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More lessons from MasterChef – Can you take the heat?
| Guest post by: Sue Barrett |
Article Overview: As the saying goes, “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen”. Once again MasterChef has served up some great life lessons. Last year I wrote about the great leadership, coaching and mentoring we can learn from MasterChef. Again Garry, George, Matt and the other guest chefs showed us how to excel in this area of leadership. On this occasion, I want to comment on ‘Resilience’ and dealing with setbacks and challenges, and how MasterChef gave us a window into how people handle stress and demanding situations. The time pressures and increasingly difficult tasks set for the contestants showed us how well they were able to manage themselves under pressure and produce the goods. You could often see the demands of a given situation getting to a number of the contestants. It was unrelenting at times.
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More lessons from MasterChef – Can you take the heat?
As the saying goes, “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen”. Once again MasterChef has served up some great life lessons. Last year I wrote about the great leadership, coaching and mentoring we can learn from MasterChef. Again Garry, George, Matt and the other guest chefs showed us how to excel in this area of leadership.
On this occasion, I want to comment on ‘Resilience’ and dealing with setbacks and challenges, and how MasterChef gave us a window into how people handle stress and demanding situations. The time pressures and increasingly difficult tasks set for the contestants showed us how well they were able to manage themselves under pressure and produce the goods. You could often see the demands of a given situation getting to a number of the contestants. It was unrelenting at times. Those who were able to hold it together and ‘manage’ themselves on every level when under added strain performed better. The constant practice enhanced their skills for sure, but it also taught them how to deal with pressure which is just as important. Prior to the final episode, we saw Adam, Claire and Callum put under pressure and it was Adam and Callum who held it together better than Claire. Claire is an extremely talented cook but got rattled more than the others thus affecting her performance. Unlike Jonathon who survived eight out of nine elimination challenges, Claire had only been in one before and you could tell. She wasn’t ready for it.
Luckily for the MasterChef contestants they were only subjected to this for about three and a half months. Working chefs are required to take the ‘heat’ everyday albeit in environments they can control. This got me thinking about those professions where every action and the outcomes of those actions are scrutinised every day, placing pressure on those to perform at their best. Professional Chefs and Sports People, Air Traffic Controllers and Surgeons come to mind and I am sure there are several others. With the exception of weather for both the Air Traffic Controllers and some Professional Sports People, for the best part, all of these professions allow their people to work in environments they can directly control and influence.
Sales people also have the scrutiny of performance in common with these professions however, they are often working in environments that are not of their own making or design. They need to be able to deal with, and adapt to things outside of their control, i.e variable conditions and new environments, meeting new people, going to new places, uncovering new issues; variables of many kinds. And unlike recipes, which if executed correctly should turn out like they were intended, sales people are often presented with the ‘Mystery Box’ (same ingredients different outcomes) on a daily basis several times a day. They have to be able to think on their feet, and create outcomes their clients need and want. They need to know how this goes with this to that.
How do they handle the stress? How do they develop their resilience to perform at higher and higher standards every day without cracking? How do they pay attention and make sure every client feels like they are special and important when you have listened to 5-25 people already that day?
As sales people, our actions are assessed by ourselves, our managers and our clients. We deal with acceptance and rejection of our offering every day. Our activities are tracked and mapped. There are league tables, etc.
Any self respecting, self managed, self aware sales person would be able to tell you where they are at each day. They will also tell you that they have learned not to take ‘No’ as personal rejection – that’s a fatal mistake made by many a new sales person. Selling is the ultimate ‘thinking on your feet’ and ‘doing’ job. Like athletes, we need to be continually exercising and getting fitter, developing our skills, knowledge and mindset all at the same time.
Why don’t we teach ‘How to Build Resilience and a Healthy Mindset’?
A healthy mindset is just as, if not more, important as product knowledge and selling skills. However, most businesses usually only train their people in business skills, product knowledge and processes. What we need to do is help people become more emotionally aware, intelligent and resilient in a number of ways. We need to work with the whole person and provide people with access to a range of tools, processes and techniques which give them insight and teach them how to manage their emotions. We need to teach people how to develop healthy and resilient attitudes so they can take the heat and really excel.
We can’t all go on MasterChef to have our resilience and cooking skills tested, nor do all of us have the opportunity to be elite athletes and learn what it is like to work under obvious performance pressure however, we can learn how to develop resilience every day in small ways.
Higher performers, unlike many other people, have searched for and found tools, processes and techniques that help them develop strategies to enhance their self awareness and emotional resilience, and allow them to make the most of their capabilities and the situations they find themselves in on a daily basis.
