by Jason Treu | Mar 5, 2018
I’m going to show you 5 lessons on how you can run a 4 minute mile like Roger Bannister, and reach any goal you desire. I know…you are already saying, “that’s not possible! I can barely run a 10-minute mile.” No one believed in Roger either. No one believes in your goal, whatever it may be. But that doesn’t matter. The only person that needs to believe it is YOU.
One of my goals in 2018 is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. That’s something very few people do in their first year of running (and I’ve never run more than 5 miles at a time before Thanksgiving 2017). What’s one your goals for this year?
In 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile record. He accomplished something that shattered what people thought was physically and psychologically impossible. Medical personnel and other theorists said that breaking this barrier may be deadly for human beings. Obviously, they were wrong.
What is crazy is that his record only lasted 46 days until John Landry broke it. Once Roger Bannister showed it was possible others then followed.
The 4-minute mile and it being an impossible barrier was a story people made-up and others believed. Limits are self-created not reality.
Roger Bannister shattered that story and myth like you can with any goal.
First of all, just like you, he didn’t have unlimited time or resources. He worked a day job and sometimes could only get in 30-40 minutes of training in each day. He had to run during his lunch breaks, and then go back to work again.
What’s the first lesson? Progress, not perfection.
Second lesson: He broke down the goal into manageable steps (literally!). He broke down every step of the race and figured out how fast/long each stride had to be. He didn’t try to run “as fast as he could run.”
He had a calculated plan to work towards. But even with his plan, sometimes the only thing he could do was run hard because he had limited time. This goes right back to lesson one.
Third lesson: If you get support, any goal becomes much easier. Bannister recruited friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway to pace him during the race.
Fourth lesson: It comes down to self-belief. No one thought this was possible except for Roger Bannister (and John Landry) at the time. He had to block out the noise and follow his own path.
Fifth lesson: It comes down to “drive,” not “motivation.” Motivation is fleeting. It’s there and then gone.
Drive comes down to answering two critical questions “why am I doing this?” and “what am I lacking that makes me want this so bad?”
Use these 5 lessons to help you achieve any goal you want. Look, you’ll most likely never be to do all five steps 100% every single day, and that’s not the point. 70-80% will be plenty to achieve it. Remember, lesson one…progress, not perfection.
So what’s one goal you can set today? It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be something you haven’t done yet.
PS – Bonus 6th lesson: Even after Roger got the record he was criticized. John Landry said he “got help” from others to run the race. Landry broke his record. But that wasn’t the end. They raced each other in the race of the century. Landry lead and Roger won right at the end. Your critics won’t ever go away. Stop listening to the noise.
by Jason Treu | Mar 3, 2018
Do you want to become a better leader and manager?
Do you want to eliminate the unconscious patterns that are holding you back in your business and career?
Do you want to increase to build an extremely high performing team?
Are you unsure of the next step in career?
These are just some of the areas I can help you and/or your team.
Schedule a 20-minute Free “Scale Your Career Call” here ►►►http://goo.gl/MvoH9d
My Guarantee for the Call:
1) We’re going to have a good look at your current situation —what’s working and what’s not.
2) We’ll have a look at where you want to go and find out what’s possible.
3) We’ll identify the patterns and blindspots holding you back
4) We’ll map out a quick three-step action plan to get you started moving in the right direction.
5) You’re going to leave clear, confident and excited that you can get to the next level.
6) I’ll give you a copy of my bestseller, “Social Wealth,” which has sold more than 50,000 copies on Amazon. And some other free tools that will increase your team’s performance within 45 minutes.
You’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Let’s talk and see if we may be a good fit to work together. If not, you’ll leave the call with new insights, tools and a plan of action you can implement on your own.
#executivecoach #businesscoach #teamperformance #teambuilding
by Jason Treu | Mar 3, 2018
Learning how to tell stories is a critical business skill that not many people talk about. It’s how extraordinary leaders motivate others. It’s how exceptional salespeople sell more. It’s how companies get people to buy their products. It’s how startup founders get venture and angel investors.
Adept storytellers captivate strangers using compelling stories that are vulnerable and tell the other person important information about them. Everyone has a story to tell and a history. Use it to your advantage and influence others positively, while you are at it!
People want to know the “real” you. They want to know the story behind what you are doing. Don’t hide or try to put on a front. It’s your chance to show a little vulnerability.
And all courage is linked with vulnerability. That’s very attractive to people (i.e. like bees to honey!)
Your story reveals your truth and who you are. Developing an emotional narrative will help build rapport and develop the foundation for deep, meaningful professional relationships.
