Category Archives for Sports Teams & Athletes

How Can I Help Your Organization With Performance Managment?

1. As a value add resource
2. Outsource your performance management

Do You Instill Confidence Cues?

“Achieve your clear performance goal using confidence cues. ” – Raj Gavurla

Performance Breakthrough(s):

One skill to instill to create performance breakthrough(s) is confidence cues.  An example is driving to Greenville, SC from Washington, D.C..  Do you have a clear performance goal?  Yes, drive to Greenville, SC. Your confidence cues are put a full tank of gas in the car and refuel when needed, drive to Richmond, Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte.  Each confidence cue gets you closer to your clear performance goal of driving to Greenville, SC.

Some people have a performance goal but it is not a clear performance goal.  They say in my coaching they want or need a client.  This is not a clear performance goal.  Why do you want a targeted client and how will you approach them?  Answering this question creates a clear performance goal.

Now that you have a clear performance goal, what are your confidence cues.  You know to prepare and do so, you  connect in a genuine way, and you have wisdom to approach them the right way. All of these are confidence cues.  Another confidence cue to instill is to ask better question(s) to create the right dialogue to help them get what they want, need, or are interested in.

Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership:

Are you creating performance breakthroughs?  Are your employees involved with innovation and entrepreneurial leadership?  The new trend in business is towards an innovation and entrepreneurial leadership culture instead of a hierarchical or authoritative culture.  Do you have a process to help your business  become more innovative and exhibit entrepreneurial leadership?  Doing so is a win for all.

“The Zone” Effect:

By many “the zone” effect is described as everything is in slow motion, time stands still (isn’t a deterring factor), and your performance feels effortless.

A sports example is when playing basketball before I shoot I’m already thinking ahead (therefore, I know I will shoot although I’m dribbling), then I see the rim one foot higher (for arch and backspin), and feel.  The last two are co-activation.  Some players see shooting the ball over the loop of the goal and some watch the path of the ball and some don’t.  What works for you?

Do you need to instill confidence cues to make you a better shooter.  There is always a spot on the floor for a shooter.

Your Most Recent “The Zone” Effect:

Here’s an exercise for you?  Describe a time when you were in “The Zone”.  Also, have your teammates describe a time when they were in “The Zone”.  What did you learn from this exercise?

As you progress, you learn skill(s) to achieve your clear performance goals.   The skill progresses in stages:

Learn the skill ->Develop the skill ->Build the skill ->Grow the skill ->”The Zone” Effect (use skill at the right time)

That’s “The Zone” Effect. Are you experiencing your “The Zone” Effect?

“An amateur practices until they can play it correctly, a professional practices

until they can’t play it incorrectly.” – Unknown

I’ve been using my innovation and entrepreneurial leadership tools in my speaking programs, private performance and life consulting, and coaching.  This tool among other concepts and tools appear in my Entrepreneurial Thinking Tools manual, Your Raise The Bar: Mental Performance Tools workbooks for business/education, sports, and Winning At Entrepreneurship.  There are more resources to help you at http://www.MotivateResults.com.

For programs and services, contact Raj Gavurla at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com.

Forward Economic Mobility In Your Organization and Team(s)

“Innovation and entrepreneurial leadership takes pressure off of management and

creates new leaders, services, or products.” – Raj Gavurla

Performance Breakthrough(s):

What performance breakthrough are you working towards?  Ask yourself why you need it and how to get it.  Are you making it harder than it should be?

Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership:

In an entrepreneurial job a seasoned entrepreneurial employee knows it takes a combination of skills, time, and a performance mindset to create breakthroughs in less time and that makes it worth doing.

In a non-entrepreneurial job you know what to do and it is a production mindset.

A job needs both to be sustainable.  That’s the innovation and entrepreneurial leadership needed to evolve democracy and capitalism so we forward economic mobility to take pressure off of management and create new leaders, services, and products.

My book, Winning At Entrepreneurship, has nine common-sense strategies for business owners within an organization (intrapreneurship) or for those who are nascent, emerging, or extremely successful entrepreneurs.

Here are the nine common-sense strategies:

1. Find Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

2. Use Your Common Sense

3. Know That Positive Change Is Good

4. Use Teamwork As Your Foundation

5. Implement the Client Modular Approach

6. Build Trustworthy Relationships

7. Withdraw from Your Stimulation Bank

8. Compete for Results

9. Keep Growing To Another New Best Level

“The Zone” Effect:

By many “the zone” effect is described as everything is in slow motion, time stands still (isn’t a deterring factor), and your performance feels effortless.

