BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE
poise™ is a unique, cognitive performance coaching programme enabling participants to thrive on making those big decisions, on hitting peak performance levels irrespective of pressure or scale of consequences.
In these environments managers and leaders use poise™ to develop the techniques that inspire their teams to the highest levels of performance and resilience.
Have you ever experienced a challenging situation and found your highest levels of performance hard to reach, or just an inability to think clearly or find the words you wanted? If so, you’ve experienced the limitations of being human when under pressure.
Humans have well established mechanisms for limiting their own performance when facing sustained challenges. This is because we tend to trigger natural responses that were evolved a few millennia ago when the common way to deal with problems was either to fight or run away. These days, however, it’s not so helpful. In most challenging situations we need to retain our skills and abilities, our capacity to think, reason, solve problems and react effectively. And it’s exactly these responses that are reduced by this ancient automatic fight or flight response.
So why is it that some people are adversely affected by pressure, when others are not? It all comes down to whether your response to a challenging situation is optimistic or pessimistic. If your natural response is one of pessimism, anxiety or frustration, your capabilities are being limited and your health is likely to be less than it could be. In this context optimism is far more than ‘positive thinking or just being happy. It’s a formula for the specific structure of thought and language consistent high achievers use to respond to challenging situations.
The poise™ programme enable participants to achieve this level of optimism for themselves, authentically and naturally. You learn how pressure limits our ability to think and perform as well as the simple & effective methods to generate exactly the performance you want when you want it.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could face
challenges with optimism, enthusiasm
and motivation - and as a result be more
successful, happy and healthy?
Poise can make the difference
Like other Sapsford programmes, poise™ is a unique distillation of learning from neuroscience, cognitive hypnotherapy, positive psychology and neurolinguistic programming. It is from these sciences that the following models have been put together.
Do you ever fall in the right hand side of this quadrant when you’re facing sustained challenges? If so, you’re in what is known as the catabolic state. This has many detrimental effects on your health and you will be more prone to illness. If you’re finding it hard to shake off an infection it can be an indication that your stuck in this state.
Pessimism is a big predictor of a lack of success, of a reduced capability when your facing sustained challenges. There is now a compelling body of research that has lead to this finding.
By contrast, the left hand side is associated with the anabolic state and the production of DHEA or growth hormone. Clearly, this is a healthier state to be in and a big predictor of success and longevity.
The lower half of the quadrants shows how we behave when we are relaxed. Again the right hand side is not a successful or healthy place to be.
So if you recognise the right hand side of this quadrant as being where you find yourself more often than you would like, how can you move to the left hand side?
The Role of Cognitive
Performace Coaching
Our coaching enables clients to respond to challenges in a style as per the left of the quadrant. Cognitive means that we treat each individual as unique, recognising that everyone interprets the world in his or her unique way, rather than applying a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
At Sapsford we understand that we all interpret experiences in different ways. A rush hour commute by train, for example, can be labelled quicker and less troublesome than a car journey and therefore an easy and simple way to get to work. Others sharing the same experience might find it crowded and uncomfortable and therefore label it a ‘cattle truck’. We share the same experience but construct different realities. This filtering process happens outside of our conscious awareness, and yet affects the quality of our lives and our effectiveness in every waking moment.
Filtering Reality
Example 1
Player ‘A’ is a highly talented athlete in an elite sport. He had a poor run of form which led to the crowd getting on his back. He believes that if he makes any mistakes he will get the ‘bird’ again. In training he shines but when he crosses the white line he leaves something behind. Player ‘B’ is a less talented competitor for the same position but brings everything he’s got with him onto the field of play and consistently outshines player ‘A’.
Example 2
Two people see a spider in the corner of a room. One person who has a spider phobia freezes, panics and has to get out of the room. The other person thinks it’s good because it’ll eat any insects in the room, and then forgets about it and gets on with whatever they were doing. One person’s capability is severely limited while the other remains optimised. The difference comes from how they filter reality.
Example 3
Person A believes that she’s not easily liked, while Person B believes she can make friends anywhere. They go to a meeting where they don’t know anyone else. As they enter the crowded room, someone looks up towards them and then looks away quickly. A thinks, “What’s the matter with him, I’ll ignore him.” B thinks, “He’s a bit shy, I’ll go over and say hello and make him feel more comfortable.”
Both have the same experiences and yet perceive them totally differently. One will enjoy the experience while the other feels it a trial.
To book your initial appointment please:
Email: mark@sapsford.eu
Telephone: 01564 711 038
Generating the changes you want
At Sapsford we coach sportsmen and women who want to reach and sustain their highest levels of performance; business people who find the daily task of meeting targets an ever-increasing strain, and others who find interviews, presentations and negotiations a real worry. We work with people in leadership situations where the pressure is really on, who find themselves unable to think clearly at the critical moment. We help managers and leaders develop the techniques that inspire their teams to the highest levels of performance and resilience.
In each case we use neurolinguistic programming, cognitive hypnotherapy, neuroscience and positive psychology to understand how each individual is interpreting the world. We work with them to generate the changes they want so that they view their challenges with optimism, enthusiasm and motivation, and can always be at their best.
The filtering process affects people in every waking moment of their lives. Clients often report how the changes we’ve helped them to make affect them in all other aspects of their life. It’s not uncommon for a client to say that they have never been happier.