Stories can also illustrate your unique approach to business and can help establish your authority.
I want to walk you through a two-part process how to come up with your stories and how to use them.
1) Use the below framework to think about what stories in your life you should use and also that authentically communicates who you are.
- Why is this story important to me to share with others? Will it liberate, educate, and/or entertain?
- Why will other people care to hear about it? Could they be going through it or someone they know?
- Do they need to know they’re not alone?
- Will they understand me and what I’m trying to say better?
- Could this story be helpful to others? Apply it in their lives? Use it for inspiration or in a challenging situation?
If you get stuck ask yourself questions like: “What am I most excited about in my life right now?” “What projects am I working about that I am passionate about?” “What has been the biggest obstacle in my life and how did I get past it?”
2) Use this process when you are engaged in a conversation
- Would this story BENEFIT this person in some way – get them to laugh, smile, think, etc.? If yes, share it! No? Don’t tell this story and try something else. If you are unsure, tell it and you’ll find out.
- What topics have this person already spoken about or shown interest in? Is that a part of my story? If yes, tell it! No? Change your story so you don’t bore the other person to death.
- After I share my story is the person engaged? How’s their body language…closed or open? Are they actively listening? Are they present or looking around the room? If yes, continue the conversation. If no, just politely excuse yourself and speak to someone else.
Your to-dos:
Use this framework to come up with your stories and use them.
Extra tip when you first meet someone: I also use a five-minute rule (and you can extend it to 10 minutes if the conversation is going really well). Talk to someone for no more than five minutes, exchange contact information and move on. Too many people limit their opportunities because they don’t meet enough people. It’s a numbers game until you get to know someone well enough to make a significant investment.
Want help developing your story, building relationships and becoming an extraordinary leader? Schedule a 20-minute “Scale Your Career Call” here ►►►http://goo.gl/MvoH9d
My Guarantee for the Call:
1) We’re going to have a good look at your current situation —what’s working and what’s not.
2) We’ll have a look at where you want to go and find out what’s possible.
3) We’ll identify the patterns and blindspots holding you back
4) We’ll map out a quick three-step action plan to get you started moving in the right direction.
5) You’re going to leave clear, confident and excited that you can get to the next level.
by Jason Treu | Mar 2, 2018
“How can I be more confident?” “What can I do to gain more confidence?”
We all want the elusive secret.
We think, “If only I felt more sure of myself, I’d go up to strangers at cocktail parties. Easily get in front of a room and give a talk. Score the promotion at work, instead of watching that guy in the next cubicle get it instead. I’d have more money, be a leader, live the life I want.”
But here’s the conundrum…
We don’t feel confident…to do what it takes to be confident!
I’m going to show you an escape hatch to get out of this tricky self-doubt loop.
First, let’s discuss the thinking that creates it.
“I’ve never been confident??!! So how could I ever be?”
When we lack something in our lives, we see the world through a scarcity mentality. We think of all the times we didn’t have something. We see all the evidence of where we weren’t confident. Sure we may find a time when we were more confident, but we rationalize it as the EXCEPTION NOT THE RULE. Like the saying goes, “seek and ye shall find.”
“That person was born with these skills. They’re a natural at it!”
People assume because someone is confident in one area in their lives, they’ve always been that way. Well, that’s just not correct. No one is born confident. Confidence is a learned behavior. But it’s not a skill you master by brushing your teeth. In order to have confidence, you have to take a leap of faith to create evidence. You become confident by proving to yourself that you are.
“Success has made them confident! If I could do that or have that, I’d be confident too!”
Haven’t you ever met someone who was successful or wealthy who: 1) wasn’t confident? and/or 2) was obsessed with what people thought of them? So if you’re thinking, “if only I had that job/ that partner/ that body,” everything would just fall into place and I’d be confident. Spoiler alert: it’s the opposite.
“If only I was skinnier, wealthier, smarter…I’d be more confident!”
Lack of confidence is also rooted in perfectionism. We can quickly get caught up in comparing ourselves to others. For example, we look at our Facebook News Feed and see the fantastic things going on in other people’s lives. We compare “the news feed” to our lives and focus on all the things we lack. We think if we only had those things, we’d be happier. This comparison mindset leads us to believe nothing we ever do will be good enough. Well, it’s all a huge trap and slippery slope. Even if you had what you thought you lacked, you’ll never be satisfied because there is always another level you’ll want to reach. The key is to learn to be comfortable where you are now, take action and create your own unique journey.