My tennis coach verbally recognized me by saying, “Raj you can hit every shot.”  I thought wow!  I’ve played tennis since high school and now decades later I’ve been rewarded.  What were the key factors?

1.  I learned technique and mental performance skills at the same time to accelerate my progress.

2.  I made it fun to play better tennis without rushing it.

3.  Consistently (mental performance skills daily, actual matches/practice once or twice a week)

4.  I have an exercise physiology functional trainer that strengthens me and keeps me from being injured

My most recent “The Zone” Effect:

For the first time, I felt like I was hitting new balls when we started a new game. However, they weren’t new balls. That’s “The Zone” Effect. Are you experiencing your “The Zone” Effect?

“How many success stories do you need to hear before you make your own?” – Unknown

For programs and services, contact Raj Gavurla at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com.

Did You Win Or Lose?

“Make it team win fun.” – Raj Gavurla

Did you win or lose? How about thinking about it this way?:

A team or individual either has “team win fun”, “amazing fun”, “loss” (if it wasn’t fun for you), or it’s a “tie”. No one is a loser. Forward economic mobility not poverty, hate, and violence.

Phrases That Pay To Create Performance Breakthroughs

“Use your skills at the right time.” – Raj Gavurla

When I talk with people and coordinate with people, there are times when performance breakthroughs aren’t occurring.   Some phrases that might work for you are:

1.  Situation: They won’t do that.

     Ask:  “Who is they?”

2.  Situation: If we isn’t clear.

     Ask: “Who is we?”

3.  Situation: If us isn’t clear.

     Ask: “Who is us?”

4.  Situation:  If someone randomly says a word.

     Ask:  “What does that mean?”

5.  Situation: If you isn’t clear.

     Ask: “Who is you?”

6.  Situation: If them isn’t clear.

     Ask: “Who is them?”

7.  Situation: If I need that or send me the file isn’t clear it’s now.

     Ask:  When do you want it?

Remember the organization, team, and you are one.  If each isn’t exhibiting the right transparency for the betterment of people (clients, owners, shareholders, executives, leadership, management, professionals, and the market), then you have ostensible power and control.  With the right transparency, you create better performance breakthroughs.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

For programs and services, contact Raj Gavurla at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com.

Experiencing Intelligent Breakthroughs – Good Health: It’s Systemic!

“Make lives better experiencing intelligent breakthroughs in performance and life high value money. 

Intelligent business as a calling” – Raj Gavurla

This perspective will either challenge, motivate, inspire, or encourage you to live a greater destiny or make you mad for the greater good.  When I look at the end in mind first, what people need and want is to live a healthy life that catalyzes their independence to live their greatest dreams – freedom.  This means not experiencing medical hardship inhibiting them from doing so and if they pass away they want to do so peacefully.  However, on a larger scale this isn’t happening although people are living longer and we hope individualized medicine will have us living forever.  There will be advancements in medicine.  Age has nothing to do with it as I know, see, and read about people passing away at different ages. I wish it didn’t happen.

What can we do now to create a better future?  There is amazing education and amazing medical treatments yet the silos we live in including our laws (suppose to make it better not harder) are keeping us from living a robust life.  There needs to be a holistic community coordinated effort between the individual, family, employers, providers, insurers, faith and/or belief system.  Only the people who need to know know about the person’s challenge and show dignity for the person (grace).    In the process, you are making lives better to earn performance and life breakthroughs to earn better money.  That’s better business.  Think, feel,  research better outcomes, see, and hear the better outcomes. Business as a calling (bring life).

What could this look like?  There needs to be a protocol for each health challenge similar to the concussion protocol in the NBA.  As an employer, your employees are of greatest value to you and as you and they catalyze their learning, development, and growth they catalyze your business to serve your clients for greater economic mobility for clients, employees, families, friends, community, and society to rejoice and share the essence of living.  Lots of fun living a greater destiny. Amazing!

However, our current system doesn’t show the flow of the individual through the services to see the better patient outcomes.  This is non-sense.  Yes, many people receive treatment and they are well and this is a better patient outcome living a robust life.  However, an increasing number are shuttled through a maze of providers and since they aren’t educated on health they do as told until the results aren’t there or there is a systemic challenge to follow the treatment plan including devastating side effects.  There are too many people suffering and struggling in this jungle and it can all be avoided by coordinating (implementing the adaptability link) between each of the silos.

