Identify Your Performance Archetype

Welcome to Lesson 05 of The Purposeful Performer!

This lesson rounds out the strategy block of Learning Path 1: Create A High-Performance Operating Rhythm. In the first four lessons, we've focused on zooming out on the bigger picture to help you understand what you do and why, as well as what you want and why you want it.

Today’s lesson will act as a “bridge” so we can get more tactical with our time, energy, attention, and money and produce outsized results with them going forward. We have one final area to explore before we begin operationalizing our findings.

Total points up for grabs: 10

Understand what we’ve built so far

So far, you have:

• Lesson 01: Developed a theme guiding your year and a persona that acts as an alter ego (the best version of yourself) to help you stay on track when things will inevitably get hard. This is important work because goals rely strictly on motivation and focus on outcomes, while systems focus on identity and consistent action.

• Lesson 02: Identified your rhythm so you can find your flow. When things in modern life and tech sales constantly shift (and they will), having a strong identity and taking consistent action isn’t enough. Like other performance fields, you need to know when to step back, explore, and be more curious (Transition), to ramp up and operate at high intensity, velocity, and full focus (Build Mode), or when to turn on cruise control to maintain a consistent output (Steady State) … and, more importantly, knowing when and how to oscillate in between these phases with proper recovery built in between each one.

• Lesson 03: Took a few hours to look back and deeply understand your journey over the past twelve months so you can gather clues, insights, and trends about yourself that help you shape a better year ahead. Deeply connecting to what you want first requires analyzing the facts and eliminating the myths. The Reflect, Reset, Reframe exercise created by former NFL performance coach, Taylor Johnson, is designed to help you better tune in to the right signals that set you up for accelerated success.

• Lesson 04: Implemented the concept of using frameworks and mental models to elevate from making reactive decisions in a state of chaos relying on pure instincts to making proactive decisions in a state of clarity that better supports your future self (and those you serve). The best place to start is by raising your standards and lowering your expectations using the simple 2-Line Framework.

Today's lesson will continue from last week's discussion, focusing on the potential that lies between raising standards and lowering expectations. This will empower you to adopt additional frameworks and mental models, enhancing performance across multiple levels:

• With yourself

• With others (your leader, team, company, clients, network, and personal relationships)

Why does it matter for a Level II Revenue Generator?

When I work with individuals through one-on-one coaching, I observe one of two common behaviors with experienced, strategic account revenue generators who feel a dissatisfaction with their performance.

The first behavior I witness is someone who hasn’t achieved tangible success (like meeting or surpassing their quota). When I ask them why, practically all of them default to answers like, “The business environment is brutal.” Or, “My account list/territory is weak.” Or, “We don’t have the resources at our organization to land strategic, transformation deals.” All of these may be true, but there is one fact connecting all of these answers with everyone that falls into this camp—they’re placing the blame of the inability to succeed on external factors outside of their control and this leads them to not feeling satisfied with their conditions.

The second behavior I witness is a revenue generator who has achieved tangible success (like surpassing their quota and reaching President’s Club), but feels confused on why they don’t feel more satisfied. When I ask them why, practically all of them default to answers like, “I got lucky.” Or, “I was expecting more.” Or, “I feel more relief than satisfaction after that big deal closed.” All of these types of answers center around an unhealthy view of their performance and this leads to a decline in their well-being.

Neither of these situations is an ideal spot to be in. The first will lead to job-hopping too often without developing a full suite of capabilities and a tangible track record that speaks for itself. The second leads to everything looking “right” on paper, but you battle with internal conflict and this leads to mental, emotional, and even physical declines over time, leading eventually to burnout.

Let’s unpack a better way of operating that avoids these two detrimental states. It first starts with identifying your Performance Archetype so you can use simple systems to improve in the right areas.

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