New holiday, new you: Taking your professional performance to the next level

It's summertime, so a chance to step back. Here's a holiday challenge: how does your approach compare with, say, the athletes attending the Commonwealth Games, who by definition will be amongst the best in their nations in their fields? What do they do that is different?

A starting point for reflection might be some initial self-assessment questions. Jot down your answers to the following:

• What are your core values - what is non-negotiable?

• What motivates you?

• What are your fundamental skills?

• What are your best personality traits?

• What knowledge and experience do you have that gives you a particularly good understanding of your sector or area of business?

• What are you especially good at?

This should give you a framework for why you enjoy and are good at what you do.

Now, let's think about the typical attributes we might expect from those who are at the top of their field. They are likely to show the following traits:

• They have a clear, very stretching goal, with explicit milestones for the shorter term.

• They love high levels of pressure.

• They concentrate on what they can control and let go of the rest, so they don't waste time and energy that may divert them from their core path.

• Sports stars are fanatical about improving and devour prompt feedback. Interestingly, not all business leaders are: perhaps they fear robust feedback as an attack, while sports stars just want to gain any inch that will get them closer to winning. Both groups need to develop mental toughness, but perhaps sports starts concentrate on what to learn so that they can move nearer to their goal, and that is where their support networks provide help.

• They train and mix with the very best. Why? Because working with less driven and less accomplished people doesn't provide the context nor drive to push them to really excel. In business, this should be one of the purposes of bringing together disparate people for talent development programmes, along with providing some opportunities to practice the skills that you are seeking to develop.

• They recognise and celebrate successes - but they keep focused and then get back to the next milestone.

Part of the difference is probably the degree of fanaticism and the simplicity of goals that competitive sports stars exhibit compared to normal people in business. And, perhaps those are the two key lessons to take away. If not, you can instead use the holiday to rebalance and centre yourself ahead of the rest of the year.