Developing a Healthy and Resilient Attitude
The first step to becoming more emotionally aware, healthy and resilient is the acknowledgment that there is room for improvement and taking the time to learn more about yourself. It’s about honest, constructive feedback and learning not to take things personally. That is what MasterChef is all about – continuous self improvement and self awareness. That’s what MasterSelling is about!
Next week we will look at some of the tools, behaviours and attitudes that help build self awareness, health and emotional resilience. If you want further information about this, please contact us directly.
Thanks to MasterChef for another excellent season – truly inspiring stuff!
Finally, Mary Anne Radmacher’s words sum up for me and probably many sales people and entrepreneurs our lot: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’.”
Remember everybody lives by selling something.
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Article Tags: Attitudes Behaviours, challenges, Emotional Intelligence, leadership coaching, Performance Management, resilience, Sales Skills, Self Development, setbacks, Success
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About the Author: Sue Barrett RSS for Sue's articles - Visit Sue's website Sue is one of the leading voices commenting on sales today. Sue has a unique way of getting to the heart of the matter - she combines extensive knowledge, research, insight, and practical experience with a deep sense of compassion to bring forth a more enlightened way of thinking and participating in the world. This makes her stand out from the usual crowd of existing business commentators. Her ability to distill complex ideas and relate them to life's everyday challenges and opportunities has audience members and readers leaving with a stronger understanding of "self" and how they can begin to achieve excellence through purposeful action. Presenting and writing on a wide range of topics about the world of 21st Century selling Sue's presentations and articles include sales philosophy and culture, sales leadership and coaching, sales training, selling skills, resilience, neuroscience in selling and more. Sue's articles are some of the most widely read in Australia and she is gaining a following overseas as well. Besides publishing on Barrett Sales Blog site, Sue has been the lead sales writer for www.smartcompany.com.au since 2007, and is also regularly published on other highly regarded publications such as Australian Anthill Magazine, Niche Magazine, Marketing Mag, Business Chicks, and Business Deals. Click here to visit Sue's website   Making the most of Up Selling Cross Selling Whats the difference between a member a client and a customer Prayer and purposeful action Desperate Times Dont Call for Desperate or Deceptive Measures Are your selfpromotion tactics ethical or not |
Related Forum Posts
Re: How did we Live before Electricity
- Can't say I have ever noticed the heat coming off the TV unless I actually touch it and same goes for my computer. I guess I am just one of those people who really feels the cold, the heat never bothers me.
MichelleJ
Re: restaurent
- Hey Trig,
Restaurants don't work with the lack of a heat shield. There is a requirement by law in most states that there is indeed a heat shield and fire suppression system installed.
My family has owned restaurants all our life and I would not recommend using that type of stove in your home unless it was professionally installed and had a heat shield and fire suppression system that was inspected as well.
.
Re: How did we Live before Electricity
- An Industrial Electrician tells me buildings were much cooler 50 years ago.
Now the heaters do not work as hard because there is a PC for almost every employee.
Think about it. A mechanical typewriter generates no heat. A PC has cooling fans running nonstop. AKA little heaters.
The extra heat of PCs requires more energy for air conditioning.
Re: How did we Live before Electricity
- [quote="terrycan":2bj34gj6]An Industrial Electrician tells me buildings were much cooler 50 years ago.
Now the heaters do not work as hard because there is a PC for almost every employee.
Think about it. A mechanical typewriter generates no heat. A PC has cooling fans running nonstop. AKA little heaters.
The extra heat of PCs requires more energy for air conditioning.[/quote:2bj34gj6]
I couldn't agree more. My desktop computer runs pretty hot... more so in warmer weather, of course. As a result, I don't have to use much heat in the winter to keep my room warm as my computer does a nice job by itself. However, I then require my A/C to be in and running for a good while in the summer to combat the heat of my computer and to keep it running at a stable temperature.
I used to have a liquid cooling system which worked wonders and kept my CPU running nice and cool, and it kept the overall temperature inside the computer at a nice level. Well, I don't have it anymore, so I'm stuck with fans yet again which I don't like.
Re: How did we Live before Electricity
- [quote="TannyL":35pmv65v][quote="terrycan":35pmv65v]An Industrial Electrician tells me buildings were much cooler 50 years ago.
Now the heaters do not work as hard because there is a PC for almost every employee.
Think about it. A mechanical typewriter generates no heat. A PC has cooling fans running nonstop. AKA little heaters.
The extra heat of PCs requires more energy for air conditioning.[/quote:35pmv65v]
So true, our LCD TV is good heater for the cold winter days:)[/quote:35pmv65v]
Speaking of LCD TV's, has anyone ever walked past the wall lined with LCD TV's at a retail store such as Walmart, K-Mart, Sears, etc.? The heat you feel coming off of all of those TV's is insane.
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