Now that we’ve busted some myths about confidence, here’s what you’re probably wondering next: You’ve been confident in the past so why didn’t it stick?!
We’ve all felt confident before, so you know you are capable of it. In fact, there probably was a time you FELT really confident. But over time, that confidence dissipated and it just seemed like a distant memory.
Can you relate to any of these three situations?
- You’ve walked up, spoken to a stranger and had a fantastic conversation. But six months later, you feel paralyzed and can’t do it.
- You’ve successfully spoken to a group of people at work. But now you feel petrified about doing a presentation.
- You’ve received a promotion for all the great work you did. But you feel completely unsure in your job when you are asked to lead a new project.
WHY does this happen? Confidence is a reflection of how you feel on the INSIDE. It’s a feeling and perception that is closely tied to your emotional state. It comes down to having a feeling of abundance (versus scarcity) in your life (whether you have it or not).
If you believe you lack it, you can’t be confident. Your feeling of lack is directly correlated to your lack of confidence. Think about it, what area of life do you not feel confident in? If you had that handled, how would you feel…more confident, yes? If you felt like that wouldn’t it be easier to take the next “leap of faith?”
So now you are wondering, what’s solution? Where is the escape hatch from this self-doubt loop?
Here is your confidence hack. Think of this as “power posing” for your mind. “Act as if…” Act as if you were what you wanted to be ALREADY. What would that person act like? Think? Feel? You aren’t lying to anyone or yourself or making things up. You are assuming you are in abundance and finding authentic ways to act like it to create the evidence you need to feel confident.
You want to approach your boss for a raise. Think, “What would a confident person do and think? They would know their worth to the company and in the market. They would come in prepared. They would fight for a compensation increase.”
You want to meet the person across the room. Think, “How would a confident person approach a stranger? They’d have direct eye contact. They would have great body posture. They’d ask questions, listen, smile and laugh.”
You have to give a presentation to 50 people. Think, “How would a confident person approach this situation? They’d prepare, practice and believe they are the expert on the topic. They’d get the audience involved. They’d show their passion and excitement. They’d have eye contact with the audience.”
An important question to ask yourself right now is: “What am I acting as if will happen in the most important areas of my life?” You will often get what you expect to happen.
Here is your three-step solution:
- Identify one thing you want to happen right now
- Model your thoughts, actions, and feelings of someone who has what you want
- Get the evidence you need to feel confident
So take action and make it real!
by Jason Treu | Feb 28, 2018
I’ve been doing intensive research for more than two years on maximizing team performance, collaboration, and innovation. Along the way, I’ve interviewed experts, influencers, HR/Sales executives, CEOs and many others on the very best team building exercises.
I’ve tested dozens of them out in every size organization from Fortune 100, SMBs, startups, very small businesses, remote teams, executive teams, executive boards, charity boards, sales teams, human resources, etc.
I’m giving you the best of the best below. These will make an impact in your organization. They will increase performance, KPIs, collaboration, retention, engagement, innovation/creativity and much more.
I don’t go into the science, research, and reasoning in this post just the exercises themselves.
And you could schedule them quarterly to do and you’ll have enough for the next 15 months.
Here are the Top 5 Team Building Activities to Sky Rocket Performance
1) Have every person bring a picture at the beginning of a weekly meeting. Give people 30 seconds to say why they picked the picture and what it means to them. You’ll see engagement and productivity rise immediately in the meeting.
There are several reasons why using picture is powerful:
- Pictures evoke strong emotions in people and create instant connections. They create an instant boost of serotonin and oxytocin, which are connection-building hormones. Plus, that’s why Facebook and Instagram work – pictures!
- They capture people’s attention (and there is less chance they get distracted versus just telling a story alone). We remember images much better than words. Research shows that people remember 60% of they see three days later. It is only 10% of words.
- They evoke associations in people’s minds to things they have done, experienced or just heard about
- Human beings are hardwired for visual stimulation. We’ve only had written communication for 3000+ years, and visual communication for 10x longer.
- Photos work across all cultures and geographic boundaries. Words don’t. I’ve clients run this in Europe, Asia, and South America, and it’s been just as effective. It would be much harder to do this with words along because of language barriers and differences in languages.
1A) You can also do that by having people bring in three pictures: One of themselves as a kid, one of them with friends/family and one of them doing an activity they love. Here is a free website with royalty-free pictures that people could use as well.
2) Go around the room and answer one question in one minute. The leader needs to go first and they need to share something vulnerable. You can use my team building game, Cards Against Mundanity, to get the questions from. It’s based off a famous research study by Professor Arthur Aron where he got complete strangers to create the closest relationships in their lives in 45 minutes.
