The Journal #12
Sleep. Competition. Culture. Naps.
01. HEALTH - Joe Gaunt
Sleep Smarter not Harder
Some elements of health and their benefits have been made more obvious to us as they have been easier to commercialise (fitness/ nutrition) whilst others that are less easy to make money from and have therefore been neglected from the mainstream.
Russell Foster has written a fantastic book titled ‘Life Time’. In it Foster provides great insights into the body clock, circadian rhythm and its highly impactful knock on impact on physical and mental health, wellbeing and productivity. It also highlights new habits to positively support;
Obesity
Mood disorders
Diabetes
Cardiovascular disease
I recommend this book for anyone interested in expanding their general health knowledge and with an interest in sleep and better sleep habits.
We know sleep to be the number one factor in improving recovery and overall health and so we’re doubling down at The Hundred 2024 with not one but two sleep experts to help guide you towards better sleep and a better you.
02. PERFORMANCE - Jonny Grayshon
Lessons from The Mat
Competition
Be that in business, relationships or sport,
Friendly competition brings out the best in us.
Competition can also highlight the things we are bad at.
Embrace the challenge, learn from any losses and enjoy the victories.
Community
As humans we are programmed to be part of a pack.
Social interaction, shared adversity and working towards the same goal forms solid bond that can last a lifetime.
A group of people can breed positivity within their circle so strong you’ll feel unbeatable.
This was the same with my professional sport.
And this mentality drips through to my group personal training clients.
Always surround yourself with like minded individuals.
Never Quit
When I won gold at the British Championships I was getting my ass kicked in the final.
13 - 0 down with 60 seconds to go.
Completely gassed, there was no way I could rack up 14 + points in the time frame left on the clock.
I ended up choking the guy out with literally seconds to go, to claim the victory.
At the time I didn’t have that planned, I just kept fighting until an opportunity presented itself.
Even when your chips are down, keep going as you never know what’s right around the corner!
03. BUSINESS - Mike Bates
Culture is Contagious
This week I had the privilege of being invited to speak for two amazing clients and their people.
The first, a panel discussion named ‘Fit to Lead’, hosted on the impressive Buffini Chao Deck within the National Theatre in London. The event was organised by Babble and I sat alongside some amazing people including Dr Steve Ingham (the mastermind behind British Olympic success for over a decade), Sarah Furness (former combat helicopter pilot) and Orla Chennaoi (TNT/Discovery sports broadcaster). The panel was moderated by Chris Paton, a former Lieutenant-Colonel within His Majesties Royal Marines and the man responsible for the Afghanistan withdrawal on behalf of the then PM and now Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron.
Chris also has the claim to fame of being my commanding officer on a 6 month tour of bandit country in Northern Ireland in a miserable South Armagh over the Christmas of 2004.
It was a lively discussion about the link between physical and mental fitness, specifically how leaders can make time to focus on their own growth at events like The Hundred by NXT45 in order to serve others better.
At the second event I delivered a keynote to close out the Sedulo annual conference at the Everyman Cinema in Leeds.
I focussed my keynote around three very small words which when combined together hold the key to any businesses success.
Me. We. Us.
I also had the pleasure of listening to some other great speakers including Bruce Daisley (former head of X in Europe), Roger Steare (The Corporate Philosopher), Rory Underwood MBE, Kenny Logan and more.
The theme from all of those discussions centred around the culture within an organisation.
How do you create it?
How do you nurture and grow it?
How does it go wrong?
At the heart of culture is people.
Get the people bit right in business and the money will follow.
One thing that really stood out was how very little staff are engaged in their work/role.
Researchers studied staff engagement and found that only 10% of a workforce are actively engaged at any one time - these lot are your heroes.
75% of the workforce are passively disengaged - these lot are focussed or likely distracted elsewhere.
15% are actively disengaged - these lot are your internal terrorists trying to pull the whole thing down.
So more terrorists than heroes…no wonder business is hard work!
When polled about the one thing that meant a member of staff was more engaged and happy at work the result was clear.
Having a friend within their workplace.
It turns out, rather unsurprisingly to me, that people need connection to other people to be at their best and that when we foster positive relationships amongst our people the world is a much happier and more productive place.
Culture is not what you do
Culture is how it feels doing what you do.
The best businesses constantly invest in creating new and engaging ways to bring their people together and facilitate the nurturing of their relationships through exciting and interesting events (like the ones I spoke at this week).
These businesses always out perform the competition.
They attract and importantly keep the talent they need to grow.
How?
It turns out that culture is actually contagious. Much like COVID it’s ability to spread is governed by the R number, or the rate of infection.
R-Culture = 1.59.
For every positive cultural behaviour you or one of your team demonstrate 1.5 colleagues are positively affected.
And you guessed it. Every negative cultural behaviour negatively affects 1.5 others negatively.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that with 10 heroes waging war against 15 terrorists in every workplace, every day the fight for positive culture is a battle that is hard to win.
But one I believe is definitely worth fighting for.
Power to the people!
04. QUOTE
“Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind”
Zen Proverb
05. TIP
Prioritise eliminating sleep debt through naps not sleep ins.
We learned this game-changing tip this week during our community online Masterclass with Phil Learney; coach, leader & founder of HMN24.
If you stay up late or have a disrupted nights sleep the temptation is to sleep in to catch up.
But, by sleeping in we shift our entire sleep/wake cycle to the right.
Not good but to make matters worse…
For every hour we do this it takes us up to 24 hours to readjust back into our rhythm (that’s why athletes and fighters will deploy to the country of their event weeks in advance).
Sneaking in a guilt free nap (easier said than done) in the early afternoon reduces sleep debt and maintains your current sleep/wake cycle.
Nap to win…I’m in!
The Journal by NXT45
