Brooke Searle – The Performance Edge

When offered the chance to participate in LMA’s Performance Edge course I jumped at the opportunity as I knew it would provide the chance to extend my knowledge in self-improvement as well as provide tools to practically implement these new learnings.

In essence, I wanted to become more efficient and have better control of my time. Through the course, I was enabled to break down what this really meant for myself and establish three primary professional goals using the SMART format. In summary, these goals were to not take on “more than I can chew”, to action tasks in order of urgency/importance and thus improve direction of tasks, and reduce potential interruptions and their impact, to remain focused on the tasks at hand. In my personal goals, I wanted to commit more time to writing my own music. I’ve spent years recording small voice notes and had never scheduled the time to transform the voice notes into full songs. By the end of the course, my aim was to write three full songs.

The value of written goals and plans was an excellent learning for me through the course. After reviewing my position description in conjunction with my Mentor, we were able to establish my “High Payoff Activities”, or HPA’s. Having taken the time to clearly define this, I was enabled to set goals that would allow more time to be spent on my HPA’s. In each week of the course, we recorded a new ‘Focus Goal’, often being an ‘Action Step’ (a bite size mini-goal that works toward larger goals established). Using these mini goals, I was better able to plan at the start of each week/day. Having such clarity made my work feel much easier and less stressful as clear and realistic timelines were able to be set an I developed a strong sense of direction with all my work. Further to this, having such clear plans improve self-accountability, monitoring of progress, and ability to assess whether the original path of direction is being adhered to, or if it needs to be adjusted.

Through The Performance Edge, I achieved the professional and personal goals set at the start of the course and was able to implement many additional tools ranging from success in effective use of time to improved communication with others. In relation to my original ‘Win-Win Goals’, I became more proactive in assessing workloads ahead of meetings, and able to communicate when we should “hold” on items to ensure the team is not overloaded. New technology was researched and integrated which greatly improved meeting format, minutes, and communication of tasks set. I was also able to minimize interruptions by blocking out and protecting my time with the strategies learnt through the course.

Whilst the learning material provided for study was of great value, the most enjoyable part of the course was the weekly workshops where we discussed each module. Our LMA facilitator always welcomed the ideas of participants, fostered excellent discussion, and uplifted us all with new knowledge and a consistently positive outlook. I couldn’t recommend the workshop more highly.

I would recommend this program to individuals seeking to grow personally and professionally, and to employees at all levels of an organisation. The return on investment is remarkable through the improvement of individual habits/beliefs and empowerment for efficiency with new strategies, tools, and approaches.