2A) Get a bowl and put it in a central location such as the kitchen. Put questions in the bowl. People can use them to ask people questions.
3) Have everyone go around the room and share the one-minute in his or her life they would relive over every other moment. Each person has one minute to share what that moment was and why it matters to them. It brings out the most important moments for people and has them sharing it with the team.
4) Everyone wants a fun exercise, so here is one for you: Airband or Hairband activity. You get team members to act out and “lip sync” their favorite song. Give them a week to prepare, and then have them perform it. Get creative with costumes, props, etc. At the end, have them share why they picked that song. Was it because of a specific experience or memory?
5) Memory wall exercise. People draw pictures or share photos of a meaningful and positive time/experience they have had at work. This activity gets people to share positive memories about the organization, and focus on the things that are going right.
Want a (free) team building activity that is proven, tested and will immediately increase performance, collaboration and problem-solving? Download “Cards Against Mundanity.” I’ve included two cards from the game below.
I’ve spent two years researching and testing this game in dozens of organizations from small businesses to the largest corporations to come up with an easy, quick and fun activity that gets people immediately operating at peak performance. You can watch my TEDx speech to learn more.
by Jason Treu | Feb 27, 2018
Are you looking to increase productivity, crush your organizational goals and maximize revenue/profit? Do you want increase creative ideas and/or problem-solving? Gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace?
If you answered, “yes” to any of the above, read on.
I’m going to share with you how to do it along with the deep psychological and emotional reasons(and research) behind why it will work for you.
It’s also fun, quick and easy and it will make a major impact on your team’s performance – up to 7x increase (according to research studies). You’ll be able to get people to be operating at peak performance on a consistent basis.
Imagine how much more you will be able to accomplish in the next year if you can do that?! Imagine what that will do for your career and/or business?!
Here is the first critical concept to understand: Increasing engagement and maximizing outcomes are directly linked to how much people trust others within the group and trust you, the leader.
And that’s completely broken today for most leaders.
Many teams/organizations are run by leaders who are very poor managers. This leads to disengagement and subpar performance/productivity.
Here are a few data points on why this happening:
- Research studies show that 90%+ of employee work satisfaction/engagement is based on trust. 70% of US workers are dissatisfied, which highlights a major trust deficit.
- 45% of people today don’t trust their leaders, and that’s having a major impact on the team and organizational success.
- “The overwhelming majority—a shocking 80%—of employees surveyed think they could do their job without managers and deem them unnecessary.”
- “71% of managers say they know how to motivate their team, but only 44% of employees agree that their manager knows how to motivate them.”
- Gallup’s, “State of the American Manager, managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores.
- Most managers aren’t getting any training or the training they are getting isn’t working.
With any major challenge lies a huge opportunity. The teams and organizations that can figure out how to boost trust are going to gain a major competitive advantage.
The ones who can build a high-level of trust will:
- Get significantly more done because participation will increase.
- Come up with many more suggestions for improvement and innovation.
- Come much more prepared for meetings and won’t be looking at their email or thinking about what they have to do for the rest of the day.
- Look to contribute much more than they criticize others.
- Be much more open to change and new ideas.
- Help others proactively and be invested in their success.
- Will work smarter, harder and longer leading to productivity and bottom line gains.
Don’t you think that creating an environment like this will make you a more effective leader and help everyone as well?
There is a very specific reason why this works, and this is the “secret sauce.”
The most important component of trust is caring. The more you get people to care about the people in the group and get them invested in the success of other people, you’ll see performance immediately increase. (Check out the research of Charles Feltman to learn more about this)
“CARING is the assessment that you have the other person’s interests in mind as well as your own when you make decisions and take actions. Of the four assessments of trustworthiness, care is in some ways the most important for building lasting trust. When people believe you are only concerned with your self-interest and don’t consider their interests as well, they may trust your sincerity, reliability, and competence, but they will tend to limit their trust of you to specific situations or transactions. On the other hand, when people believe you hold their interest in mind, they will extend their trust more broadly to you.”
Then the question comes up, “so how do I get people to care about the team and team’s success?”
1) Belonging is in every human beings DNA. They want to be apart of groups that are meaningful for them and ones in which they feel close to the people.
