Dr Rona Mackenzie from IDG (Inspirational Development Group) features as this month’s coach in our February newsletter. In our spotlight article, the Featured Coach: Dr Rona Mackenzie on Human Performance provides insights on optimising our capabilities. This article, highlighted as “Featured Coach: Dr Rona Mackenzie on Human Performance,” offers a deep dive into the topic.
Rona completed a Masters in Educational Disadvantage and SEN and a Doctorate in Education at The University of Birmingham. She spent twenty years in education, working in six local authorities in an array of roles. Her responsibilities included all facets of school leadership and management. In 2013, Rona was appointed as the founding Principal of Lincoln UTC. She opened the new 14-19 college, specialising in Science and Engineering. Her work focused on the holistic development of students, enabling their personal, technical, and academic growth. Featured Coach: Dr Rona Mackenzie on Human Performance outlines how these experiences have influenced her perspective.
What is Human Performance?
Much of the research and work carried out under the general heading of ‘Human Performance’ has, as its primary focus, the causes of a functioning and ‘well’ body and mind. It therefore looks at issues of sleep, nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. Dr Rona Mackenzie elaborates on how these relate to achieving a good level of human functioning in the Featured Coach segment.
These are all very important issues and have a strong and proven interrelationship, with each other and with high performance. However…
They are, we now believe, only part of the story.
The sources of research and thinking in this area have primarily been sport – and particularly elite sport.
For any individual to achieve optimum human performance at work – and even more to be a leader who enables and supports optimum human performance in others and in teams of others… well, that requires more effort across a far wider spectrum of factors.
We believe that any organisation delivers no more than the sum total of the contributions and performance of all of its people. Our work and our studies have indicated that truly optimum Human Performance is the result of a virtuous balance between factors of:
Wellbeing – how people FEEL
Behaviour – how people BEHAVE
and Capability – what people are CAPABLE of achieving
…and this is greatly influenced by leadership and culture.
What does Wellbeing explore?
Within the wellbeing sphere, our core areas of focus are: Physical wellbeing – nutrition, sleep, self-care, movement, lifestyle design, wellness. Social wellbeing – social skills, relationships, support networks, resilience. Emotional wellbeing – reflective practice, self-compassion, self-awareness, mindfulness, coping strategies, coping thresholds, stress and pressure responses, growth mindset, mental wealth. Professional wellbeing – purpose, balance, leader influence, professional boundaries, time management, goal setting. These aspects are further explored by Dr Rona Mackenzie, our featured coach on Human Performance.
…and critically the impact these aspects have on optimum human performance.
We explore these areas with an individual, team or organisation, and seek to identify the hot-spots which have the greatest impact on performance. We do this by collecting pre-existing data, and then use a range of tools to fill the information gaps. These may include interviews, psychometrics, self and 360-degree reflection information, and physiology data.
We analyse, interpret and interrelate the information collected. We clearly identify the opportunities available and challenges faced. By connecting the dots and identifying the knock of effects of key behaviours, actions, beliefs, values and habits, we provide a clear picture of the current position. We also recommend actions to move you and your team towards a state of optimal performance.
How do you do that?
Awareness is the first step. If you appreciate the bigger picture of wellbeing and mental wealth and can identify the inter-related factors making up this complex picture, you can start to appreciate their impact on you. This influences your performance at home and work.
When we have identified the wellbeing hot-spots, our expert team uses experiential learning tools to help clients gain new knowledge and skills. We help them to connect the dots to see how their beliefs and behaviours may be impacting their wellbeing and performance. We support them to identify what they might wish to alter, adopt, or eliminate – from marginal, incremental steps to fundamental changes – in order to improve personal and professional lives.
Remember, we don’t just focus on wellbeing – we correlate findings across all three areas of wellbeing, capability, and behaviour. This creates a rich picture of the individual, team, and organisation, and leads to insights never seen before. These insights are highlighted by our Featured Coach: Dr Rona Mackenzie on Human Performance.
The outcome of our work?
Our participants become more self-aware, knowledgeable, skilled, and effective. They become optimum performers, experience greater success and, as a result, greater satisfaction and happiness in their personal and professional lives.
Conclusion Leaders shape everything and affect everybody. Their behaviour, thinking, attitudes, priorities, choices, self-awareness, and skills dictate your organisation’s Human Performance. In more than 20 years of developing thousands of leaders across the globe, we have a wealth of experience and expertise to bring to bear on building your leadership capability. It underpins everything we talk about – and everything we do. Dr Rona Mackenzie, our Featured Coach, offers her insights on Human Performance, emphasizing the importance of leadership in this context.
At IDG, we help you to evaluate and shape these three areas. Our shared goal is to develop your leaders to enable their people to achieve optimum Human Performance across your organisation.
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