There are so many treatments to choose from and the doctors need to learn what they are even if it means the patient will be treated elsewhere.  They might or might not receive a referral fee.  The point is enabling better patient outcomes.  By implementing this approach twenty years of surviving, struggling, and/or suffering are eschewed to one year or less.  Look at all the wasted time, money, and talent not working a job of their choice congruent with their skill set to contribute to society.

What are the initiatives before we get to individualized medicine for better patient outcomes which obviously the doctors (love seeing their patients succeed)  also need and want?

1.  Implement the adaptability link (interconnect) between the current silos and learn and apply practical mental performance and life breakthroughs skills.

2.  Doctors learn and apply the importance of interaction and communication skills to help a person who is sick so there aren’t medical errors.  Realize patients are sick, scared, and/or frightened and their loved ones are caregivers, scared, and/or frightened and most likely praying.

3.  Educate the patient and/or loved ones about conditions there currently isn’t a cure for.

4.  Learn the benefits of daily nutrition (for starters eat a lot of vegetables and fruits that make you feel good with each meal, and drink eight glasses of water).

5.  Learn to listen to your body to exercise in a serious and fun way without causing injury to make your life better to earn performance and life breakthroughs daily.  Use a lot of win forward fun variety.

6.  You are a person and therefore you are an expert on your body.  In high schools an anatomy course to educate students so they can have better conversations with their providers will make it better, it might interest them in a medical career, or in a career where a client of theirs is in the medical field.

My health insurance covered the removal of a bone spur.  It covered the many times I had ailments with a known cure very well.  However, at times I wasn’t making health performance breakthroughs and shuttled myself from provider to provider because that’s what insurance covered.  Then, I researched better outcomes and the ankle sprain doctors and physical therapy treated was cured with acupuncture and an extremities chiropractor.  My chronic pain was cured by a recommendation from a doctor to read and practically apply the exercises in the book, Pain Free, by Pete Egoscue.  For non-disclosed health needs, I researched other private pay services.  Why my doctors and insurance company didn’t send me to these resources and services when I wasn’t achieving health performance breakthroughs is non-sense?  Do what it takes for better patient outcomes.

Hobbies and competitive hobbies are important to your employees and people.  I have absolute love and passion for  better basketball.  The people around me didn’t make it easier.  They said “aren’t you too old for that?”,  “people your age don’t do that”, “you’ll get hurt”, “you’ll break your legs”, and so much more non-sense.  To prepare and learn, I see a private pay exercise functional physiologist trainer twice a week at the start, now every two weeks, and learned the stretches and how to strengthen my body and most importantly my mental performance and life breakthroughs skills (my expertise).   I’m playing better basketball with people older and half my age.  Age has nothing to do with it.

I played basketball in the driveways, playgrounds, and gymnasiums of Greenville, SC.  I’ve been called “Air Jordan” on the courts of Southeast D.C. not because of dunking, been called Kobe in Greenville, SC at the YMCA, and been called by a NBA player who said, “I saw Jerry West.”  Obviously, high praise and I am really flattered, honored, and prideful of the words.  My basketball hero is Isiah Lord Thomas.  To forward the NBA, any player needs to “play better basketball” showing they are unique and different.  The foundation (fundamentals) of basketball are present.  It’s your uniqueness and you are different (combined: the person) is the reason you are paid millions.  It always amazes me how basketball players look similar but they defend, ball-handling, pass, shoot, rebound, run, and forward the NBA in a unique and different way.

With the process of solving the systemic silos you are making lives better to earn performance and life breakthroughs to earn better money.  That’s better incentive and better business.  Think.  Look at all the wasted time, money, and talent not working a job of their choice because there are not better patient outcomes because of the systemic silos that exist between the individual, family, employers, providers, insurers, faith and/or belief system not being congruent with the skill set of the patient to contribute to society.  Stop the silos!  Live a greater destiny!  You’re on team (together everyone achieves more) humanity.  Do it for humanity!

“If I quit now, I will soon be back to where I started. And when I started I was desperately

wishing to be where I am now.” – Unknown

For programs and services, contact Raj Gavurla at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com.

Make Lives Better To Earn Performance Breakthroughs To Earn Better Money

Create Performance Breakthroughs & Leadership (Motivating & Inspiring Speaker, Author)

Learn How To Learn From Others: Interaction and Communication Skills

“Learn how to learn from others.” – Raj Gavurla

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.” 

– Golda Meir

For programs and services, contact Raj at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com, LiiiVEN.

Do You Feed Your Motivation and Inspiration?

“Qualitative drives the quantitative.” – Raj Gavurla

“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.” Chris Guillebeau

For programs and services, contact Raj at 864.569.2315, raj@rajgavurla.com, LiiiVEN.