2) Research confirms that disconnection from people will kill you. It’s as essential as food, water, shelter and a basic human need. Loneliness is the equivalency of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
- (Check out the incredible research by Professor John Cacioppo at the University of Chicago that backs this up. “Cacioppo discusses how the need for social connection is so fundamental in humans that without it we fall apart, down to the cellular level. Over time blood pressure climbs and gene expression falters. Cognition dulls; immune systems deteriorate. Aging accelerates under the constant, corrosive presence of stress hormones. Loneliness, Cacioppo argued, isn’t some personality defect or sign of weakness—it’s a survival impulse like hunger or thirst.”)
Creating belonging is the team is absolutely essential.
If you apply the same logic to how you would build any relationship outside of work, you will be able to do this quite quickly.
The more people know about you, the more emotionally invested they get in you.You do that through sharing, listening and asking questions.
When you share with others you become more vulnerable. When you become more vulnerable, you become more invested in others and vice-versa.
And when the leader in a group becomes vulnerable it tells other people it is safe to share. That’s why I always recommend the leader needs to start sharing first for this to work.
This opens the floodgates “of sharing” to create psychological safety in the team/organization (i.e. the #1 factor in maximum team performance according to a three-year study by Google).
The reason that psychological safety can be created really quickly is that people can relate not only to the shared experiences but the shared emotions.
For example, if you describe a loss in your life, other people in the room have had some form of loss in their lives. It may not be the same loss (i.e. your mom passing away). But they can relate to your story through shared emotions (pain, hurt, sadness, etc.).
And if you do activities that can quickly get people to open and share, you are fast-tracking the relationship building process. What could take years or decades, you can do in a very short period of time.
So how does this all make a team or organization more effective?
You treat the people closest in your lives much differently than the people you either have neutral feelings for or dislike.
Think about the people you work with that you like versus ones you dislike or have neutral feelings about. How do you engage with them? Do you care equally about their success? Are you more willing to people you like or people you dislike?
If you can create a team and/organization with people that like each other (which doesn’t mean they are friends), you will radically increase performance.
Below are suggested activities you can use. They have worked very well for every size client from very small businesses to Fortune 100 companies.
1) Have every person bring a picture at the beginning of a weekly meeting. Give people 30 seconds to say why they picked the picture and what it means to them. You’ll see engagement and productivity rise immediately in the meeting.
There are several reasons why using picture is powerful:
- Pictures evoke strong emotions in people and create instant connections. They create an instant boost of serotonin and oxytocin, which are connection-building hormones. Plus, that’s why Facebook and Instagram work – pictures!
- They capture people’s attention (and there is less chance they get distracted versus just telling a story alone). We remember images much better than words. Research shows that people remember 60% of they see three days later. It is only 10% of words.
- They evoke associations in people’s minds to things they have done, experienced or just heard about
- Human beings are hardwired for visual stimulation. We’ve only had written communication for 3000+ years, and visual communication for 10x longer.
- Photos work across all cultures and geographic boundaries. Words don’t. I’ve clients run this in Europe, Asia, and South America, and it’s been just as effective. It would be much harder to do this with words along because of language barriers and differences in languages.
1A) You can also do that by having people bring in three pictures: One of themselves as a kid, one of them with friends/family and one of them doing an activity they love. Here is a free website with royalty-free pictures that people could use as well.
2) Go around the room and answer one question in one minute. The leader needs to go first and they need to share something vulnerable. You can use my team building game, Cards Against Mundanity, to get the questions from. It’s based off a famous research study by Professor Arthur Aron where he got complete strangers to create the closest relationships in their lives in 45 minutes.
2A) Get a bowl and put it in a central location such as the kitchen. Put questions in the bowl. People can use them to ask people questions.
3) Have everyone go around the room and share the one-minute in his or her life they would relive over every other moment. Each person has one minute to share what that moment was and why it matters to them. It brings out the most important moments for people and has them sharing it with the team.
4) Everyone wants a fun exercise, so here is one for you: Airband or Hairband activity. You get team members to act out and “lip sync” their favorite song. Give them a week to prepare, and then have them perform it. Get creative with costumes, props, etc. At the end, have them share why they picked that song. Was it because of a specific experience or memory?
5) Memory wall exercise. People draw pictures or share photos of a meaningful and positive time/experience they have had at work. This activity gets people to share positive memories about the organization, and focus on the things that are going right.
Want a (free) team building activity that is proven, tested and will immediately increase performance, collaboration and problem-solving? Download “Cards Against Mundanity.” I’ve included two cards from the game below.
I’ve spent two years researching and testing this game in dozens of organizations from small businesses to the largest corporations to come up with an easy, quick and fun activity that gets people immediately operating at peak performance. You can watch my TEDx speech to learn more.
