Although my morning run is technically exercise, I run to embrace my aliveness. Every time I lose my breath, or my muscles recoil at the exertion, I get to FEEL. And the more I feel, the more gratitude I experience and the more present I become.
And, ironically, the more productive I am in the coming day.
“Feelings” have gotten a bad rap in the corporate world, so leaders can view anything emotional as a distraction from the job at hand.
You’re present, but you’re not really present. Your mind is running at a thousand miles an hour, and you’re starting to forget things. The signs are small enough to catch, but left unchecked, they’re symptomatic of a bigger problem.
What if how you feel is the prerequisite for performance?
Research tells us that 63% of South African professionals are feeling work-related stress. With burnout characterised by extreme mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion, it seems obvious that rest would provide relief. But rest doesn’t necessarily address disconnection.
When we become disconnected from the signals that tell us we’re heading towards burnout, we lose access to the information we need to make different choices.
There is just too much on your plate, and you’ve forgotten how to feel. That numbness creates disconnection – from yourself, from the people around you, from the vision and mission, and ultimately, from what really matters.
A leader can be functioning at full capacity while becoming increasingly disconnected from themselves under the demands of the role.
The smarter we’ve got, the more emphasis we’ve placed on the tail end of the domino effect (performance, productivity, results) and we’ve forgotten the importance of what comes before it.
Your internal state doesn’t stay neatly inside you, it influences how you think. How you think influences how you behave. How you behave influences your relationships. And your relationships influence your opportunities, and ultimately your results.
It’s the domino effect:
Feel → think → act → relate → perform.
We have become obsessed with the final domino while neglecting the ones that create it. You cannot isolate human state from business performance.
Earlier this year, I was poised on the precipice of burnout yet again. Of course, I was still doing what needed to be done, but internally, I was numb. I felt isolated and scared. Having stopped feeling, I stopped engaging, and my creativity went down the toilet.
The danger becomes apparent when leaders continue functioning long after they’ve stopped being fully present. They miss the signals needed to make sustainable decisions. They misread people, damage relationships and ultimately lose opportunities.
This matters because leadership happens through relationships. Every decision, negotiation, act of innovation and difficult conversation happens through a human being in a particular internal state.
Feeling isn’t the opposite of getting things done. Feeling is information. Information that helps get the right things done at the right time.
Today, I have one question for you: What have you stopped making time for because it doesn’t look productive?
Feeling ALIVE is a prerequisite for inspired and connected leadership. Not the by-product.
Chantelle Botha is an international speaker, author and Permission Catalyst, helping leaders turn shame into desire and desire into courage. To learn how better choices can change the way you live, love and lead, visit phoenixconfidence.com.
